A Very Merry Christmas!

I don't even know where to begin. We had such a great Christmas that it is hard to capture it all in a post but I will try. It will just be a really long post!

We kicked off the Christmas weekend with a visit to Macy's 8th Floor exhibit "Day in the Life of an Elf". Harrison's cousin Noland had just arrived from St. Louis so he came along too! It was so much fun watching these two all weekend. Some of my best memories for Christmas' growing up (and even now) involve my cousins so I hope Harrison has the same.

On the night of the 23rd, we baked some cookies. Of course Harrison had to show Uncle Matt, Auntie Callie, and Grandma Nancy what to do.
We gave Harrison our presents on the morning of Christmas Eve. He was excited about his new train shirt...
and the "Memory" game which he calls "Matching".
The boys got some new pajamas on Christmas Eve modeled them in the afternoon!

We headed over to Grandpa and Grandma Lichty's house in the afternoon. It is always fun with games, good food, wine, and of course....lots of presents!

Unfortunately, one of the first present Harrison opened was a horn for his bike. Lesson learned for future years. He honked it all night!
Harrison loved tearing open all the gifts! He couldn't get them open fast enough!
He was really excited about his new sleeping bag from Auntie Suzanne and had to try it out!
One of the biggest hits was a race track with two cars.
It is hard to know who enjoys all the toys more...Grandpa, Daddy, or Harrison!
Annual Lichty Family Christmas Photo!
Lots of laughs with Auntie Suzanne!
I think the highlight of the night was the birthday cake for Baby Jesus. Harrison was yelling.."It's Jesus' birthday!!! Happy Birthday Jesus!!!" We set the Baby Jesus from the Nativity scene on the table and sang "Happy Birthday". At least he gets the true meaning of Christmas...sort of anyway.
Harrison was pretty tired and slept until 7:30 Christmas morning. I have a feeling that is the latest he will sleep on Christmas morning for quite a few years. All he wanted from Santa was a train and he got it! He was soooooo excited!


After checking out was Santa left, he had to go see if the cookies and milk we gone. He proudly reported, "Santa ate them!"
Next it was time for the next round of presents! So much fun watching the boys open their gifts. They was so good about saying thank you and they were so excited!
Grandma and Grandpa Olmem got Harrison a new crane....again, tough to tell who has more fun with the toys!
Next...off to Christmas Day brunch with the Young side of the family. Always delicious!
Annual Olmem family picture...we never got one where the boys were both looking.
The Lichty Family Christmas photo!
We capped off our Christmas celebrating at Grandma Grace's house.
Auntie DeDe made a yummy Prime Rib. It was the first time Harrison had Prime Rib and he is a fan! He enjoyed it at the "Guys Table".
More gifts! Harrison's new bear rug from Auntie DeDe and Uncle Brian will now join his Moose rug! When H opened it he said he was going to take a nap on it. It was especially funny because H did not nap on Christmas. He did so well though. He did not get cranky and had a great day!
Harrison and Noland had to show off their competing hockey jersey's. The boys got along so well!
I think I will remember this Christmas as the "Train Christmas". H received a lot of train related stuff which made him VERY happy!
I know how blessed we are but Christmas really reminds me. We are so lucky to have such great families. Last year we really missed not having Matt, Callie, and Noland so it was special to have them here again. Uncle Andy and Auntie Suzanne always spoil Harrison and he loves it! H has the best grandparents ever! We also so lucky to have such great Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins too that make holidays so much fun!

I'll sign off this long post with a little video. (It is a little dark and Harrison was in a silly mood but I still thought it was cute....of course!)

Skating!

Harrison decided that just walking around in his skate with skate guards was not good enough...he wanted the real thing. We got a helmet for him at REI and off we went to the pond in our neighborhood. We only went out for about 15 minutes so no triple axles or double toe loops this time around but Harrison is already asking to go again!

Santa!

Last week we headed over to Southdale Mall to meet with Santa. Harrison had some serious stuff to discuss with him. He wanted to make sure he was on the Good List and that Santa knew that he wanted a "choo choo train" (and a caboose, a coal car, a passenger car, and so on...) He was very excited when he saw Santa walk up but when he actually got up to sit on his lap, he was more excited to go ride the train at the mall than talk to Santa. The "pros" did get a good picture with him smiling. Even though these pictures don't reflect it, he was pretty excited the meet The Man!

The Santa at Southdale was better than the one at Ridgedale last year. (The one last year was wearing red sweat pants...we call him "B Team Santa") I was kind of hoping for the big red suite but he was still good.

After Santa, we rode the train. Harrison waved to everyone as we passed them.

Holiday Party of 3!

You may have heard....we got some snow. "Tsnownami", "Snow-mageddon", & "December Blizzard" were all over the news. Unfortunately the timing was on the second Saturday in December. Typically, this day is one of my favorite days of the year. I love the holidays and it is mid-way between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have a couple friends that have annual Holiday parties this night each year and they are always a blast. Well, 2010 was a little different. We had a party of 3...and 14 inches of snow!

Since we were homebound, we got creative with activities. Harrison and Daddy built a big fort in the basement. We also did lots of puzzles, watched some movies, read a million books, and played cars for hours. Luckily, Harrison was in a great mood! Our neighbors were able to make it over for a while Saturday evening so Harrison had Jack to entertain him for a while.

Sunday we made and decorated cookies. Yes, I used a mix. The focus was on the decorating not on baking from scratch.

Harrison thought the rolling pin was pretty cool.




So even though the weekend didn't turn out as planned, it turned out to be a great weekend. We are so lucky to be able to have so much fun with just a party of 3!

Randoms...

Harrison is sooooo excited for Christmas. He loved getting all the decorations out. Each morning we turn on the tree he exclaims "It's Christmas!"
We had two playdates over the weekend. We are so lucky that Harrison has some great friends and his friends have great parents! Win-Win for everyone!

For our playdate at Jack's house, we couldn't take the wagon so we took the next best thing!
Harrison has discovered a robe that was given to him last year. (At least it is not a silk lounging robe and he isn't smoking a pipe!)