Austen and Adler on Xmas Morning

It's probably our last Xmas where we can get away with sleeping in a little before Austen has us waking up at the crack of dawn to open Xmas presents. We were out late the night before so Austen didn't even wake up until 8am. Then he didn't even venture into our living room area to see the presents under the tree. In fact, we were able to get him dressed before he even decided to take a look under the Xmas tree.

Actually, Austen thinks Santa puts the presents in our stockings, not under the tree as you'll see in the video below. This clip is of him when he first turns on the tree and sees the presents. I think he's more enamored with Adler's presents than his own at first!

All in all, Austen had a great Xmas - traveling to both sides of his family's; checking out Grandma's HUGE Xmas tree; playing with his cousins on both sides; and getting to stay up late. And, it looks like the baby listened and chose to wait until after Xmas to make his/her appearance!

Austen Learns Holiday Traditions

We are having a blast this Xmas sharing in the holiday traditions with Austen who is almost three. He loved cutting down our Xmas tree and helping to decorate it. He likes to look at all the ornaments and is unusually gentle with them as he checks them all out.

He has also been watching holiday classics like Frosty and Rudolph. Frosty is definitely his favorite and he begs to watch it each night before bed. He's also singing holiday songs like Feliz Navidad (he's learning Spanish at school) and Frosty and Rudolph and Jingle Bells. We'll hear him playing in his room and then bust out into one of these songs. Of course he doesn't know all the refrains so it's often a repeat of the same line but his tune is good!

We've also been putting presents in Austen's stocking each week from Santa so Austen is having a blast checking out his stocking every day to see if Santa brought him anything. We told him that Santa comes down the chimney so the picture below is of him looking to see if he can see Santa (so cute!).

We can't wait to see him on Xmas morning and we're hoping the baby comes either today or tomorrow or waits until after Xmas so we can spend it with Austen.

Papa Visits Austen's School

This year, Austen's school held a Grandparent's/Special Friend Day. Papa rearranged his eye appointment so Austen could have a grandparent represented. We had been telling Austen that Papa was coming to his school that afternoon so he knew Papa was coming but when he saw Papa, the excitement was just too much for him to contain. He ran to him and jumped up into Papa's arms. Austen's teacher, Ms. Carol, had an activity for the kids and grandparents to do together - making a bird feeder. So Austen and Papa started coating their pine cone with soy butter (which Austen tried to eat before and after it was on the pine cone). Then they added the bird seed (Austen ended up knocking his plate of bird seed all over the floor) but that Montessori teaching had him sweeping it up in no time. At the end, Papa and Austen had a nice bird feeder and Austen and Tom had a great time putting it up outside of our condo and watching the birds.

Xmas Tree Chopping

Each year, we travel to Dudeck's Pine Country to cut down a Christmas tree. Now, it's not just a drive to Indiana, get the tree and drive home kind of a trek. It's a whole day of festivities. We coordinate the day with friends who go with us and we all bring hot beverages and desserts so after we finish the cutting, we can enjoy a little tailgate and the smell of the pine country.

Both Adler and Austen have gone every year since they've been born and Adler especially enjoys romping through the trees off-leash. The trees are so thick, we often can't see her and have to call her and then it's a game of her following our voices to find us - which she always does. This year, I think we scarred Austen at Halloween by taking him on a tractor that traveled through a haunted barn. Although, I didn't think it was that scary and he didn't even cry or act really scared when we were doing it, but since then he has refused to get on any tractor. Well, this would be okay except that the trees that we needed to chop down were way out in the pine country and we couldn't walk there. We needed to get on the tractor. After some pleading from us and whining from Austen, Tom just picked him up and put him on the tractor where he whimpered for a few minutes but after that was really interested in the scenery and the guy driving the tractor. When we reached the Frasier Firs, he proudly exclaimed, "That's not scary!"

Anyway, here are a few photos from our day at the tree farm.