Merry Christmas

This is a huge post....lots of pictures and lots of videos. There were so many videos that I had to use Windows Movie Maker to compress the file sizes....I ended up stringing several clips together, so each video below will be composed of several different scenes.

We had a short night Christmas eve/morning...partly because of excitement over Santa's arrival and partly because of Caleb's cold. Both kids were up before 7 am, but we managed to get them both to snuggle in our bed for a little while before coming downstairs. Caleb was so happy when he got downstairs....cookies and milk had been eaten by Santa, the stockings were filled, and there were presents everywhere. We did a little sorting of presents and then commenced to open them. Unlike last year where Caleb just wanted to open, open, open, this year he really took his time and examined each gift before moving onto the next one. It was nice to see. Adelina didn't care so much about unwrapping the presents, but was very into playing with the items that were unwrapped. We must have spent an hour and a half opening presents, and her attention was fixed the entire time.

Filled stockings

Caleb and Adelina open their first present from Santa....a cash register

Caleb checking out his gadgets



A shovel!

I Spy board game and new drum...you'll notice that Adelina is playing with or near the drum in most pictures. She absolutely loves it!



Santa brought Caleb what he'd been asking for...a new guitar!



Caleb dives into his stocking. A monster truck...inspired by his friend Matthew


Adelina playing with the tree


After opening presents, Adelina took a short power nap and the boys headed to the kitchen to cook bacon and blueberry pancakes.


Caleb was enticed by the frozen blueberries and ate an entire bowl full. His face and hands were stained purple of course.



Both the kids ate huge breakfasts...opening presents must work up an appetite.


Check out my ears...new diamond earrings!! I was totally shocked and I love them!

The kids were such a mess after breakfast (syrup and blueberries everywhere) that we decided to give them a bath. They both were excited to play with their new bath toy.


Caleb's cold took a turn for the worse after lunch and he developed a fever. Poor kid felt really bad. Later in the afternoon, we all wanted some fresh air so we loaded the kids in the wagon and headed out for a walk. Not far into our walk, Caleb started to fall asleep sitting up, so we converted the wagon into a make-shift bed and carried Adelina for the rest of our walk. He slept the rest of the walk and even napped for a while after we got home.



Thankfully his fever came down before dinner and he was able to enjoy our delicious Portuguese feast and pumpkin pie for dessert! We had a wonderful day. It was great for Randy and I to watch Caleb and Adelina open their gifts and experience the wonder of the day. Randy really surprised me and splurged this year...diamond earrings, massage, and shopping, so I was feeling very special!

Ok, get comfortable for all the videos...especially for the grandmas in the crowd!

Caleb surveying the presents; Caleb and Adelina opening their first present


More gift opening


Drumming, maracas, and unwrapping the guitar

Music making and Adelina shaking the tree


More gifts, and Adelina babbling at breakfast


Enjoying bathtime with their new bath toy


Playing the guitar...make sure to watch the last clip of Caleb playing the guitar and Adelina dancing

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a fun day of getting ready for Christmas and waiting for Santa. Randy took the day off and spent lots of time out with the kids finishing up his Christmas shopping...so I had lots of time at home by myself, which was nice. Caleb was really excited and we did lots to prepare for Santa's arrival. He watched his personal message from Santa a bunch of times....

...baked special cookies for Santa...

... and wrote Santa a nice letter.

After dinner, we were surprised by a visit from Santa (aka Ed from next door). Every year he dresses up like Santa and stands on the corner of our street waving at people driving by. This year he even had a giant throne. Caleb was completely star-struck by his appearance and could barely speak! He looked at me and said "Mama, I love Santa....he has to go to the North Pole and get toys". It was very sweet.



After Santa left, we left some treats for Santa and his reindeer and then watched Caleb's favorite "The Grinch". It took Caleb a long time to fall asleep...I know we

Thanks to Grammy for our stockings

We got a special delivery from Grammy this week....new stockings for everyone! They are adorable and I know that Santa will be happy to fill them tonight!

Caleb signs the ABCs

Since we've been doing a little sign language with Adelina, Caleb has become very interested in learning more signs himself. We've been doing the ABCs lately, and he knows them all! Here he is doing all the signs.

This is how Adelina "ask-es"

Caleb thinks it is hilarious how Adelina "asks" for more food....shaking her arms and sort of humming. He often tries her technique to get something else to eat...to no avail, but it's become kind of a joke at meal time. The other day, they were doing it back and forth to one another.

Gingerbread house

We did a marshmallow snowman playgroup with Stroller Strides a few weeks back. I had some leftover supplies and some graham crackers, so Caleb and I decided to build a house and snowman. We had fun, and Caleb loved eating the sugary icing.

Snowy Weekend

We had our first big snowstorm of the season this weekend, just in time for Christmas. It was fun watching the snow fall and even more fun playing in the 8-10 inches that we got.

Adelina has been a dancing machine of late. These aren't the best videos of her skills, but still cute.




Random pile of cats


Randy brought in a pile of snow for Adelina to check out. She wasn't too sure about it.


Caleb couldn't wait to get out and play in the snow. He ate handful after handful of snow and kept talking about how good it tasted!


Getting ready to go snowshoeing!!!






After all the play in the snow, some hot chocolate was in order.




Randy took Adelina out after her nap in the afternoon. She enjoyed being outside and looking at all the snow....


...but was not a fan of being in the snow!


The other nice thing about the snow, was it gave me a good excuse to be home-bound and baking. I baked 8 different types of cookies...about 58 dozen cookies!! It was great fun and we were able to present lots of cookies to our friends and colleagues today.