Christmas 2012

Since Wills is still too young to get into the whole Santa thing, he woke up at his usual time which is around 8. We went straight to his high chair for breakfast and he didn't even notice that Santa had visited and left a few things. After breakfast, we got down to business with his presents.

Santa brought a Cozy Truck

Wills thought it was awesome. He stayed in it pretty much the whole time and his Daddy and I opened the rest of his presents.

Holly and her treats.

Wills' stocking loot. A dinosaur hoodie, bath paint, little people super friends, a hippo ornament, and a new diaper. He is super excited about the new diaper =) It's the New York diaper and it has taxis on it. 

He got out of his truck when he saw Daddy playing his drum. 

His monster feet house shoes. He can't stand them. I am hopping if I leave them out he will start to love them like he did his hats. 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2012

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to do dinner, mass, and presents with Charles' family. Last year we attended the 4:30 service which lasted over 2 hours due to all the people in attendance and how long it took for communion. Wills actually does pretty good in mass regularly, but we knew a 2 1/2 service was going to be pushing it this time around. We decided to do dinner at 5, have Wills open his presents, go to the 7:30 service, come home and put him to bed, then do presents with the grown ups. Father Rick mentioned that there were over 1400 people at the 4:30 service and our church only seats 700 in the sanctuary. I think we definitely made the right choice to attend the second service!

Christmas PJ's

Wills has 4 sets of Christmas pajamas and we have done laundry often enough so that he has worn a pair every night since Thanksgiving!

I have already started his collection for next year too!

Wills getting social

We absolutely love our nanny and feel so blessed that she is taking care of Wills. Unfortunately, he seems to be taking after Charles and I both and is somewhat introverted, especially around people he doesn't know very well. Because of this, we decided to enroll him in a couple of classes to give him more opportunities for social interactions.

He goes to Gymboree class every Tuesday morning with his nanny. They have tunnels, and fluffy mats, and slides, and all sorts of things to climb. He loves it! They have open play a couple times a week and Charles and I have been able to take him to that. I also got to take him to class the week of Thanksgiving. He has such a good time. (Please excuse the poor quality iPhone photos.)

This fall, he was also enrolled in Kindermusik. It was every Monday night and I got to take him to this. Sometimes Charles would get off in time and get to go with us. He was in the youngest class which goes up to 18 months. They get a bag with a cd, some baby friendly instruments, and a book. The whole class is centered around music. Ms. Ginger is an amazing teacher. You feel a bit like a fool while you are in there, but the babies love it and that is what counts! We have signed Wills up for the spring semester and he will get to move up to the next age group. He was one of the oldest this semester, so I am excited to see how he does with the older kids in the spring.

Wills and his certificate of "Enthusiastic Participation"!

Dirty Santa 2012

We hosted our annual Dirty Santa party a couple of weekends ago. This is definitely one of my favorite activities of the Christmas season. I love to see what is going to be the hot gift and I love getting to taste all the yummy desserts everyone brings.

This year I decided to do a chili bar for the food. We had regular chili and vegetarian chili with Frito's, baked potatoes, french fries, and hot dogs as well as all the toppings of cheese, sour cream, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos. It was really easy and so yummy.

We also have several friends who are pregnant or nursing, so I decided to do a hot chocolate bar. I used my cocoa latte, which makes the absolute best hot chocolate at the perfect temperature for drinking. I had dark chocolate and peppermint hot chocolate with marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles, cinnamon, candy canes, and pirouettes. I also had some peppermint schnapps for those of us who could have it!

For our version of Dirty Santa, a gift can be stolen 3 times and after the third steal it can't be stolen any more. We also let the person who drew #1 go again as the last person. The hot items this year were lottery tickets, a keep it local card, beer, and wine. Some of the funny gifts were a set of nose cups, a mustache mold, inappropriate coasters, and an actual "dirty" item.

The Dirty Santa party is truly one of my favorite parties to host!