Merry Christmas!!!

We had a great Christmas!!!  We made our way up to Buffalo Friday afternoon.  Jim did very well on our 9-hour drive home.  Christmas Eve / Saturday we fun!  We pretty much just hung out, enjoying each other's company until it was time to get ready to head to Church.  Jim did help us make our gingerbread house this year!!!  Chris came over for a bit, and he exchanged gifts with his person since he supposedly was going to be with his family for Christmas Eve...Jim finally decided to nap on our way to Church, and slept through the first part of it!  And then he was very well behaved once he woke up!  We got home, and Chris had candles and rose petals all set-up on the back deck and he proposed to Allison!!!!!!!!  She of course said yes!!!  Christmas Eve dinner followed, which as usual was very yummy!  The aunts/uncles got Jim a train table - I am very excited to put that together for him!

Christmas morning was a lot of fun!  Jim had a good time opening up presents, and helping everyone open theirs!  Christmas breakfast was very yummy, as usual!  And before you knew it, it was time to pack up the car and head up to Albany.  We made it up there in 4 hours - and again Jim was very well behaved!  He's such a good traveler :)  We exchanged gifts with everyone there - and then the rest of the Sector's came over for Christmas dinner. 

Monday we hung out during the day!  Jim was busy playing with all his new toys.  And then in the afternoon we made our way to the VZ's for our final Christmas celebration.  Jim spent the first part of the time there running in big circles through the kitchen, hallway, and living room.  He was a big fan of their dog too! 

Tuesday was our drive home.  Again, Jim was very good in the car, considering we were there for 8 hours!

All in all we had a great Christmas!!!!!! And with that, I'll leave you with some pictures!  It's hard just to choose a couple to post - we have a ton!!!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Apparently this is what happens when you fall asleep on the couch...and Mark is busy watching the Syracuse basketball game.  Jim did bring that gold star over to me, and I just figured he took that one ornament off the tree.  But when we were getting ready to go upstairs, I had to laugh at the pile of ornaments that were laying on the floor.  He must have been having a good old time...And being very quiet about it.

This is the bare bottom of the tree that's missing all of the ornaments...

Now, that's much better after I put them all back on.

What a little stinker he is!!!!

Our weekend in review...

Here are some pictures of our weekend...We are getting ready and excited for Christmas!!!!!

 Jim enjoyed a couple bites of pizelles - guess he did get some of my Italian genes!!!

 Jim started to get his bags packed to head up to NY for Christmas!!!!

 Helping daddy outside with the yard work.  (I took this picture from inside - that's why it's a little blurry.)  It's only like 40 outside, and he's still out there having a ball!!!

 Self portrait time.  (Ignore my hair...)

 Jim found one of the Christmas presents I wrapped and started opening it.  He's a little too early though!!!

 Then he decided he wanted to get into his jumperoo - he was having a grand old time!!!

And he was wore his hair (or as he was calling it - his hat).

Baking

Jim helped Nicole & I bake some Christmas cookies on Saturday!!! He was a big helper :)

He woke up Saturday morning with some lovely bed head hair!  It is getting longer!!!

Here he is helping to roll out some dough for our reindeer cookies...

 No Mommy, I didn't try any of Rudolph's red noses!!!

 Helping Nicole smash/roll oreos for our oreo truffle cookies...

 After awhile Jim got tired of being inside, and needed some time outside -

 He was Daddy's big helper!!  Helping him rake up the leaves.

 And here's our final spread of cookies...7 hours, 6 different cookies (gingerbread, chocolate crackle, reindeer cookies, candycane cookies, pizelles, and oreo truffles...mmm!!!  I love the holidays!!!!!!

Our evening in pictures...

First Jim did a little bit of reading.  Note all the pillows stacked up behind him.  

 Then he played with his firetruck...

 Then he was looking through his tunnel that Mark built for him, waiting for his train to come through.  (I love that smile!!!!

 Then he was Mr. Train operator!!!

 Oh no, his train broke - he had to do some fixing!!!

 And the night ended up with some cheese for the camera!!!  I hold up the camera and tell him to say cheese - and this is the face I get!!!

It was a great evening!!!!  (Mark had a dinner he had to go to for work, hence it being an evening of just Jim & I...)

'Tis the Season

This weekend we decorated our house for Christmas!!  It's definitely a fun time of year - especially now that Jim understands a lot more and is into it more.  On Saturday I was going through all my decorations while Jim and Mark were downstairs working on Mark's train table.  I had a huge pile sitting in the family room, and Jim came upstairs and goes - "whoah!  cool!"  He was impressed by everything!

He really didn't want to hang any ornaments on the tree - but when I broke out my box of plastic candy canes, he was all over that!  Here's a picture of him hanging those up!  

I was hoping to put a train under the tree - but the way we have the tree set-up and the size of the track, it didn't work out.  So instead we put it up in his playroom - and he loves that thing!!!

 He was so cute on Sunday checking out all the lights and ornaments on the tree.  It's very hard to get him to sit still in front of the tree while looking at me so I could take a picture - so here's one of him in action!

I also bought him An Elf on the Shelf.  I think he's still a little too young to understand the concept all the way - but every time I ask him where his elf is he gets all excited and points to it, or goes over and looks at it.  Hopefully it'll be a big hit in years to come!!!

Thanksgiving Pictures

I didn't upload any pictures in my last post - so I figured I would do it here.  As you can tell we did have a great time up in NY!!!!  And it's very hard to pick just a couple of pictures to upload!!!