A Christmas Story (or two)

It's been a whirlwind of activity these last few days but I do have a few stories to share from the holidays. There was much shopping, gift wrapping (and unwrapping), cooking and eating galore! And now we roll off the bed and couches as we head to the kitchen for another slice of heavenly (and buttered) cinnamon bread.

Ohhhhhhh yeah. 'Tis the holidays.

On Christmas Eve, we had a lovely visit from Tia Catherine. She brought her two new pet rats for Logan to see, which he loved and was keenly interested in. We let them out to play in the bathtub several times during the day - and all he wanted to do was get in the bath with them and turn the water on. He also insisted on feeding them snacks, which we had to watch over carefully since the little rats are still babies and not yet trained to be gentle on little fingers. Here, he's getting a little tickle on his ear. :)


Kim, Nathan and Molly got Logan a great birthday present which now takes up half our living room (thanks Kim!). It's a little pop up "play tent" in the shape of Mack, the Truck, from the movie Cars. How perfect is it? Oh, it is deliciously perfect let me tell you. While cranking out one dish after another in the kitchen on Christmas morning, I suddenly realized it was creepily quiet and Logan wasn't to be found. I looked in all the rooms, calling his name. I finally found him sneakily peeking out at me from his Mack Truck in the living room, all grins.



Another time, I heard him quietly humming and talking to himself, looked inside his little "fort" and he had all of his cars and books circled around him, reading aloud the ABCs of one of his mini-board books Santa left for him.


Logan actually spent the night at my parent's on Christmas Eve (because we were over at their house late eating dinner and opening presents). But, that didn't stop us from having an exciting Christmas morning at our house (upon my insisting Jon go pick him up early). :)

I made homemade biscuits and gravy while Jon wired up our living room for a live video streaming of Logan opening up all of his presents (on Justin.tv of course!). It was a bit strange and surreal, knowing we had several family member's eyeballs watching us - but many of our family is remote and they really enjoyed "participating" on the big day.

Logan made out like a bandit with a million gifts. Of course, it's not too hard to guess what his favorites were. Is it a surprise to anyone that the majority were from "Cars"?



In the past, our family usually goes out to see a movie (or two) on Christmas day. But, because we can't bring Logan with us to the movies (without potentially upsetting an entire audience and/or leaving), we decided to spend the day watching movies at home instead.

My brother Zane volunteered to host Christmas day at his house - so we all brought various dishes for a potluck type of dinner and spent the day and evening lounging around (Logan stayed in his pj's the entire day), watching movies and playing games.



The day after Christmas, Daddy got extremely motivated and made us french toast for breakfast....all by himself and without any prompting from Logan nor I. It was delicious!! :) (I had to document it, since Jon is rarely seen cooking in our kitchen)


We spent the day being lazy and once Logan woke up from his nap, we headed back to my parent's for another family get together, this time with my Aunt Pam, Uncle Mike, Cousins Tim and Gigi and their two kids, Jordan and Sophia.

Sophia is about 4 months older than Logan and Jordan is 5 years old. Here they are playing with Logan's new play-doh set. Sophie is the only one who paid any attention to me, actually looking up and smiling anytime I said to say "cheese!" :)


Though Sophie is closer to Logan's age, Logan was mesmerized by the older big boy Jordan. Jordan was also verrrrrry taken with Logan and it was adorable. The two didn't leave each others' sides! Several times, Jordan had the most adorable comments to Logan (who probably didn't understand Jordan as much as Jordan thought he did).

At one point, Jordan asked Logan, "Do you ever have a boys day out Logan?"

I said, sure Jordan. What did you have in mind?

He said, again, directed to Logan, "You should come and spend the night - all you need to bring is your sleeping bag and that's it!"

Later on, he stopped by to tell Logan, "You're my favorite cousin, Logan." Can we say awwwwwww??? :)


We had a wonderful dinner and a perfect holiday family gathering. I'll leave you with one last Christmas story that I felt amusing to share....

I didn't get a snapshot of it, but Jordan and Logan also had fun climbing up on the dining room chairs and watching the various pictures my dad has running on his digital picture frame. Every time a family member flashed by that either of them knew, they would yell out the name.

"Mommy!" Logan would say.
"Aunt Ellen, Daddy's Sister!" Jordan would say.
"Logan!" Logan would say.
"Logan's Daddy!" Jordan would say.
"Zafu!" Logan would say.

"That guy that won't stop bothering me!" Jordan exclaimed, pointing to my brother Zane (who loves to tease and poke and tickle the boys non-stop).

I couldn't help but snort and snicker with glee at that one. Ahhh yes, perfect family gathering indeed. :)

Visiting the Cousins

This morning we went for a nice walk with Logan and the dogs. When we got home, Logan and I played a little basketball, but he quickly got distracted by seeing our bikes - and suddenly was pointing to my bike (which has his seat on the back) and saying "Bike!" and then trying to climb up on it. It was close to his naptime but I could tell I was going to have a tantrum on my hands if I didn't take him for a ride. So we got the bike and helmets out, set out for a ride, and within ten minutes TOPS, he was out like a light. I rode around for another 10 minutes or so and then had Jon help take him off the bike and put him to bed for his nap.


When he woke up, we headed for my Aunt and Uncle's house for a family get together. My cousin Ellen (their youngest) recently got engaged, so we were celebrating the news. Sophia (my cousin Tim's daughter) just turned 2 this past Monday and several others' birthdays were coming up. We also hadn't been together as a big family since last year (for Kai's graduation celebration dinner) so the visit was definitely overdue. And MY how both Logan and Sophia have grown since then!


Sophia is a beautiful dainty little girl - actually smaller than Logan even though he's 4 months younger - but so darling and cute I couldn't get enough of her! She and Logan got along great and played together all day long! The minute we arrived the two of them were playing with the living room toys making a ton of noise and generally having a ball. Jordan (Sophia's older brother) asked them several times to "Please don't make so much noise; I can't hear the movie" as he turned the TV up louder and louder. Yeah, good luck with that kid. I keep asking Logan the same thing. Jordan also really really REALLY wanted Logan to play with him, something "just for boys". But unfortunately Logan didn't quite get that concept and continued to splash and throw balls and generally act like a 20 mth old. Oh well - next time. :)


As always, Aunt Pammie hosts a wonderful party. There was a scrumptious spread to choose from for dinner and a decadent, rich chocolate cake for dessert. She also had a plethora of activities for the kids - which really kept Logan busy. From toys inside the house, to splashing in the kiddy pool, to croquet on the lawn, basketball, tricycles, play-doh and painting arts and crafts. Logan probably did more in the couple of hours we were there than he does all day at school! ;-)

Once it was nearing Logan's bedtime, we decided to head home. We were hoping he'd fall asleep on the ride home but no such luck. He wasn't unhappy though - just wide awake and watching the cars drive by. I'm sure he was still processing everything he had experienced at Aunt Pam's house. ;-) We got home and I worked on putting him to bed while Jon tidied up the house since we were expecting some of the guys to come over for poker night. I gabbed on the phone and did a few chores. Jon lost a couple bucks but nothing too bad. Overall a jam packed day as usual!

(Click on any of the pics above for more of the day!)

Well Behaved

Today I went to the Burke Williams Spa for Julie's baby "shower" (small get together to celebrate her 2nd baby) with several girlfriends. We had a great time! It was super relaxing and I can't wait to find another excuse to go back again. Perhaps a Mother's Day treat? ;-)

While I was gone, Jon got to have some Daddy time with Logan. Logan also got to spend time with his Aunt Catherine and Uncle Danny for the day too. I received reports that he was super well behaved while I was gone -- no real fits or anything!! :) When I got home from the spa, I nursed him right away (I was bursting and really hurt!) and we hung out for a bit together before my Aunt Pam, Uncle Mike and cousins Tim, Gigi and their two kids Jordan and Sophia stopped by for a visit. This was the first time they all got to meet Logan and see our new home which was super cool. It's also the first time I've seen Sophia since Logan's birth and she has gotten so big! She was born the day before Robert (my friend Jenn's son) and is about 7 months old. Of course, the minute the relatives arrived, Logan finally conked out and pretty much slept through their whole visit (he hadn't really had a good nap all day Daddy told me).

We then all drove downtown to meet my parents and grandparents at a nice little Italian restaurant called Bella Mia for a big family dinner. And again, Logan was on his best behavior all through dinner! (He woke up just before taking off to the restaurant) He didn't even cry before going to sleep -- even though he was super tired. We were all very impressed and I was one proud mama. :)

None of us thought enough ahead of time to bring our cameras to the dinner unfortunately, but I did take a few pics with my iPhone. I've uploaded them onto the iPhone page of our photo album along with some of the pics I took of my and Logan's visit with Aunt Pam yesterday afternoon.

Enjoy! :)