Carr Christmas

On Friday during the naptime, Alex, Pat and I traveled to West Chester to be with Pat's family. We arrived at Mimi's house and were greeted by Aunt Megan and Mimi. Later, Uncle Johnny and Aunt Michele and Aunt Kate joined us via the train. We had pizza and then opened presents. Alex received LOTS of firetrucks/man items and enjoyed playing with everyone. Saturday, we went to Gramps for lunch and enjoyed spending time :)

Christmas Day

Christmas Day, Mammaw, Magnee and Pap joined us for lunch. After lunch, Alex demanded we opened presents, napped, and dessert :)

Presents

Alex's comments when he walked into the living room were "Presents, for me?," "Oh dear," and "Wow." Opening presents took 2 hours because after opening each present, Alex wanted to play/sample each one for 5-10 minutes. His goldfish crackers were shared with the rest of the family before Alex sampled.

On the stairs

Christmas morning, Alex woke up at 7:30am very happy but very unaware of the Santa deal :) He waited on top of the stairs while everyone else got up. Going down the stairs, Alex yelled "Hi Santa", assuming Santa was still here.

Before...

Santa was very good to Alex... here's a shot of the living room before Alex :)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, the Donaldsons came up for a dinner. We started off with talking and Rock Band and then hit the meal. After the meal and Jesus's Birthday cake, we opened presents. Alex, again, made off like a bandit. From Aunt Laurie and Uncle Steve, Alex received a Hungry Catepillar doll, book, and quilt.

Christmas magic

In York, the National Park Service has a wonderful Christmas light display. Abuelos, Magnee, Pap, Mammaw, Aunt Hon, and us visited on Dec. 20th. It was a COLD hour walk but the lights were beautiful and lots of fun :)

Advent

My Aunt Kim and Uncle D gave Alex a LEGO advent calendar this year. Alex LOVES counting down the days 'til Christmas and playing with all the different creations. His favorite is a "police" helicopter. Along with the felt advent calendar, Alex has something new to do each day in anticipation for Christmas or Jesus's Birthday:)

Pirate Movie

After 2 failed attempts, and family issues, I finally edited the puppet movie and uploaded it to YouTube.

It plus a few other movies are located at the bottom of the blog. Please feel free to leave any comments on videos or new website updates :-)

Technology...isn't it fun?

Ok...there's no audio (and please ignore my pj look) but I will work on that. Last night Pat and I were cleaning out the computer area and he found the webcam. So I decided to hook it up and put it to good use. However, I cannot get the microphone to work. Until it works... give us a call to hear the voice behind the movement :-)

Another new technology, I decided to stop updating Alex's Webpage on the Temple Server. So my new plan is to use Picasa's Web Album. At the bottom of the page, you will see a link to some Christmas pictures. Since someone voted for pictures (can't imagine who that was... Abuelo!), I won't stop putting them on the web but will move them to a different location. I hope it is not too much of a bother! A neat thing about Picasa's Web Album is that you can view all the pictures as a slideshow. You'll have to let me know if you like it :)

Christmas Morning

Here's a good shot of Alex Christmas morning. It took him a while to warm up to the present process. He had to drink his milk and wake up a bit first. Then he would open one present, play with it and then start on another present. After all was said and done, we do not think he had a favorite toy. He enjoyed playing with all of them!

Christmas in Fairfield

This is Alex and Abuela, on Boxing Day. After opening present Christmas morning in Aston, we drove out to Abuelos during nap time. Christmas evening was enjoyed with the Donaldson family and Alex received many great books and a big John Deer tractor. On Boxing day, we exchanged present with Abuelos and that evening went to Erin and Matt Rose's house to spend time with my Fairfield friends.
Thursday and Friday was a lot of visiting and playing with toys. On Saturday, we packed everything up and then went to Mammaw's in the evening. There we enjoyed a silly Pollyanna, where Alex almost came away with Exacto knives and a tape measure (thank you Rich for stealing that!). After a nice evening, we came home and are now trying to get our apartment/lives ready for the new year.

Go figure

Alex has been doing real well with Christmas present until the past few days. Lately, he has decided that all presents are his and need to be opened asap. I have already re-wrapped/fixed 4 presents. It should be interesting tomorrow when he can really open the presents :)

Box

Ok, so this is not the best picture, but Alex LOVES playing in this box. Some of his toys were delivered in it and he loves diving into the peanuts and kicking around. Even better, he is EXHAUSTED after doing it. So it is a before bedtime ritual for the moment :)

Baking Cookies

This weekend, we started our cookie making. Everyone got into the act and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Christmas with a 20m old

Oh What Fun!

Alex is VERY much into Christmas. He loved coloring on all the Christmas cards and is absolutely fascinated by Christmas decorations.

Here are a few aneced0tes:

1. When Tara (Alex's sitter) put her Christmas Tree up, Alex dragged me over, made me sit next to the tree and point out all the ornaments.

2. Alex will say "Santa" and shrug his shoulders, as if asking "where is he?"

3. While playing with my singing Angel, Alex said Angel but pointed to the wings and said "Bird"

4. He really enjoys Christmas Lights. However, he insulted Pat and called the fake Christmas tree he bought a "bush".

5. Snowmen are referred to as "Men"

6. Alex really enjoys his Advent Calendar. Each night he places a new ornament on his very own tree.

7. Lately, before bed, Alex likes to turn on the radio to a Christmas station and dance.

No doubt the excitement and wonder will continue to grow.