Christmas Day

Berkeley did it! He was good enough to have Santa bring him lots of fun toys! Santa showed up sometime after midnight from what I can gather and brought Berke an awesome kitchen and Mickey Mouse Train. Berke was also excited to find the sweet peddle car his Papa Taft sent him. What a lucky kiddo.

Berkeley LOVES his new car and asks to take it with him whenever we leave the house. Sadly this is not a car that is easy to haul around town with us. He hasn't figured out how to peddle it yet, but his feet can reach; for now he is happy to sit in it while eating candy and playing with his Mickey Rocket Ship, another fun toy from Papa Taft.

Mr. McDuff was not left out of the fun on Christmas morning. This furry creature enjoys opening presents the most in our family. Too bad Berke was not willing to share his opening task like he was last year. Berke became very protective of his presents and would tattle on Mr. McDuff every time he tried to "help" Berke open a present; Berke would have NO help!

Berke kept asking for a Mickey Train and a Minnie Phone for Christmas. Gram came through with the Minnie phone; I think she bought it before he even asked for it. Grandmas sure do know how to spoil their grandchildren.

Christian had a nice Christmas, he scored a nice sweater, thermos, a new coat and some other good finds. He spoiled me this year with some beautiful sweaters from the LOFT and some new TOMs.

Behold, the beloved Mickey Train!

We have a Christmas tradition at our house, after opening our presents we partake of Grandma Taft's monkey bread along with some fruit salad, OJ and chocolate milk.
Delicious!

After opening, playing, eating and playing we all needed a nap.
Then we headed to our friends house to eat dinner and celebrate with them.

Berke sure does love RyRy.
Ryan made an yummy dinner of ratatouille, spinach pie and an amazing dessert.

We were happy to spend the evening with good friend. This may be our last big holiday celebration with them as they will be moving to Madison, WI in June. So sad!

Berkeley sort of stayed up until 10:45 p.m. that night; he was having so much fun playing with his toys I just couldn't put him to bed.
Thanks to all our wonderful family who sent wonderful gifts. We were spoiled as usual.

Here is a short video of Berke opening a present!

It's a Wonderful Life

It has been Festive week as Christmas approaches. This week we had our ward Wreath Making Activity, Church Christmas Party, Church Christmas Program and watched Elf, Rudolph and Frosty (Claymation type). We've got spirit yes we do!

Friday Night we had our Church Christmas Party. We had a lovely dinner and Santa made a special appearance. My kid isn't gonna sit on Santa's lap without a bribe that is for sure. So we did a family picture with Santa and as before I had to tell Santa what Berkeley wanted (A Mickey Mouse Train and Minnie Mouse Toy), and give Berke a cookie afterward. We sort of got a smile out of the kid this time around. He even looked at Santa and shook his head that he would be good.

Things I love about Christmas this year:
1- Berkeley calls Christmas "Chrischris"
2-Berkeley loves Christmas music and when we are in the car he always yells to me, "LOUDA" so I can blast it in the car and he can dance in his car seat. His favorites are Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bells and Santa Clause is Coming to Town.
3-We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition this year. When I asked Berke what he wanted to name the Elf he said, "God." C and I had a good laugh about that. We finally decided on the name Isaak. He is sorta into Issak, mostly just finding where he is hiding. It has yet to work as a threat, so I was a bit sad about that.
4- I bought a new Christmas Album by Straight No Chaser, an A Capella group and I LOVE it and highly recommend it to those I love.

I also love Cambridge 1st Ward Wreath Making. It is my favorite tradition that our ward(church) does. Each year there is a lovely program, a nice soup and salad dinner and we make wreaths out of Christmas boughs.

This year the program was AMAZING. It had some really gorgeous music and a wonderful program. The program focus on Mary, Jesus' mother and what it must of been like her as the mother of Christ to have to give birth in a stable. Having given birth myself this hit home pretty strongly. The glorious birth of our Savior was in such a humble setting; it was a really powerful and spiritual experience that I am grateful for.

Berke also had his little pal Q over for a Christmas movie play date. The boys watched Rudolph and Frosty while eating popcorn, fruit snacks, sour patch kids and drinking apple juice. It was a pretty good night for these two kids. They loved the cartoons and I found myself wondering how Rudolph became so popular, because it really is pretty terrible. I do remember loving it as a child, so there must be something magical about it.

I really do love this time of year and all the magic it brings to me, my family and my home.
I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays too!

It's a Wonderful Life

The Christmas Season came and went so quickly this year. We had intentions of doing many more holiday related activities, but time got away from us. Gingerbread house making will be on the top of the list for next year, as it just didn't happen this year. We did do many wonderful things however, and one of our most favorite traditions is our Christmas Eve Party.

This year was our 4th Christmas in Boston; can you believe it? We really enjoy spending our holiday with our little family. The stress of traveling over the holidays has been less appealing to us in our "old age" and we have stuck around our home with our little family since our move to the big city. Since we started staying here, we have been hosting a Christmas Eve party for friends who are also staying in the area.
This year was a huge success! We had quite the aray of dietary needs with our guests; we had vegans, vegetarians, and people who needed their food gluten free. Christian pulled it off like a champion! He made a vegan and a gluten free eggplant Parmesan as well as stuffed shells (not vegan or gluten free) and it was delicious! We had quite the fun crowd this year with 5 families coming over to join in the eating festivities. We also played a killer game of Christmas Pictionary, decorated sugar cookies for Santa, sang Christmas Carols (Lisa and I did a mean rendition of "Santa Baby"), watched Berkeley crunk (see below video), and just had a good time laughing and visiting. The night went so fast, but it was memorable indeed.

That night, Santa Clause came and brought Berkeley lots of fun toys!

Christmas morning we enjoyed our traditional monkey bread and fruit, followed by hours of opening and playing with presents. McDuff LOVES opening presents; luckily he was around to show his little brother how this was done. McDuff got a variety of doggie treats, a ball and a stuffed hedge hog and was grateful that Santa Paws did not leave him out.

One of my favorite presents is my new blue tooth. I do most of my chatting with friends and family in the car, so this little gadget will be quite handy.

I purchased t his movie for Christian as it describes him to a T!
(The Absent Minded Professor)

Berkey got lots of fun toys and musical devices this year. I thought he was very clever to discover that his symbols were just the size of his electric drums and he could use them both to create "heavenly" tunes.

Just rockin' out with the Elmo guitar!

We had a wonderful Christmas! It is always bitter sweet; I love all the fun ramping up to the holidays, the day of, and then POOF, just like that it is all over!
Thanks to all who gave us such thoughtful gifts and treats!
We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family, to be privileged to have such amazing friends here that we consider to be family as well, and to be able to celebrate the birth and life of Christ during this special time of year.

The Polar Express

Berke is geared up for the holidays; he's got his holiday PJ's and Elmo slippers, doesn't get any better than that!
Every year the Visiting Nurse of Boston holds a fundraiser by putting on a Polar Express Train Ride on the Commuter Rail at Malden Station. I thought it would be fun to take Berke Man this year as he is into "Choo Choos", and kids under 2 were free so it worked out well.
They had the train decorated with holiday cheer and Christmas Music blasting through the train.

The train started and they read the Polar Express Story to all the children. Then Santa Clause came. Berke has a bit of PTSD from his last Santa experience; this is his reaction when Santa came to say hello. He was clinging onto me for dear life. Then came the milk and cookies and Berke was happy again.

They had lots of life size cartoon characters on the train as well. I thought Berke would be thrilled to see Elmo, Christian thought he would be terrified.

Christian was right.
Berke was TOTALLY freaked out by Elmo. When Elmo came to stand by him for a picture he pushed him away and started crying. Is it mean that I find humor in my kids terror?
Not to worry, Berke still loves Elmo...just not life sized Elmo.

The train ride was fun, Berke got a coloring book and crayons and a little bell. It was a really fun Christmas activity for our whole family. I LOVE this time of year!