Parker walking to the stage with his classmates at his holiday concert... love that smile
I love sitting on the couch during the holidays and watching the fire
You've heard the hype, now witness the reality - baby panda comes home! Parker couldn't have been more thrilled to see this in his stocking Christmas morning. Yes, this is the stuffed animal he's been obsessing over for weeks
Hugs for baby panda
Looks like Santa Claus came!
What could it be??! We make everyone open their gifts one at a time, so that we all get to watch. And so the opening process takes more than 10 minutes.
Happy boy!
Brandon asked me, "Did you tell Grandma that I wanted Sorry?" I'm like, "I think she figured it out when you kept begging her for one more game, after every game, at Thanksgiving."
The joy of Christmas
This is a classic Parker pose of happiness. It's sort of a "Saturday Night Fever" homageWell, the big news around here this morning is the blizzard warning that runs from this afternoon until tomorrow evening. We are expected to get close to two feet of snow, with winds gusting to 60 mph and possible thunder. Oooo-kay then. So much for my "I like when we get just a few inches, we sled on it, and then it melts away" theory of life.
But, hey, if you have to get a blizzard this is the time to do it! No school or work for my family this week, lots of food in the house, and in the best timing ever, I gave Chad a snow blower for Christmas yesterday. And even more thrilling, I gave him a 100 foot, outdoor/low-temp extension cord, separately wrapped in its own box to add to the Christmas morning excitement. And people say that the romance ends when you get married and have kids. Not around here!
We had a truly wonderful day yesterday. The kids were thrilled with their gifts, leading Parker to say that this was "the best Christmas ever. I love my batcave, and my sleeping bag, and my legos and my cute little stuffed panda," and Brandon to comment that he "wished it was Christmas Eve so that it could be Christmas again tomorrow." It gives me such joy to give them the sort of magical Christmas that I was lucky enough to have when I was a kid. The boys were awesome yesterday - they literally played quietly all day with their new toys. I don't think Chad and I had to raise our voices to them once the whole day, which must be some sort of record!
I have to give a special shout-out to the big gift of the day in our house - the Xbox Kinect. That thing is awesome!! It has a sensor that maps your body so that it can track your movements - no controller needed! You just jump and move around, and it reflects your movement on the screen. So cool! We let the kids open it, and they had no idea what it was. But, I think over time they are going to see that it was the best present of the day. The boys tried out a few games yesterday, but they were too distracted by their lego sets to give it much attention. Chad and I, however, had a blast with it. We competed in track & field against each other. I took him in the long jump and the hurdles (you run in place in front of the sensor with your knees pumping high and then jump when the hurdle on the screen turns green as you get close to it), but he bested me in sprint, javelin, and discus. It was so fun! Then, we did the boxing game, and let me tell you, I took Chad to town. It was embarassing for him and his manliness. I knocked him down 3 times before the final KO in the third round. I was landing punches with impunity. Can you tell I liked it? You can work up a sweat playing those games too, especially something like the hurdles race.
But, hey, if you have to get a blizzard this is the time to do it! No school or work for my family this week, lots of food in the house, and in the best timing ever, I gave Chad a snow blower for Christmas yesterday. And even more thrilling, I gave him a 100 foot, outdoor/low-temp extension cord, separately wrapped in its own box to add to the Christmas morning excitement. And people say that the romance ends when you get married and have kids. Not around here!
We had a truly wonderful day yesterday. The kids were thrilled with their gifts, leading Parker to say that this was "the best Christmas ever. I love my batcave, and my sleeping bag, and my legos and my cute little stuffed panda," and Brandon to comment that he "wished it was Christmas Eve so that it could be Christmas again tomorrow." It gives me such joy to give them the sort of magical Christmas that I was lucky enough to have when I was a kid. The boys were awesome yesterday - they literally played quietly all day with their new toys. I don't think Chad and I had to raise our voices to them once the whole day, which must be some sort of record!
I have to give a special shout-out to the big gift of the day in our house - the Xbox Kinect. That thing is awesome!! It has a sensor that maps your body so that it can track your movements - no controller needed! You just jump and move around, and it reflects your movement on the screen. So cool! We let the kids open it, and they had no idea what it was. But, I think over time they are going to see that it was the best present of the day. The boys tried out a few games yesterday, but they were too distracted by their lego sets to give it much attention. Chad and I, however, had a blast with it. We competed in track & field against each other. I took him in the long jump and the hurdles (you run in place in front of the sensor with your knees pumping high and then jump when the hurdle on the screen turns green as you get close to it), but he bested me in sprint, javelin, and discus. It was so fun! Then, we did the boxing game, and let me tell you, I took Chad to town. It was embarassing for him and his manliness. I knocked him down 3 times before the final KO in the third round. I was landing punches with impunity. Can you tell I liked it? You can work up a sweat playing those games too, especially something like the hurdles race.
Okay, gotta go and eat some of Chad's delicious waffles. But, aren't you psyched on how often I've updated this lately?
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