Christmas 2011

I must say that we were overly blessed this year on all fronts as far as Christmas goes.


Santa made a special early trip for us so that we could celebrate 1 week before Christmas. I was too excited to wait until AFTER to open the presents that have been sitting and taunting me since the beginning of December. I also didn't want to leave an empty house with a pile of presents right in front of the window for a few days while we traveled to Iowa. Later that same day, Grandma came down and we had Christmas with her. She was lucky enough to spend Christmas weekend in Virginia with the other Kennedy crew.


We were also blessed with beautiful weather over Christmas weekend so that no one's travel plans were thwarted and everyone could arrive safely. Our time in Iowa at Nana's and Papa's was great...too short, of course. 


Steve seems to love everything that he got, but a few things top the list: Hot Wheels race track and cars, puzzles (two of which he had mastered within minutes!), a kitty (sort of like a beanie baby, but not), Lightning McQueen pillow pet, and a baby brother doll. 


To top things off, Steve has also officially moved across the hall and into a new room, complete with a big boy bed. We took some advice and decided not to go with a toddler or even twin sized bed. We had a queen already in there, and we will need that when important people come to visit, so we just made that Steve's bed. I was very worried initially because the few nap times that we had tried Steve in the big bed were either complete successes or utter failures. Of course, he never ceases to amaze us and the first night, last Thursday, he went straight to sleep. When he woke up, he stayed in bed talking to Scout and his other toys that he was allowed to have with him. There were a couple of rough nights at Nana's during which I had to sleep with him in the big bed, but other than that...We're off to a good start, let's say. 


Also, I do not recommend sleeping in the same bed as this particular 2 year old. You might get somewhere around 4 hours of solid sleep in between all of the stuff he does while sleeping. The bonus is that during all of the moving and shaking, he will probably try to hold your hand, snuggle up to you in the most adorable way, and when it is finally time to wake up, he will politely say "Excuse me" to get you to move so he can get up. 


There are new pictures up in the December album, and I'll include just a few here for your viewing pleasure! We hope you had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did, and are looking forward to a New Year full of new challenges and blessings!