Christmas Craziness

Whew!  I'm sitting here this evening after a VERY full two days and feeling exhausted (thanks, baby 2), but also soooo happy and grateful for our wonderful families that we got to share the holidays with this year.  Harrison definitely got spoiled and has new toys and activities to keep him entertained for at LEAST three days....just kidding :) He'll be set for a while, which is awesome!

Christmas Eve, Adam had to work, which was a bummer, but he came home around noon with lunch, yay!  We packed up the car and headed to our first holiday party at Dave and Tina's.  We decorated penguins, raced them, sang Christmas songs, and I ate a TON of cheese.  It was definitely chaos, but what do you expect?  It was great to see everyone and although Harrison took a while to warm up to all of the energy, but by the time we left, he was running and laughing with the rest of them.

It was then off to the Hill dinner.  More yummy food and a great time with family!  Good thing I have an excuse for elastic pants this time of year... :) After putting Harrison to bed, both Adam and I feel asleep on the couch at about 9 pm (although I blame this mostly on Adam watching the documentary "The Fab Five" about the 1993 Michigan basketball team....again, which I'm pretty sure I can unfortunately quote by now).

Harrison let us "sleep in" till about 7:30 the next morning, so Merry Christmas to us! Thanks, kiddo! A mid-morning get together with my Dad and Step-Mom was a nice way to ease into the day, and they brought Harrison a little gift to get him ready for the rodeo...

He wasn't quite ready to actually ride the bucking bronco yet, but he took that thing for walks all over the living room.  Still breaking him in, I assume.  I hear those wild one can take some time to tame.  

Down for a quick nap, and back up for Christmas Day with Adam's parents.  Harrison is still working on the unwrapping aspect of presents, but boy once they are open and he figures out what they are, watch out!

First cell phone...has been taking important business calls all afternoon.  "Buy! Sell! Buy!"

I see this being a GREAT bonding activity....if Adam actually shares.... ;)

And I think we found the best maraca player this side of the Rio Grande! 

Thanks again, everyone, for making this Christmas so memorable and fun.  And now for a few days of somewhat normalcy before more fun family time this weekend! Whew!

Unfortunately, I didn't get a good family photo of us, but I'll work on it.  Can't break the family photo tradition two years running!

Merry Christmas!

xo,
The Hills

Keeping Busy in December

I absolutely love this time of year.  I love all of the Christmas lights, music, opening Christmas cards from family and friends, all of it.  And it seems even more special and magical this year.  We get to create new traditions with Harrison and introduce him to new holiday fun every day.

Ready for the cold weather!  Keep that noggin' warm, mister!

I actually put the tree and decorations up before Thanksgiving this year and it just seems to make the house cozier.  Next year, I already have Adam committed to going up to the mountains and getting a real tree, but this year, we have a trusty fake one that does the job just perfectly.  Surprisingly, Harrison hasn't really shown much interest in it since we put it up. He's very gently touched the few sparkly plastic ornaments near the bottom and that's about it!  I've heard horror stories of toddlers and Christmas trees, so maybe we lucked out this year! We actually decided to stay home for most of the Thanksgiving holiday.  We painted two rooms of the house and finished up a few other lingering projects, which was great to get off our plates.  Since then, we've been listening to holly jolly tunes every day and so far, I'm not sick of it! (I can only speak for myself, however....)

This was our "Stayed in all day, probably didn't shower, painted two rooms," picture on Thanksgiving... What a little ham!

Since Harrison doesn't know the meaning of sleeping in on weekends and holidays, we were up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday.  I decided at about 7 that we might as well get some shopping in, right?  Harrison was such a champ! At first, I was regretting my decision to bring him, thinking "Adam only readily agreed to this because he KNEW Harrison would keep me from really doing any damage shopping...."  Oh, how wrong he was. :) Harrison was my little shopping buddy and it was great!

Apple Cup Friday! I think both Harrison and I ended up napping during the second half, but we were all smiles for kick off!

I'm also working on sewing homemade stockings for all three of us this year, although it will be a Christmas miracle if they all actually get done by Christmas Eve...I figure as long as they are done by the time Harrison actually realizes the stocking is just for him, I should be fine. :)

Tonight, we decided to go downtown and watch the Christmas Light Parade.  At first we thought, no way, because the temperatures have been below zero with the wind chill and tonight wasn't looking very promising.  But at about 4:30, I devised a brilliant plan...let's pack up a little dinner for Harrison, drive down early, and find a parking spot on the road so we can watch the parade from the car!!  And that's just what we did! It was a little challenging keeping Harrison occupied for 45 minutes while we waited for the parade to start (sweet potato dinners only go so far...), but after that first lit up truck went by, he was hooked! He was truly memorized by each and every one.  He even made a "beep beep" noise when the trucks were honking that was beyond adorable.  That along with waving at the one truck and trailer that had a load of people on it waiving back at him, it was such a fun night and a really special memory for us. :) I think he was a little upset when it ended...he could have watched 10 more trucks go by, I'm sure!!

Speaking of Harrison talking, he's also started to say "Daddy" pretty clearly.  I think we all know who is favorite parent is these days, and it's not me! :(  Adam gets the majority of kisses and hugs and while, of course, it just melts my heart to see that, I want kisses too! In fact, we all three were looking through Harrison's scrapbook and Harrison kept leaning in to kiss pictures of Adam, but would do NO such thing to my pictures!! Unbelievable!  Do you know what I went through to bring you into this world, kid?!

He's also become quite the little reader, even books upside down! So talented! :)

And of course, he's taking after me in the photography department....see below for his first published photo session...

We are sure proud of our little man and know he will make an awesome big brother....

That's right! Big brother! Get ready to share the spotlight in June, kid! :)   The little bean is growing right along and thank goodness now I have an excuse to why my pants wont zip over this holiday season! Yay! Bring on the cookies and gingerbread!! We should know brother/sister around the end of January.  I can only imagine the chaos that TWO of these tornadoes can create! :)

Well, in case I don't get around to posting anything before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Unfortunately, we didn't get around to making Christmas cards for everyone this year, of course, I'm still going to try to get a nice family picture in the next few weeks and you know what THAT means..... Family Picture Outtakes!! Probably my favorite posts to write! :) Stay posted!