Holiday Fun

The holidays are almost over and whew...I think we survived! The tree came down yesterday and a calm feeling came over me. As most of you know, I'm not the truly festive type. My celebration starts tomorrow. The new year brings me a huge amount of joy. I love the feeling of a fresh start, a time to set new goals, and the realization that another year has passed w/ Jason, Elyas, and myself experiencing good health and overall happiness as a family. I am extremely grateful.

To give you a glimpse into our holiday fun, here are a few shots of Elyas w/ some of his favorite holiday gifts.

The rocking horse has been a blast. This horse wags his tail and even makes a galloping sound when Elyas rides it. Thank you to the Skrabaks for such a fun gift!

We got our little guy a kitchen set b/c we think we may have a chef in the making. He LOVES helping me in the kitchen and is always wanting to be on the counter so he can help stir, pour, etc. (and oh what a mess that is!) He has started imitating behaviors that he observes and it's the cutest thing. He pretends to smell the "food" he's cooking and says "ummmm" and then he opens the oven and says "hot, hot." You gotta love it!

Santa brought him his own tricycle and he has scooted around our downstairs in circles every day since. Yep, I think we have a future bike rider in our house. Just what I need...another one!

And Santa also brought him a barnyard set that for some reason he keeps trying to get inside. I'm not kidding. He repeatedly tries to scoot himself in backwards and put his legs in the barn. I guess he hasn't quite grasped the size of himself compared to things. When not trying to get inside the barn, he enjoys throwing all the animals inside the silo. Poor animals.

And here are some pictures from our time in McMinnville.

Madeline looking adorable in her sequence attire...

Elyas opening gifts. Oh and a big event happened during all the chaos of gift opening. Elyas decided to take a few steps on his own. What a great gift to me :)

All the cousins....

The fam...

Rockin' out his spiked hair and santa suspenders.

And just a few others...this is his new cold weather fuzzy suit that he sports on stroller rides on cold days. Love it!

And we've had 2 big events this month. Jon turned 30 and Laura graduated with her nursing degree. Happy 30th Jon and Congratulations Laura!!!

I hope everyone enjoys the New Years Eve festivities tonight. We're taking Elyas to Kobe Steakhouse to let him enjoy some hibachi action. I'm sure our little chef will be amazed! Until next year, adios and Happy New Year!!