Christmas Festivities...

It was quite the busy Christmas weekend for all!  There was cookie baking, Christmas lights, train rides, presents, Mass, visits with family & friends, presents, cookies for Santa, oh and did we mention presents?

Weekend festivities started on Friday as we had the day off - Mommy & Alexander baked some cookies for Santa before we headed to Mimi & Papi's house.  From there, we then went with them to Edaville Railroad for our annual visit to see the Christmas lights and ride the train.  It wasn't raining like last year and because it was right before Christmas, it wasn't as busy either - so overall a great night to go.

 Christmas Eve started with some traditional fried dough (which Alexander wasn't that interested in), followed by some presents.  We then headed to Christmas Eve mass at St. Marks in which Alexander did extremely well. He loved watching the children tell the story of the birth of Christ and was very enthralled. 

After mass, we headed to our annual stop at our restaurant before going to Dennis & Mary's.  It was eerily quiet and we almost had the place to ourselves.  We then headed over to Dennis & Mary's where Alexander was very excited to play with Kyle & Kaileen.  After some goofing around, dinner & pictures, it was time to get into jammies and head home to ensure we were in bed for Santa!

This is what is looked like after Santa stopped by

Christmas morning was the BEST!  Not only did Alexander surprise me by sleeping until 7:05am but he was so excited with everything he opened.  He rushed downstairs (nearly beating me down), and hugged his presents!  He was beyond delighted when he saw his "Green Hot Wheel" bike, even more so when he saw his name on the back!  The quote of the day was "I've wanted this my whole life" - it made everything so special that he was so excited! 

Santa brought him lots of goodies which he loved all of them, well except the pajamas.  He even loved going thru his stocking to see how much candy was there.

After presents, we hung out for a bit relaxing.  Alexander & Daddy played their new Wii baseball game.  The boys then got ready to head over to uncle Matt's house for more presents.  After presents at Matt's, they then headed to uncle Steven's for dinner & time with the boys.  Alexander played some more Wii and had a great afternoon hanging out with all the cousins.

Monday was a perfect day!  It was a very low-key, chill out kind of day.  Alexander stayed in his pajamas all day, we played Wii, played games, cuddles, watched movies/tv.  Perfect way to end a great yet busy weekend!

Weekly Glance...

Weekly Glance (Monday, December 19th - Sunday, December 25th, 2011)

•  Monday hung out at Grandma & Pop-Pop's for the morning
• Went to the park
• Had a short week at school (three days) and each day was a bit different from great, ok, to not good
• Did some pushing/rough-housing with friends which made him loose some stars
• Did a bit of shopping with Daddy on Tuesday night
• Went grocery shopping with Mommy on Wednesday
• Alexander & Mommy had our date night on Thursday 
• We watched the Polar Express which made him very sad (he cried when the girl sang her song), then he was fairly emotional for the rest of the night
• Friday was a 'home' day - Alexander & Mommy baked cookies
• Friday afternoon, Alexander & Mommy went to Mimi & Papi's where we then went to Edaville Railroad to see the lights & ride the train
• Alexander fell asleep at 11pm as he could not get comfortable or fall asleep (too excited - sleep over at Mimi & Papi's)
• Alexander slept until 6:30am where he crawled in to cuddle with Mommy and then fell back to sleep again until 8am!
• Christmas Eve we opened some presents at Mimi & Papi's
• After lunch, we went to Christmas Eve mass at St Marks
• Then went to our waiting spot before going to Dennis & Mary's for Christmas Eve
• Christmas Morning!  He slept until 7am!
• Opened presents & checked out all the goodies from Santa!
• Played with new toys, played Wii with Daddy
• Alexander & Daddy went over to uncle Matt's for presents with Grandma & Pop-Pop
• Then over to uncle Steven's for Christmas dinner & to visit with the boys
• Merry Christmas!

Photo Recap...

Photo Recap (Monday, December 19th - Sunday, December 25th, 2011)

Photo Recap...

Photo Recap (Monday, December 19th - Sunday, December 25th, 2011)

Big Man...

That's right - he's a big man now.  He has his very own "Green Hot Wheels" bike.  He's now officially "grownd up".  

Christmas JOY...

"OH! I wanted this my whole life!" 

-Alexander (said throughout Christmas morning as he continued to unwrap presents)

That's when you know that the presents from Santa were perfect!

Christmas Love...

Sharing Christmas Joy with Mommy and Daddy

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all & to all a good year!

Love,

Alexander

Baking Cookies...

Alexander & Mommy baked cookies today - snowman, Santas, trees, stars & candy canes!  Alexander did a great job rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutter.

   And surprisingly he lasted cutting out 5 different cookies before he was all done with baking.

 However once it was time for him to help decorate he came zooming in to help!  We made some fancy trees, cheery Santas, and sparkly stars!

School Picture...

Alexander got his school pictures back and I can't get over how A) adorable he is and B) how grown up he's looking.  I was comparing this picture with his school picture from June and it's amazing how much he's grown.  He's looking like a cute boy rather than a cute toddler boy. 

Photo Recap...

Photo Recap (Monday, December 12th - Sunday, December 18th, 2011)

 **Note:  Due to a busy week there are barely any pictures this week.  I kept thinking we'll take some tomorrow and we got busy.  Hopefully there are pictures we can add from the weekend in NJ.  If not, I imagine the upcoming week we'll be full of pictures.

Weekly Glance...

Weekly Glance (Monday, December 12th - Sunday, December 18th, 2011)

• Had a mixed week at School
• Some days he had a really good (two stars) and then other days he would only get one star
• One star days were for rough-housing after they were asked to stop, yelling at another friend, & pushing
• Thursday he had a rough morning at school - they were playing on the playground and he and a couple other boys were playing a game and excluding other kids on purpose which then made those friends feel bad.  Then they were pushing & hitting so they had to go to the office
• He also had a couple rough nights at bedtime where he purposely wouldn't listen and after getting a warning he would push the button and loose either toys or his friends (stufffed animals)
• There also seems to be one friend in particular that has a tendency to get Alexander in trouble - whether this friend is following him around all day, asking to play so Alexander gets annoyed or they rough-house in the playground.  I've expressed my concern over this friend as Daddy & I feel it would be best to try to keep them separated as much as possible during the day
• Monday night, as Dad was at volleyball, Alexander & Mommy went to dinner and then went shopping for Daddy's christmas present. Alexander was very excited about picking something out and told me exactly what he wanted to buy him
• Thursday night, Alexander & Mommy dropped off toys at the State Police for Toys for Tots
• Friday night, Alexander & Mommy went to get his haircut so he looks spiffy for the upcoming week
• Saturday morning, Daddy & Alexander headed out to NJ for the christening for aunt Catherine's new baby and then the Christmas celebrations throughout the weekend
• He played with his cousins all weekend, shared a room with cousin Emily
• They went to mass Sunday morning and then back to Grandma & Pop-Pop's house for brunch and to hang out with everyone
• Alexander & Daddy are heading back home Monday

Collage of Pictures...

I've been wanting to do this for a bit - I thought it might be cute to do a collage of Alexander's school pictures.  He's so cute and it's so much fun to look at each picture and see how he's changed from one picture to the next!  It's amazing how much he's changed in 3-4 years.

Can you tell the one picture that is "different"?

Weekend Activities...

Alexander & Daddy had a busy weekend.  They were traveling down to NJ for the christening of the newest member of the family!  And to continue the celebrations, they had a big Christmas party. 

Alexander got to play with all of his cousins and even got to see Santa - both Saturday & Sunday.  Saturday he stopped by the Christmas celebration and Sunday he drove by on a fire truck.

Sunday, they all went to mass and then went back to Grandma & Pop-pop's house for brunch.  The kids played games with each other all day!

Although the weekend was non-stop with all the kids and playing, which I'm sure makes him tired at the end of the day, he's had a great time.

Toys For Tots...

This year, Alexander made a donation to Toys For Tots.  I went thru his toys that he hasn't used/played with and we donated them to boys & girls who are less fortunate than he is.  I was going to drop them off during lunch but I wanted him to be a part of it and know why we were donating the toys.  I'm hoping it's an annual tradition we can do every year. 

I explained to him what we were donating and why as we drove to the State Police barracks.  For a second, I thought he was going to put up a fight/cry over losing his toys but he quickly stopped his whining as I was telling him about boys & girls who don't have toys.  I'm not going to lie - I was impressed that he listened and seemed to understand. 

We dropped off the two bags of unused toys and after we left, he asked me "Mom, do you really think we made some boy happy? Because I think so."  And that made my heart grow!

Visit With Santa...

Here is this year's picture with Santa...

Although I love this Santa and I think the two of them look cute, I'm not a fan of this year's picture.  The picture is zoomed out too much to show the decoration and they added in a banner at the bottom which ends up cutting out Alexander & Santa a bit.  I think I took a much better picture (yes, I'm biased).  But I did want to post this year's picture so the memory is still there.

My Little Reader...

Alexander showing off his reading abilities...and the best part is that he got most of the words/story spot-on!