Christmas 2010

Christmas was so fun this year. I think it will keep getting more fun for the next few years as the boys get older and more into it but this has been the best one since Cason was born. It is kind of a bummer that we never get enough time to go back to Iowa for Christmas but maybe some year we can make it back. We had a lot of fun watching the boys open their presents and playing with stuff but it got a little bit boring since we only left the house to look at Christmas lights in the evening. Kelly suggested making a tradition of going to a movie on Christmas day. Hopefully Bryce will be old enough to sit through most of a movie by next year and we can give it a try.

On Christmas eve we went to church and then came home for dinner and talked with Grandma and Grandpa G. on Skype. Uncle Chris, Uncle Mike, Aunt Barb, Trista, Nick, Natalie, Cole, and Luke were all there so we got to say hi to everyone for a few minutes.

On Christmas day the boys woke up at their normal times and were excited to see their stockings sitting at their spots at the counter. Cason had been asking for a real candy cane for weeks. Thank you so much Jenny for giving us some to put in their stockings!







Bryce loves our car keys and always wants them when we are trying to drive which leads to a fit. So I took Cason to Home Depot and let him pick out some fun keys to put in Bryce's stocking for him. He chose a Nemo key, a monkey key, and a red key that lights up. Then Cason wanted his own keys too so I went back another day to get some keys for his stocking that were from Bryce to him.





Giving his stuffed pig a kiss.



After eating breakfast, a lot of Christmas candy, and talking to Grandma B. on Skype, we moved to the playroom to open presents. Cason had a lot of fun opening presents and kept saying things like "oh, I love it!"





This was the closest Bryce got to opening a present I think. I opened it for him and he peeked in the box. He didn't care at all about opening the presents up. I think he walked around playing with his old toys and reading his old books most of the morning. But once we had some new toys set up, he did have fun playing with them.



Kelly got me a Lightscoop since our house is such a cave. It makes a big difference, especially on a cloudy day like yesterday. It's basically a mirror that snaps on my camera in front of my flash. I usually never use flash because it looks terrible in pictures but this reflects the flash up to the ceiling for a much less harsh look. It's not perfect but it makes the difference in a decent picture vs a really crappy one in a poorly lit house. I could tell a big difference between all the pictures I took in the morning before I opened it and the ones I took in the afternoon.

Here is a picture of Bryce peeking out of the laundry room with the Lightscoop.



And this one was taken about 10 seconds later with no Lightscoop, my camera set on auto, no flash. Neither picture is edited at all.



The kids stayed in pajamas all day long and just played. We also talked to Alissa, Dave, and Tate on Skype for the first time ever which was fun. I think the boys really liked it.





After bath. Think his hair is getting too long?



Cason had the most fun with Bryce's presents. He liked his own too but both kids really liked the baseball bat and t-ball thing.



Cason also really likes the Lego barn Bryce got. I'm not sure if Bryce has even noticed it yet!



Kelly wanted to try smoking a whole turkey for dinner. We pretty much neglected thinking about any side dishes when grocery shopping because we were too fixated on our desserts. So the sides were pretty slim at dinner. I made some awesome mint chocolate brownies, Kelly made pumpkin gingerbread bars, and Kelly and Cason made gingerbread boys.





After dinner we went driving around too look at Christmas lights. Our town had a light contest and posted the winners in the local paper so I made a map of the must sees. They were all in pretty much the same area so it worked out great. Three of the houses even had light shows set to music. They had a sign in the front yard telling us what FM radio station to tune to so we could hear the music that accompanied the lights. Some of the houses were really neat. Cason had fun but Bryce was less than impressed. Probably because he is still rear facing in his car seat so he couldn't see as much. Poor kid!

This morning Kelly decided he needed to run a quick 5K so after he got back, Cason helped him stretch. I love this picture!



Then of course Rycie had to get in on the action.



I got Cason The Sweet Smell of Christmas a month or so ago because it was a favorite of mine when I was a kid and who can resist a scratch and sniff book? Ever since he got it, Cason has been asking to make gingerbread boys. So Kelly and the boys made up the dough yesterday and made the cookies this morning. Cason and Kelly decorated them with frosting this afternoon while Bryce napped.







Cason's new saying is "What's the deal with this thing?" and he kept calling the frosting glue. So he kept saying "What's the deal with this glue?" while he was decorating the cookies.

Prairie Lights

Both of our boys love seeing all the Christmas lights this year. Every night after dinner and/or bath, we have to go take a walk around the block to see the lights close to our house. Everytime we tell Rycie to get his shoes so we can go somewhere, he says "yights! yights!" He thinks we are going to go see lights, day or night. So we decided to take them to a drive through light show that has 4 million lights called Prairie Lights. A lot of the lights are animated and some change colors.

About 5 days before we went, I showed Cason a video of Prairie Lights on youtube. He was so excited, he counted down the days until Kelly came home so we could go. We got there right as they opened last Sunday night. The first part you drive through very slowly and they have lights in the shape of everything Christmas related you could think of. Candy canes, gingerbread people, santas, reindeer, the 12 days of Christmas made out of lights, etc. They even had some non holiday stuff like Dallas Cowboys lights.



Reindeers flying over the cars.



Bears batting a fish back and forth (because it was right by the lake).



Holiday lights we drove under.



After a mile or two of the light drive, there was an area to get out of your car. They had a carousel so we took the boys on their first ever carousel ride. *Insert worst ever picture here.*



That was the best picture we could get. Kelly is not familiar with either camera and it was going too fast (and my hands were too full) to show him how to change to sports mode to try to get a not so blurry shot. I'm not sure if it would have mattered anyway. Cason liked the carousel, Bryce not so much. There was also a dragon spinning ride (think teacups). Cason and I went on that but we picked the dud that didn't spin so it was rather uneventful but Cason liked it anyway.

There was also a walk through area that was filled with lights and displays. It was pretty short but there were a ton of lights so the kids loved it. The trees were all lit up and some of them even changed colors.



There were also lighted snowflakes "falling".



And plenty of displays to look at along the way.







At the end as we left, there was a light tunnel to drive through. Pictures don't do it justice. The light strands were alternating being lit up so it appeared as though they were moving and we were driving at warp speed instead of just 10 mph.



The boys had a great time and loved seeing all the lights. It's still more than a week until Christmas but it has already been my favorite Christmas season since I was a kid. The kids are at such great ages to enjoy everything and get so excited for all of the little stuff.

More Casonisms

Cason says so many funny things all the time. I can't even remember most of them but I wanted to write a few down because they are so cute.

This first one is old but back at Halloween there was a house a few streets down that had candy corn lights in their yard. I told Cason they were candy corns but he kept calling them "hallo corn". It didn't matter how many times I told him, he kept calling them that.

Along the same lines, he now sees peppermints at various places as decorations. The other day he saw them in a yard and he said "Mommy, look spicy mints!" I was like "huh?" I finally figured out what he was talking about. Cute because he thinks that pepper is spicy:)

A few weeks ago we had to stop at Home Depot because the fridge we bought for the garage a week earlier went on sale $100 off and I wanted a refund on the difference. As I pulled into the parking lot, Cason said "Mom, let's go sniff the hot dog guy." I about died laughing because Kelly says that every time we go to Home Depot. Because the guy is always there grilling up hot dogs and brats and it always smells SO good. We never buy one but it's nice to sniff.

Now that it's cooler down here, Kelly and I are wearing our slippers around the house more. Cason always calls them "slipperies". I've corrected him many times but he still insists on calling them slipperies.

I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them right now.