Here Comes Santa Claus!

Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus...

Without his jingling sleigh!

Santa came to visit on Saturday.  He was in town for a quick visit.  You know, one last check to see who's been naughty and nice.  He probably also wanted to check his reindeer route to make sure everyone gets their special visit on Christmas Eve.  The reindeer are resting for their big night, so our local fire department was kind enough to drive him around in their firetruck.  

 

 

To avoid confusion for our 1 year old, I took him to see a small replica of Santa's sleigh.  He was pretty impressed, especially with the jingle bells on it.  

 

Santa, We're Ready!

Dear Santa Claus,

We are so excited about your visit in just a few more days!  We want you to feel extra welcome at our house, so we baked you some delicious Christmas cookies.  They're family recipes, and they're pretty yummy!  My mom and Niecee baked them while my dad and Pappy and I played outside.  We sat on a big piece of cardboard and slid down the hill in the front yard.  We don't have any snow yet, but a nice grassy hill works just as well.  You should have heard me laughing each time we went down!

When we came inside, I sampled the cookies Mom and Niecee were baking for you.  I liked the butter cookies, but the gingerbread were my favorite!  I even got to help cut some of those out for you!

I accidentally knocked my mom in the head with the rolling pin when she was trying to get me to take a picture with her.  I promise I wasn't being naughty though!  I just wanted to roll out more cookie dough so we could make more cookies for you!  

I managed to sneak off with one of the gingerbread cookies, and I gobbled it up as fast as I could because my mom keeps telling me this story about a gingerbread man who runs away from a bunch of people and tells them they can't catch him.  I sure didn't want to lose my cookie once I'd gotten it!

We sure did have a great time getting ready for you yesterday.  My mom said you visit pretty late at night, so I'll be sleeping in my crib.  I'll leave the cookies and a glass of milk for you by the fireplace though.  I hope you enjoy your Christmas cookies as much as I did!

Love,

Cooper

A Few of My Favorite Things

In a post from last December, I put up pictures of some of my favorite Christmas decorations. Here are some of my favorite 2011 items that make our days extra merry and bright right now!

~Earlier this week I went to an ornament swap with the ladies from our church. I was pretty nervous about going because I'm still getting to know these ladies, and I'm a little shy. I had a wonderful time though! We talked, all got to know one another better, ate the most delicious food (everyone brought a dish), and then played Dirty Santa with the ornaments. It was really a lot of fun, and I was so glad I went! This is the ornament I got (well, stole!!), and I love it. I felt like it was the perfect ornament for this year. We have been so very blessed this year, especially after my dad's accident in October, and rejoicing is just what we've been doing!

~Of course, our hearts rejoice mostly this Christmas, and each Christmas, because of the birth of our Savior. I have a snow village that Karl started for me the Christmas we were engaged. It has been so fun and special to add pieces since we've been married. Cooper loves the snow village, and each morning, he goes to it, points and "talks" about it, tries to plug it in, and then gets so excited when it lights up. I love that he loves it so much! Interestingly enough, this little figure is his favorite. Several times a day, he comes to me to be picked up, points to the snow village so I'll take him to it, and then he tries to pick up this figure. We point to Joseph, Baby Jesus, Mary, the star, and the angel and talk about each one. He just loves it. This morning I asked him where Baby Jesus was as I held it, and he pointed right to him. He really doesn't take any particular interest in the other pieces, just this one.

~However, since Little Man did take such an interest in the Christmas tree and the ornaments on it, all ornaments got moved out of his curious reach! I didn't put many ornaments on the tree anyway because I realized most of our ornaments are breakable, and I was a little afraid of Cooper pulling over the tree and all the ornaments breaking! I did put the unbreakable balls on because I felt like that was safe. Well, quickly I learned that Cooper can pull off the top part (which creates a choking hazard, and I'm crazy about anything he can choke on since EVERYTHING goes in his mouth), and he has quite an arm. He would take off the ornaments, and if he didn't try to eat the top part, he would throw them down the hall for Sadie to fetch. So, after putting the ornaments on the tree over and over and over, I moved them all! And then I bought a few balls for Cooper and Sadie to play with that didn't involve my Christmas decorations!

~For a former kindergarten teacher, it's just not Christmas time if you're not painting someone's hands or feet! This is my second year to not be in a classroom, and honestly, sometimes I miss it so much I could cry. I decided the other day that just because I'm not teaching, doesn't mean I can't do handprint art with my toddler though! My first thought after that was, "Am I losing my mind?!" But then I decided the mess would be part of the fun. This morning we broke out the paint brushes, finger paint, and card stock and went to town! Amazingly enough, there was no mess. Cooper did not eat the paint, we did not get paint on our clothes or items around us, and both pieces actually came out kind of cute. (I thought they would look crazy, but it would be a fun keepsake to remember this Christmas by.) I would love to do something like this each Christmas, especially if it's as easy as it was today!

~This is our table in our entryway. It has some of my most meaningful decorations on it this year. The wreath was made by the mother of one of my student's a few years ago. It is really pretty, and I know it took a lot of time for her to make. Nothing means more than a homemade gift! The stack of books are special Christmas books. One is from when I was a little girl, and the pages are very, very worn from me reading through it so many times. It was always my favorite. The two pictures are Cooper's pictures with Santa, and then I hung his artwork up as well. It might not be the most stylishly decorated table, but it sure warms my heart when I see all the special tokens on it!

Today we'll be working on more Christmas traditions. Every year Karl's mom makes Christmas cookies that are family recipes. Since I was a teenager I've been helping her, and I look so forward to this all year long!! I can't wait to watch Cooper eat them warm out of the oven! Don't worry, pictures to come!

Get Ready!!!

Several months ago I "locked" our blog (explanation here), and it made me very sad to do so. I felt like that defeated the point of a blog, but it was the right thing to do at the time. It's made it really hard for people to read our blog though, and honestly, I think it's rather a pain as well to have to log in each time I want to look at it or post something new. Karl and I have been talking, and we're going to give it another try. So, get ready, because in a few days (or once I've had a chance to read through it and make sure it's as safe as possible), I'm going to make it public again! Yea!!!

Our Christmas Card

Dear Friends and Family,

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Just like a Christmas card should say we do! We sure do love getting the mail each day and seeing the beautiful Christmas cards you've sent us. We happily display them and love looking at the sweet faces of all the people we love. We are sending you one too, promise. It's just, well, delayed. You see, we tried for a solid month to get that "perfect" family picture, but those didn't work out so well. We couldn't even get a decent one of all of us. Then we tried to just get a "perfect" picture of Cooper for our card, but, um, that sure didn't work out either! He wasn't very interested in posing. He was more interested in everything else around us, so efforts to get him to sit still and smile for the camera resulted in headaches and glasses of wine for the mama. I have a ton of great pictures of the back of his cute little head and awesome blurry ones where he gets up and leaves in the middle of that quick snap but the tree lights sparkle beautifully in the background; however, those just didn't seem right to go on our card! Day after day, we tried...and tried. Finally, I was out of time. I picked a picture that's okay (but definitely shows some of Little Man's personality), got on the internet, picked a card (kind of wish I had looked at the price beforehand...oops!!), and placed my order. I even paid extra for fast shipping. We're going to get them mailed out as soon as they arrive, which will hopefully be before Christmas. Until then, we really do wish you a Merry Christmas!

Love,

Allison, Karl, and Cooper

2011 Christmas Card Picture Attempts

Mama says, "Cooper don't pull on that ornament!"

Cooper doesn't listen...

Cooper says, "Oops, I pulled the string off that ornament!"

"Mom, why did you wrap my diaper box in wrapping paper? That paper pulls right off!"

"I totally don't see the point in this."

"Here's some paper for you to play with too!"

"You brought me to a park and think I'm going to pose for a picture rather than try to play?!"

"I've had it with this stupid box thing!"

"I'm not looking!"

"Yes, I am a stinker."

"Is she seriously still trying this?!"

"Oh darn, Mom, I smiled for you, but you didn't snap fast enough!"

Too bad I didn't have a cuter background for these!!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Baby Jesus, Santa, Christmas trees, lights, cookies, ornaments, presents!

It just doesn't get better than Christmas time! Christmas with a toddler is something special for sure! We're getting a much better response from Cooper this year than we did last year, but I know next year is going to be even more exciting when he really understands what's going on. We have been having so much fun getting ready for Christmas this year with Cooper, and as always, he has surprised us with each and every reaction!

Let's begin with the Christmas parade. We went the Friday before Thanksgiving with the Vakakes family. It was outside at the mall, and it was great--there was Christmas music, lights, fireworks, warm cookies, fire trucks, cars, lots of people, Frosty, the Gingerbread Man, and of course, Santa! It reminded me of the beginning of my all-time-favorite Christmas movie, A Christmas Story (I love TBS for playing it for a full 24 hours too!). Cooper wasn't so impressed though. He stared intently at each passing person/thing, but nothing even evoked a smile. It was a little cold though, and we might not have been as prepared as we should have been...live and learn...next year we'll bundle up more!

Will, Baby Alex, and Coop

This is how he looked the whole time

Daddy did a good job keeping him as warm as possible

The day after Thanksgiving we went to get our Christmas tree. We go to Lowes to get our tree, which is more exciting than it sounds because the trees are tied up, so you really don't know what your tree is going to look like until a few days after you buy it and it's had time to fall. We have had the most beautiful tree I have ever seen in my life, the ugliest tree ever grown, and everything in between. It's fun to see what you end up with! This year our tree is FAT. When my dad saw it, he said, "That's the fattest damn tree I've ever seen!" It's true. However, it's really full and really pretty. Cooper actually took part in picking it out and loved traveling from row to row rubbing the trees and picking up needles off the ground and "talking" about them as he roamed. He has done well with the tree overall. We were nervous about the tree this year, and the first few days made us more nervous. Within a couple hours of putting lights on the tree, Coop had pulled the bottom strand off twice. Then within a day of putting the ornaments on (not a single nice ornament went on this year though, just in case Little Man got too curious and somehow pulled the tree down), all ornaments were moved to the top half of the tree where little fingers couldn't reach. Our tree is some kind of pretty this year! :) Also, I thought he was going to love the lights and decorations. He points to the decorations but does his "danger" reaction to them, which I guess it's better that he thinks they're dangerous than play toys! When we plug in the tree lights each afternoon, Cooper comes over and tries to blow the lights out. Maybe next year... :)

It looked normal here, but we definitely learned that a tree can fall A LOT!

When it came time to visit Santa, I was super excited but truly thought Cooper would not be. This is awful, but I think screaming crying pictures with Santa are hilarious. Yes, awful, I know. When I saw this face looking at the old man in the red suit, I started to feel a little giddy that we were going to get that picture this year!

No, no, no. When it was Cooper's turn, he took off running down the red carpet to good ole' St. Nick!

When he got close, he stopped and stared, but before he could change his mind, Karl plunked him in Santa's lap, where Cooper happily sat for his picture.

Then he started to "talk" to Santa! We laughed, and the sweet girl at Bass Pro took another picture of Cooper, so we have two this year!

"Hey, Santa, my dad has a razor that can help you with that beard..."

"Look, Mom! It already has a bow on it!"

Cooper has been pointing to a little Santa figure I have and says (in his own way), "Hoho"! I love it! In 16 days, I think he might be even more excited about his jolly friend!