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. :)
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