Christmas 2010

I was super excited when Christmas break began--it meant lots of playing with Kaiden and lots of rest!  I brought home a race track from school as something new for Kaiden.  I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, Daddy or Kaiden!

And yes, December in Houston means trips to the park wearing your shorts.  But oh, what fun at the playground!!!

We were spending Christmas in Amarillo.  Once we made it there, well, the weather was a different story.  We saw lots more of this...

Kaiden enjoyed his snuggle time with Poppy.

And we all enjoyed naps by the fire.

We tried really hard to get a picture of Kaiden's shirt.  It says "Mommy's favorite present!"  Yes, he is by far my favorite present!!

He was being so sweet here and giving me lots of lovin'.  :)

Well, you can almost read his shirt in this one!

Love this one!!!

We went to the mall to see Santa (the Santa in Amarillo is WAY better than the one in Houston).  But this is as close as Kaiden got.  Kaiden was not feeling well (even running a slight fever) and wanted nothing to do with Santa.  I'm not sure he would have wanted to see him even on a good day, but I could tell by the way Kaiden was hesitantly checking it out that it would not happen.  So I sadly gave up on the idea of having the cute picture of Kaiden with Santa every year.  This year, it wasn't meant to be.  (I love it that he is clutching "blue car" here!)

Besides fireplaces and awesome Santas, Amarillo also has amazing sunsets. 

Kaiden loved going downstairs to Poppy's "office" to look at the fish.  If you know Poppy, you know that it was a huge sacrifice for him to show off his fish.  (this is sarcasm for those of you who don't know Poppy!)

Kaiden also had a great time playing with some of my old toys.  Classic Hot Wheels!  (while chowing down on a kolache)

Man, I had some cool wheels growing up!  Kaiden liked riding on the back of this one better since he couldn't quite reach the pedals.

Turns out Kaiden must have been a very good boy this year--Santa was good to him!!!

The stockings all hung by the chimney with care.

Kaiden getting his stocking.

He had a great time exploring all of his goodies.  "Oooohhhhhh! Look!"

Santa always left us an apple and an orange in the bottom of our stockings.  That never excited me as I've never really liked apples and oranges.  I think the orange might have been Kaiden's favorite thing!!  He had to eat it for breakfast.  ;)

Poppy must have been a little onry this year because he got a lump of coal in his stocking!!  (Ok, he did find a few fun items as well!)

Kaiden deciding what to look at first.

He was very excited about his Cars cups.  He was also very cute in that he would pick one toy and play with it for a long time.  We really had to keep pointing out things to make sure he saw it all.

Safari animals were a big hit!  He wanted to know what they were all called.

I learned that there are many safari animals that I don't know!

"A big giraffe and a baby one!"

I think he would have played with the animals all day if we didn't point out more things.

This year was fun because Kaiden really got into the opening presents thing.  He was very excited about them!

He was very funny....he wasn't one of those kids who rips through all the presents in a matter of seconds.  He was very meticulous.  He tore off the paper in small pieces and every piece of paper and tape had to be off the box before he would continue!

Can you see the concentration?!?

Fortunately, the day was well documented.  (Yes, that is Gigi AND Tante armed and ready with their cameras.)  Yes, I had mine out too!  ;)

Ahhhh, what a great day--presents all around me!  (He was actually waiting patiently for us to fix one of his presents with batteries.)

He loved singing in his new microphone!  (Which meant holding it to his mouth and swaying from side to side.)

"A train!!!"

Entertaining us all!  We even Skyped with Oma and she got to see him sing too!

Elmo!  K loved listening to him sing!  Kaiden danced to Elmo's song (again, this means swayed from side to side!)

I love the concentration in this one.  This is Potty training Elmo.  You give him drinks and he goes "potty" on his potty chair.  Will it help us??  Only time will tell!

Again, not sure which boy had more fun...  ;)  Playing video games seems to be a favorite for both boys!

Santa even had one last present that he left for Kaiden in Houston!!!  "Ik-le, BIG ik-le!!"  (translation: bicycle, big bicycle)  K couldn't quite reach the pedals on this one either, but he still loved riding it!

We went for a walk with his new bicycle.  He loved it!  (He also refused to take off his Elmo night shirt!)  We figured there was no harm in wearing Elmo night shirts for a ride on your new tricycle.

 

This Christmas K also learned how to use his stool....

....to unlock doors!   (YIKKKKKES!)  Thankfully he hasn't tried to escape yet!

When I was growing up my mother would always make us put all of our gifts under the tree and take a picture.  As I got older I hated taking those pictures.  It was such a pain to keep everything all together, and you always ended up leaving something out.  Then as an adult I looked back at those pictures and fell in love with them!!!  It was so fun to see toys I remembered and even some I didn't.

So I've decided to try and take that picture with Kaiden's things.  Just for the record, I now hate taking pictures like this all over again!  Hopefully Kaiden will appreciate it some day!