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| Presents? For me? Oh boy! |
In late 2011, after a challenging time being away from home with a toddler, we
made the decision to not travel like maniacs the next Christmas.
This became doubly important with me being 36 weeks pregnant this Christmas.
After we spent two fun-filled, but very challenging days at Papa Joe's house for Thanksgiving, we decided we were not going to travel a long distance for Christmas. We had to sift back into our memory storehouse to remember our challenges from last Christmas, wherein we at least together could celebrate getting through it with a Martini. There was no such luck this year, as my body has been occupied by another resident who really can't drink for another 21 years (Cheers to that happening!).
We also remembered that every Christmas, we tend to get sick after bouncing from one family to the next. Kissing cheeks, breathing the same air, sleeping with lumpy pillows on foreign beds can do a number on you after a few nights. So we did what we thought would work best for our family: We went to Dada's aunt's house in Pawling for Christmas Eve dinner and spent Christmas Day with our little family.
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| Mama resting through a contraction |
Aunt Susan's gorgeous A-framed home is not toddler friendly (but whose is?) in the sense that there are delicate, fragile things within Cole's reach wherever we turned. But the people were toddler friendly, and that's what counts most. Cole received lots of amazingly thoughtful gifts and we got to see mostly everyone on Gramma's side of the family. Cole was even introduced to some neighborhood cats and thoughtfully inspected nearly every ornament within reach (antique or not) on Aunt Susan's 100 foot tall Christmas tree. I suffered through some pretty bad contractions and came out alive on the other end. Then we ate a yummy dinner while Cole had a minor meltdown, and by the time we got to the end of Susan's road to head home, Cole was asleep. We arrived home by 8ish and got Cole to bed with not much of a problem. (If there was a problem, I can't remember).
On Christmas Day Cole woke up to a Christmas tree surrounded by gifts just for him. He went to it as soon as he got his trusty old ice pop from the freezer (yes it's winter and he's still craving these things). We got him his own set of bongos, a tom drum, a bilibo, the new Fresh Beat band cd and some other small gifts. Santa got him a Green Toys red race car and tow truck. We watched him play all morning, before taking off in the afternoon for a little trip to Belleayre Ski Mountain. Cole went briefly on the slope before sitting in the lodge with Mama while Dada took a run of his own. We originally planned on Baked Ziti for dinner, but by the time we got home, it was pretty late - for Cole at least. So we got Japanese takeout for dinner and decided that next year we need to make the trip to Belleayre earlier and have our dinner prepped ahead of time.
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| Bowling with Gramma |
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| Cat Heaven. If they only knew... |
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| Yes. This is me totally taking a picture of my son touching delicate objects. |
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| Playing carsies with the friendly neighborhood cats. |
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| Ok. Slooooowly hand me that plastic bat that's almost as big as you. |
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