Boxing Day!

When we all got up Saturday morning it was finally time to open presents as a family!

Gift number one... look at his face, I don't think he can believe it!

Ohhh....

Look Mom, a farm!

Gift number two (from Uncle David and Aunt Tricia) His third copy of the Jonah movie! :)
Next some blocks from Mom and Dad. Those didn't cause much excitement at first

He wanted to go back to the cool farm

And then he wanted to have a little dance party!

But eventually he made it back to the gifts and was ready to open the one his Auntie Jen sent him.

And then, last but not least, the gift we bought last minute because there was a sale (and Uncle Ted sent money to pitch in)...
YAY! Music Toys! (Bennett was so excited he had to taste it to make sure it was real!)

He loves the castanets!

Making noise... I mean music, with Dad!

Once Adam took the blocks out of the box and showed Bennett what he could do with them they were a much bigger hit!

And basically these last pictures kind of sum up the morning for Bennett... he was so cute and so happy to play with his new things with his mom and dad!

We love making memories with our sweet baby man!

Christmas Day

Even though we had planned on opening our gifts to Bennett on Christmas morning it didn't happen but we did get to sleep a little longer than normal so really there were no complaints! :)

First thing we did on Christmas was go to church. I love that our church has a service on Christmas day! It just seems right to me. Christmas is after all a church holiday and I feel like I hear people all the time talking about ways to make sure we keep focused on "the reason for the season" - well a good way to do that is to actually treat the day like the "holy-day" it is, and to postpone presents until after church. (But that's just what I think... don't be offended if you do things differently, it's just what Adam and I have decided to do.)

So, we went to church first, heard really good message about different kind of gifts...

...and Bennett had a great nap on his Grandma while Adam and I ran sound and media.
After talking with some friends and waiting in line at the Canyon Lake main gate we made it to Adam's parents house. Our increasingly mobile son was after everything in their house including the cat toys!

We opened presents and Bennett again really enjoyed himself and the fact that he was allowed to rip paper!

Another fun part of opening presents is seeing what Aunt Kathy has sent because you never know what could be in the "box of joy" as she calls it! Here's Roger modeling on of the fabulous treasures!

Bennett thought he hit the jackpot when Grandmas pulled out the big bag of rice puffs to give him a few!
After presents we made a yummy spinach artichoke dip, put the lamb in the oven and sat down to watch Julie and Julia. Bennett was asleep with in minutes and went to take a nap in the other room. Mary Beth and I only fell asleep for like 3 or 4 min at one point and the boys were kind enough to rewind it for us. I really loved that movie! It was so good!
Katy and Jeff stopped by for a few minutes (it makes my heart happy to see them) and then we ate a really yummy lunch/dinner of butternut squash soup, Greek salad, garlic mashed potatoes and lamb... we were eating good!

After dinner we all just kind of watched Bennett play with Grandma while watching the extras on the Julie and Julia DVD.

Bennett was very happy that he could get to the tree and play with the ornaments!
We packed up and headed home around 6 and headed to our second invitation for Christmas day, our next door neighbors house! We made it in time for dessert and games and had a great time with the Priors and the Fowlers!
The second game we played was called "What's yours like?" (pictured below) it was really kind of hard! For example, the word could be "ipod" and then every one goes around and describes their ipod. I was asked twice so my two words were "stolen" and "pink" but other people said things like "under used" or "white" and "undesired" - so basically it's a fun game if you know the people you are playing with really well or just have a good sense of humor to be able to laugh at yourself for not figuring out the answer!
Here's Adam and I discussing something during the game ... I'm sure we weren't cheating! :)
So, after all our fun with our family and friends Bennett was passed out asleep (good thing we just live next door) so we took him home and he went back to sleep and there was no "Mommy and Daddy presents" for him again... but that's okay, right? It's not about the gifts anyway!!!

(Boxing Day celebration blog to follow shortly)

Christmas Eve

My dad is a firefighter and had to work on Christmas this year so we did Christmas early with my side of the family.

On Christmas Eve morning we woke up at our house and Bennett's presents were sitting out in our living room (I wrapped them with the families the night before). He was very excited to see them! He went right over to them and and started banging on them like a drum but we told him he would have to wait until the next day to open them with Mommy and Daddy.
There were a few chores to do before we left ....
...and then we all showered and got back into nice clean PJ's and headed to my parents for "Christmas". It was weird driving through Murrieta in our PJ's and also realizing that it wasn't Christmas even though it totally felt like it was.
After a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy we all gathered round the tree in the living room and started opening presents.
Bennett really enjoyed the gift tags on all the boxes even if the gifts weren't for him!

Bennett got to try on his Grammy's fancy hat and scarf from Tio Pepe (Uncle Aaron)
Bennett and Grandpa disappeared for a few minutes towards the end of present time and then suddenly reappeared in the cutest little red wagon! Thanks Grammy and Grandpa!
Last week at Target there were foam battle axes and swords in the $1 bin - we bought them for everyone in the family and passed them out once the real presents were done - here's Tony displaying the awesomeness that was the foam battle axe!
In the afternoon there was a lively 6 player game of Catan and then an amazing meal of Beef Stroganoff with rice or pasta depending on if you eat it the right way or the wrong way! :) (Who knew people could be so passionate about the carb that goes with their sauce!)
Right before Brittany had to leave we remembered to take a family picture

Back Row: My Dad, Mike, Casey, My Mom Barb, Crystal-Lee, Brian

Front Row: Adam, Bennett, Me, Brittany, Aaron

(Unfortunately due to the fact that it really was Christmas Eve, Brittany's fiance, Javier, wasn't able to make it for the celebration - but we sent his battle axe home with Brittany to make sure he got it!)
We of course had to go out and give the wagon a test drive - Bennett pretty much loved it!
As I was pulling him up the lawn he wanted to stand and hold on to the front. We sang the Chariots of Fire music to him!
After turning his wagon into a chariot, he discovered that he could sit in the middle of the two seats and play with the folding seat - he really enjoyed that!
He also really enjoyed the giant snow globe in my parents front yard!
A little off roading with Tio Pepe
And then there was the wagon ride with Dad, where Adam almost broke his neck walking backwards down the lawn not noticing that there was a fire hydrant behind him (Luckily the crisis was avoided !)
We all had to try out the new Wii fit too! Adam's character dressed up as a penguin was definitely a favorite!
We ended the evening with a Christmas Eve service at my Mom and Dad's church and then a little Christmas light looking on the way home but we were not able to go out on the Christmas light rounds in our new PJ's because Bennett was pretty much done by the time church started so doing one more activity after the service was just not going to happen!

Christmas Day and Boxing Day celebrations will be covered in blogs to come ... stay tuned!

Hanukkah 2009!

We started a new tradition this year and I really hope we continue with it for may years to come! Instead of giving little gifts to each other for 8 days, Adam and I decided to have people over for 8 days! So for eight nights in a row we had different people over to share a meal and play a game (or just sit around and talk... it differed due to personalities and age of children). We didn't take many pictures but I think that is just proof of how great our evenings were - we just plain forgot to pull the camera out due to all the fun!

Here's Bennett and Caleb playing together on the second night of Hanukkah.

On the third night of Hanukkah we were brought the "gift of oil" .... I love it so much!

Michael and Becky came on the 6th night and they are always up for music so Bennett was more than happy to play with them after he had had a very messy dinner and lost his shirt!

On the last night Bennett and Adam played and played and played! If you would like to see Baby Mozart at work make sure to watch the videos!
Piano:

Banjo:

D'jimbe: