Christmas was interesting this year, filled with highs and lows. Ryan got really unlucky this year and didn't get any of the major holidays off, which included Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years, you can imagine that this was quite a bummer for all of us. It was really hard for me to be alone for so much of the holidays, but I did my best to make the most of it with the boys and to schedule everything around the brief moments when he would be home with us. On the happier side, the holiday was so much fun with our little men this year, they were both so into every element of it which just brought so much joy into our house. First we picked out and cut down our tree, always a fun activity, we were so excited to get Christmas started that we went the day after Thanksgiving.
Next was decorating the house and my multiple attempts at getting a picture of the two boys in front of the tree. This attempt quickly turned into a wrestling match.
Then the attempt where Gavin was threatening us all with his mad light saber skills.
We took a day trip to this amazing town called Skaneateles, NY a beautiful upstate town located on one of the finger lakes, it is one of those towns that everyone dreams of growing old in (think Stars Hollow). Every weekend in December they host a Dicken's Christmas where they have people dressed up as and acting as characters from A Christmas Carol, they roam around the town interacting with you and each other, they also have sing alongs, carriage rides and hand out free egg nog and roasted chestnuts. Normally Ryan and I aren't into these kinds of cheesy things, but this was absolutely awesome! I pretty much walked around with a perma smile on my face all day and we both left just wanting to move there.
One night the boys and I went over to a friend's house to decorate gingerbread houses, Liam was off playing for most of it, but Gavin was actually pretty into it. He sat there working on it the whole time, and eating a bunch of candy too. Gavin's ability to sit down and work on creative project kind of amazes me as it's never been an interest of Liam's.
Then there was the time that Gavin opened almost all of the presents under the tree while I was taking a shower. Liam told me he initially tried to stop him and then it looked so fun that he decided to join in. Luckily they were so focused on unwrapping they didn't really notice the presents, so I was able to wrap them all up again, no harm no foul.
After Liam picked out and wrapped a present for Ryan he could not stand to wait until Christmas for him to open it, this was an ongoing theme, every morning when he woke up the first thing he would ask was "Is it Christmas yet? Can we open the presents today?" So here he is following Ryan around the house with the present he got for him saying "I don't want it to be a Christmas present, I want it to be a dark day present, so open it now because it is a dark day!" The dark day description was probably in reference to the cloudy and dark Rochester winter weather outside. He was pretty incessant with it, and it was so fun to see him get so excited about giving gifts.
We decorated cookies for Santa
We re-enacted the nativity on Christmas Eve with a few friends, this event felt a bit like herding cats, but still had some sweet moments and I'm definitely glad we started the tradition this year.
And finally, Christmas morning, we had to wait for dad to get home from work, keeping the boys contained upstairs when they knew presents were waiting downstairs for them was an interesting task that involved Gavin hanging out in Roxy's crate for a bit, the boys think its really fun to go in there for some reason.
Gavin found the M&M's in his stocking and hung out there for a good thirty minutes chowing down, nothing could persuade him to abandon the candy to open his presents. Every present that Liam opened was "just what I wanted!", his enthusiasm was so fun. Once the presents were opened, Ryan went promptly to bed, the boys spent some time playing with all of their new loot, and then ended up playing with the cardboard boxes instead...of course:) It was such a special Christmas for us and now that I look back at it I'm just grateful for the moments Ryan could be there for and hoping for a better schedule next Christmas.
Whew, that post was a doozy! Wow, so the formatting on the post is all whacky, but I'm too burned out after putting the whole thing together to go back and fix it,
Next was decorating the house and my multiple attempts at getting a picture of the two boys in front of the tree. This attempt quickly turned into a wrestling match.
Then the attempt where Gavin was threatening us all with his mad light saber skills.
We took a day trip to this amazing town called Skaneateles, NY a beautiful upstate town located on one of the finger lakes, it is one of those towns that everyone dreams of growing old in (think Stars Hollow). Every weekend in December they host a Dicken's Christmas where they have people dressed up as and acting as characters from A Christmas Carol, they roam around the town interacting with you and each other, they also have sing alongs, carriage rides and hand out free egg nog and roasted chestnuts. Normally Ryan and I aren't into these kinds of cheesy things, but this was absolutely awesome! I pretty much walked around with a perma smile on my face all day and we both left just wanting to move there.
One night the boys and I went over to a friend's house to decorate gingerbread houses, Liam was off playing for most of it, but Gavin was actually pretty into it. He sat there working on it the whole time, and eating a bunch of candy too. Gavin's ability to sit down and work on creative project kind of amazes me as it's never been an interest of Liam's.
Then there was the time that Gavin opened almost all of the presents under the tree while I was taking a shower. Liam told me he initially tried to stop him and then it looked so fun that he decided to join in. Luckily they were so focused on unwrapping they didn't really notice the presents, so I was able to wrap them all up again, no harm no foul.
After Liam picked out and wrapped a present for Ryan he could not stand to wait until Christmas for him to open it, this was an ongoing theme, every morning when he woke up the first thing he would ask was "Is it Christmas yet? Can we open the presents today?" So here he is following Ryan around the house with the present he got for him saying "I don't want it to be a Christmas present, I want it to be a dark day present, so open it now because it is a dark day!" The dark day description was probably in reference to the cloudy and dark Rochester winter weather outside. He was pretty incessant with it, and it was so fun to see him get so excited about giving gifts.
We decorated cookies for Santa
We re-enacted the nativity on Christmas Eve with a few friends, this event felt a bit like herding cats, but still had some sweet moments and I'm definitely glad we started the tradition this year.
And finally, Christmas morning, we had to wait for dad to get home from work, keeping the boys contained upstairs when they knew presents were waiting downstairs for them was an interesting task that involved Gavin hanging out in Roxy's crate for a bit, the boys think its really fun to go in there for some reason.
Gavin found the M&M's in his stocking and hung out there for a good thirty minutes chowing down, nothing could persuade him to abandon the candy to open his presents. Every present that Liam opened was "just what I wanted!", his enthusiasm was so fun. Once the presents were opened, Ryan went promptly to bed, the boys spent some time playing with all of their new loot, and then ended up playing with the cardboard boxes instead...of course:) It was such a special Christmas for us and now that I look back at it I'm just grateful for the moments Ryan could be there for and hoping for a better schedule next Christmas.
Whew, that post was a doozy! Wow, so the formatting on the post is all whacky, but I'm too burned out after putting the whole thing together to go back and fix it,
1 comment:
You know how much I love Christmas, now I HAVE to go to this Christmas town! Looks like you had some good times!
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