Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 has come and gone. Since Colin is spending the afternoon at Grandma F.'s house, I plan on taking the tree down this afternoon. Normally I keep it up until at least New Years, but Colin thinks a few of my favorite ornaments are toys (like my airplane that signifies the year I went skydiving), and I'm ready to pack them up again before they get lost or broken. Here's a rundown of the jolly times we had this year.

On Friday, I "tortured" Colin by making him see Santa. He was all fine and dandy until the red rope opened up and he was in touching distance of St. Nick. Then he clung to me like white on rice and wouldn't. let. me. go. I pried him off, sat him down, snapped this picture, and scooped him back up.
Needless to say, he'd rather look at Santa from afar. And I elected not to spend $25 on 2 5x7s of my crying child. In the future, we will participate in less commercialized Santa events (i.e. Breakfast with Santa that we missed this year) where Colin can warm up to the old man before he has to make eye contact with him.

Since Colin (well, aside from Ben) is the only grandchild on both sides of our family, he gets spoiled every year. This year, he insisted that the presents under the tree were his birthday presents :) I told them it wasn't his birthday, it was Jesus' birthday. By the end of the weekend, he understood they were Christmas presents.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Kevin's parents' house. Among the gifts, Kevin, Ben, and I got some gift cards. Colin got a semi truck, a dump truck, movies, a Memory game, etc. etc. etc. etc.
On Christmas morning, Colin woke up and discovered Santa had been to our house. He opened up his presents from us (Colin the Crane for his train set, his own Camelbak water bottle, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse puzzle) and from Santa (fire truck floor puzzle, stocking stuffers).

Then we headed out on the 2 hour drive to my parents' house. Colin (and Ben) slept the whole way there, despite it being just 8:30 in the morning. When we got there, the 8 of us (our family, my mom, dad, brother, and Mandy) opened presents and stockings. Among the many gifts, I got a pair of new snow pants to replace mine from the mid-'90s and cash. Kevin got some snow pants too, a brownie pan, and again--cash. Colin got some parts for his train set, a bow and arrow complete with binoculars and battery operated moving deer, a remote control truck, puzzles, etc. etc. etc. etc.
"Unda Dotty" teaching Colin how to use his bow.My dad's family arrived and the family festivities began. There was good food. There was TONS of appetizers/cookies/fudge/etc. There was a game called "What's Yours Like?" There were more presents (for Colin and Ben). Then everyone left and we hung out for awhile.

On Monday morning, Steph stopped by to visit. We left my parents' house at about 12:30 and Colin was asleep within 3 minutes of starting the drive. Kevin and I stopped at Inta Juice to grab our beloved smoothies and we drove home, exhausted after a long holiday weekend.

We truly got spoiled again this year. Since we are in gazelle-intense debt pay-off mode, we didn't spoil others as fairly in return. We just couldn't fit any more in our budget. This makes me feel really a) cheap and b) bad. But we know that in just 1 or 2 more Christmases, we'll be able to spoil our family as much as they spoil us.