Christmas was overflowing with excitement in our house. Ike was counting the days on his advent calendar and simply couldn't wait for Santa to come. Harcourt and I just soaked up the joy in his eyes as he opened the presents - oh to be 3 yrs old. We continued our traditions and enjoyed our family time including cooking pies in the kitchen with Mommy for Christmas dinner. Ike will help with ANY kitchen activity going on and his favorite activity is definitely cracking the eggs! We missed all our family back in Charleston but enjoyed a nice January visit with Pepe & Jimmie.
Ike received a really cute book/doll called 'Elf on the Shelf' from Jimmie for his birthday. The story says the Elf is from Santa and he is watching over Ike and reporting nightly to Santa on his behavior of the day. Part of the deal is you have to name your Elf and Harcourt wanted to call him Hanz but Ike preferred 'Santa Elf' so the 3 yr old wins! This will be a great tradition for us for many, many years to come!!
I love early December and the start of the Christmas season! Even though we were going to be moving out of our house for the week to have our floors refinished we went ahead and got the tree last weekend. We went on our hunt for the Christmas tree at the same little farm down the street from our house. Ike is learning all about evergreens at school so he was very excited to go to the evergreen farm. Photo to come of the fully decorated evergreen!
We are in Vermont right now with minimal internet and the power was out for 12+ hours so stay tuned for pics & video. But the big story is that Ike went to the "big big big mountain" yesterday with the whole crowd and hit the slopes for the first time (thanks to the Steffens for letting us borrow the skis and boots). Ike did really well and had a great time which was the most important thing, he even lasted at the mountain until nap time! He went up the chair lift with Tom, Peter Fitton and Harcourt- and then came down with lots of help from Daddy. All the while, it was 60 degrees, the most bizarre weather I have seen during our annual trip for the last 9 years!
Quick Christmas posting. We had a very fun Christmas and Ike was definitely into the gifts and opening them! Maybe Harcourt was right afterall about building the anticpation with the wrapped gifts under the tree. First we made some cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve and Ike helped decorate them (and he continually taste tested to make sure they were ok for Santa).
post Santa's visit!
Wow!!! New toys!
Somehow Santa knew what Ike AND Daddy would like... a new helicopter!
Mommy got a huge surprise from a collection of Santas, the new laptop she has been dreaming of for so long, it was a little overwhelming and I couldn't hold back the tears.
Bing is just like a little kid with his new Flight Simulator pedals
His favorite toy, "My BACKHOE!"On Friday, we got a good 8+ inches of beautiful snow and we loved looking at it and playing in it.
Friday night before Ike went to bed he got to dust off his sled from last year to make some fresh tracks out back.
Saturday morning we hit the hill behind Bing & Kyle's barn.
