A Christmas for the Record Books (2011)

I have so many wonderful childhood memories of Christmas and how special my parents and grandparents would make it for me. As a mother, it is now my turn to do the same for my child (soon to be children). And this year was the perfect year from me to do just that. Our traditions started with making Christmas cookies together, hiding our elf Lego each night, and reading Christmas stories such as the Polar Express and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We decorated the house and tree together and we listen to Christmas music (Eddie was not a fan of the music???). And each night before we fell asleep, I tried talking to Eddie about what Christmas really means. I made sure to tell him that it was about giving and being around family. Although, I did have to throw Santa in the mix since he is only three and told him that all good boys get visited by Santa too! I wasn't quiet sure if Eddie understood our talks about Christmas until I had the privilege to host the most important Christmas tradition, dinner. YES!! I had the privilege to have both sides of the family over for Christmas this year. On Christmas day we had prime rib roast, shrimp, salad, cheese, twice baked potatoes, green bean casserole etc... and desert. Most importantly, some of the Mueller family came to our house. Eddie truly enjoyed spending time with his grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. And then the day after Christmas the Alberts family came over. We had wings, shrimp, cocktail weenies, chips and dip, and fruit! And once again our little man enjoy spending time with his grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. At the end of the each evening he did not want them to go and since then has asked when they are coming back to his house. Here are some pictures that captured our Christmas holiday!
Eddie with Mema on Christmas Eve:Opening one Christmas present from mommy and daddy on Christmas Eve:And of course, leaving out milk and cookies for Santa: The priceless look on Christmas morning:

And even more priceless look:Hanging with cousins Haley and Heather:

Hanging with cousin PJ: Some of the Mueller girls:

Wrestling with Peepaw:

Daddy sporting his new hunting overalls:Hanging with cousins Mark and Jason:

As you can see from the pictures, we will have many great memories of this Christmas. And since I am not quite sure how soon we will have the opportunity to host Christmas dinner again, this Christmas definitely is one for the record books.

Dinner with Santa 2011

Each year the school district I work for puts on a dinner with Santa for the kids of the employees. It truly is a wonderful and magical event for the kids. They all sit at their tables, somewhat eating their dinner, waiting to hear the bells jingle as Santa approaches. The look on all of their faces is priceless but of course no look is more precious then your own child's. And although our evening started out a bit rough from a very busy very long non sleeping weekend, the even turned out just right. As Santa sat in his chair and called out the names of the many kids awaiting their present, Eddie sat their patiently waiting for his present with his friends.

Here is Eddie with Santa: And here is the priceless look on his face when he open his present, a giant harvester!!!!

Country Lights 2011

Sunday 12-11-2011 we took our little man to our annual Country Lights outing at a local park near our home. At Country Lights, our little man got to make a toy in Santa's workshop with an elf and then decorate it with paint and glitter before we went on our wagon ride around the park to see all of the beautiful Christmas lights. Once again, we had an absolute awesome time together. Eddie really enjoys the activities and seeing the Christmas lights. This year as he looked around the lobby he was able to identify the different characters we have watched in movies and have read in books. He pointed out Rudolph, took a picture with little Cindy Lou Who from "How the Grinch stole Christmas", and also took a picture with the Grinch!

Here are a few pictures of our evening together:

Putting some glitter on our tractor with daddy: Painting the tractor with daddy:

Making the tractor with mommy and the elf:

Hanging out in the lobby with mommy and daddy:

The Grinch:

Little Cindy Lou Who (or at least that's who we thought it was):

Santa and Our Elf- Lego

As usual, the day before Thanksgiving we took our little man to get his picture taken with Santa. We decided that this year we would make it our Christmas card since come April it will no longer be just the three of us. Yes! There will be four of us and our picture with Santa will no longer just be our little man. The next time we go to take our picture with Santa, it will be Eddie with his baby sister. We are all very excited for the new addition to our family!!! However, there are times that I sit here an think.... WOW! There is going to be four of us. It's no longer going to be just the three of us!!! And although I am very happy, part of me feels a tiny bit sad. So, I wanted to capture this moment with my little man and with Santa as just the three of us!

And since the holiday season and festivities have begun, this year we added our elf Lego to our Christmas traditions. At first, Eddie didn't really understand the magic of Lego but then when he started to show up in strange places throughout the house, the magic set in. Every morning Eddie wakes up he either tries to find Lego right away or one of us will say, "have you seen Lego?" And then the search begins. When Eddie finds him he will run to one of us and say, "look, look I found the elf." Once he has found Lego he usually stands there with his mouth open and pointing for us to see while letting out a kind of silent laugh. Daddy has really come up with some creative places to hang Lego and I think that even makes it more fun and special for Eddie. Meanwhile, Eddie's behavior has been terrific because he now knows that Lego reports to Santa each night. I know one little boy that will definitely be getting a visit from Santa this Christmas.

Christmas 2010

Christmas break flew by this year. I swear the time off keeps getting shorter and shorter each year but then again I guess any time at all off with my family is a blessing. As you may have read we were really busy up to Christmas doing Christmasy things. And as you can imagine the business didn't stop there. On Christmas Eve Nana Dresp and Uncle Bob came over to our house to celebrate, have dinner, and of course to spoil Eddie.

Here are a few pictures:

And then after the party broke up we had to leave milk and cookies for Santa!Christmas morning was absolutely magical. Eddie woke up not even really thinking about Christmas and Santa. He woke up asking for his computer (Mobigo) that he got on Christmas Eve from nana. I gave him his computer and then went downstairs to get my coffee. When I returned to the room he was sitting there on my bed looking so cute in his Christmas jammies playing his computer when I asked him, "Who do you think came last night?" And he said, "SAANTAA!!!!!" He immediately wanted to go downstairs to see if the milk and cookies were gone and to see if Santa left him any presents. When he finally saw what awaited him he said, "Mom! oh boy! oh my gosh! look mom, look dad!" and then he started opening his presents. With each present we got an oh my gosh, oh boy, oh mom, oh dad.... it was so stinking cute! He was so excited and so exhausted from the excitement that half way through his presents he said, "okay. I all done now. I save the rest for later." So, he took a break and came back to finish opening his presents a half hour or so later (note to self: do not let Santa bring as much next year!).

Here are a few pictures of Christmas morning:

After opening presents all morning we went to Aunt Janeen's for Christmas dinner. Eddie had a blast playing with his cousins and getting to spend the afternoon with family. We all had great company, great food, and an overall great day together.

Here are a few pictures from our afternoon:

Uncle Ed and his oldest nephew jamming in the basement:

Eddie opening his big wheel:The day after Christmas Grandma and Peepaw Mueller came over to celebrate the Christmas holiday with us. And again our spaghetti man was spoiled. We enjoyed each others company and had a great dinner. The hubby and I were spoiled too by all grandmas and grandpas. Thank you all for making our holiday so special. We love you.
Here are a few pictures of Christmas, that day after:

Christmas Lights

Last Thursday the hubby and I took Eddie to see Christmas Lights at a farm near our home with some of our neighbor friends. The minute we drove into the farm Eddie was hooked by all of the beautiful lights. Little did he, or we for that matter, know that the best part of the night would be making a toy in Santa's workshop with elves that like to dance and sing. Eddie was extremely attentive and focused on making his toy with the elf. He listen to every direction and even handed the right tools to the elf when she asked for them. After he was done making his toy with daddy, I was in charge of helping him paint his toy. And let me just tell you, the toy is still tightly wrapped and in the back of my car. We put some much paint and glitter on that toy it was ridiculous and I just know that I would be finding paint years later if I brought it into the house. Anyway, we all thoroughly enjoy making his tractor. After the making and painting of the tractor, we took a tractor ride through the farm to see all of the Christmas lights and then stopped at the horse stable to watch a horse show. Pony rides were offered at the horse stable as well. Much to my surprise after a few minutes of watching the big horses gallop and jump, Eddie want to ride a horse. So, a pony ride it was. He was so happy sitting on top of that pony. And we were so happy because he was so happy! We ended the night eating a hot dog and a bag of chips at the snack shop while getting to watch model trains chug along their tracks. Going to the farm to see the lights was a great night!

The toy making and painting:

The pony ride:

Holiday Festivities

The month of December has been filled with Holiday Festivities. Eddie has truly been Santa'd to death this year and has had many opportunities to celebrate the Christmas Holiday. We participated in my schools breakfast with Santa and dinner with Santa. We went to Mr. Kringle's Inventionasium where we made a puppet, snow, toys, and built blocks with Santa's elves. We rode Christmas trains, built ginger bread houses, and even helped mommy decorate the Christmas tree. Eddie understands, at the age of 2 and 1/2, who Santa is and what Santa brings on Christmas day. He understands that many people in the world put up Christmas decorations inside their homes and out and he understands that people say, "Merry Christmas" in passing during this time of the year and he too has told many people, "Merry Christmas." We are very thankful to have been able to participate in so many wonderful holiday festivities together.

Here are some pictures of all that fun we have been having!!!

And stay tuned for more because the holiday festivities are to be continued with pictures of Country Lights, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day!!!

Christmas 2009

Where do I begin? Christmas, Christmas, Christmas... was so magical this year. We are blessed with a crazy little boy who was so unbelievably cute Christmas morning trying to hand us his presents. He can say Santa, he can tell us what Santa says (insert HO HO HO here), but I'm not totally sure he really understood "Christmas" this year. However, once I showed him how to open his presents the train left the station and didn't stop until he opened his presents and anyone else's that were under the tree!

Once all of his presents were open, he quickly learned how to operate them. Did I tell you that he is one smart cookie? And he plays hard... there's no stopping him when he want to play. This past Sunday night he literally pushed one of his new tractors on my bed, while his head bobbed up and down like he was bobbing for apples, until he feel asleep. Our boy is definitely determined! He's growing up so fast. He's starting to repeat everything we say and he's beginning to understand emotion. He's been walking or should I say running and he doesn't sit still for a second. But we love him. We love him so much it hurts. I can only speak for myself when I say, our son has really helped me to understand how important family really is and how you really can't love them enough.

We tried to love on most of our immediate family the weekend before Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and the Sunday after. So, like many of you, we were busy. Really busy. It's not like I was slaving in the kitchen making cookies or anything like that ( don't worry, I eat plenty of cookies)... it was the working, trying to shop, and the keeping up with a 20 month old while trying to prepare for company/going for visits that kept me busy. And SWOOSH! Just like that, Christmas has already come and gone. And even though I am tired, so tired.... I am already looking forward to next Christmas and memories that will be made.

Lots and lots and lots of Christmas pictures:

Now, onto the New Year. I hope to spend more time with family and I hope to change some habits, like my eating! lol... So, I have once again joined a weight loss challenge to help me hold myself accountable.
Click here Sisterhood for details about the challenge and leave a comment if you want to join.

Christmas celebrations have been completed!

Christmas of 2008 has come to an end for the Alberts family. Saturday December 27th my husband's sister, her husband, their boys, and Grandma and Grandpa Alberts came over our house to visit and exchange gifts. Unfortunately, Grandpa Alberts didn't feel well and had to leave shortly after arriving. On a more positive note, our little one loved having his cousins over. He just loves being around other kids and despite the teething, he made it through the day a happy little Christmas baby!!! And he's going to be really happy when he gets big enough to ride the little horse, that controls video's and music on the t.v., that his aunt and uncle got him.

Yesterday, my little Christmas baby and I went out to my parents house to visit and exchange gifts. We planned on spending the night but our little Christmas baby had other plans. His teething dilemma was in full affect yesterday afternoon and needless to say after exchanging gifts and eating dinner (a delicious prime rib dinner!!!), we came home. However, right before he fell asleep in the car he told me that he can't wait to use the wagon that grandma and grandpa Mueller got him at the zoo next summer!!!!

Tomorrow is New Year's Day and usually I would go to my grandma and grandpa Schilling's house for New Year's Day dinner but we will see how the little one is feeling tomorrow. If his teeth are hurting, we might just stay home and snuggle up on the couch together. It's no fun for anyone (especially my little one) when his teeth are hurting him. I hope the New Year starts with a pain free teething baby. Have you heard of or know of a baby that is pain free while teething? I guess we will see!

Happy New Year from the Alberts Family