Christmas Day at the Straka house!
We started the morning with several tea parties at Sam's new table.
Then we set the real table - and later enjoyed Brian's yummy lasagna and layered salad!
When our guests arrived, we had more tea parties!
and played CRAZY!
Merry Christmas Sam!
Happy Christmas Eve!
We spent the day at Gram and Pops' house. They set a festive table and fixed a yummy dinner - Mushroom Crab Soup and homemade Cheese Bread.
Sam used my baby Sesame Street china set!
We got out the Play-Doh while Gram cooked - thanks to Daddy for taking pictures of us
and our Play-Doh creations!
Sam got some pretty awesome gifts - too many to mention! He hadn't had a nap all day and started to have a melt-down right around present-time, so we put him in his crib (where he screamed) and the grown-ups quickly opened gifts from each other. After his crying spell, Sam felt a little bit better and opened the rest of his presents, sans pants.
When we got home, Daddy had to put together the present we got for Sam. We wanted it to be ready when he woke up Christmas morning. We've been coloring and having tea parties on the floor for too long, so we got Sam a little table and chairs for the living room. He loves it!
Get me outta here!
So far, Sam's embraced Christmas and all its traditions - trees, cookies, ornaments and lights. Until today. Sitting on a bearded stranger's lap while another stranger, wearing a silly elf hat, squeaks a dog toy at you is not on Sam's list of "fun-things-to-do". But it's pretty much what we expected.
He fell on a toy block last night and bruised his cheek a little. For a split second we worried it would show up in his Santa picture, then we decided it won't matter because he'll be screaming. And scream he did.
Several nice parents in line behind us commented that this picture will be our favorite Sam and Santa picture in twenty years or so. As awful as it is, we're pretty sure they're right!
Once the Santa ordeal was over, we were ready for some fun. We took Sam to Santa's Village, did a little shopping, and had another burrito for lunch. Best of all, Sam did some more dancing around the singing Christmas tree. What a day!
Wondering if Sam's grown much in the last 12 months? Check out last year's Santa photo, side-by-side with this year's photo. Good Golly!
Meet Sam, our Spritz Sprinkle-Shaker extraordinaire.
Christmas offically doesn't begin until the first batch of Spritz come out of the oven. This year, Sam was our little helper, and he did a great job of shaking the sprinkles and "pretty balls". When Gram asked Sam, "Do you want green or red?", Sam eyes got big and he shook his head YES, so green
and
red is what he got, one color for each hand. Our cookies have never looked prettier!
Really, Santa, REALLY?
Let's just say things didn't go according to plan last Tuesday. Despite the cold drizzle that fell from the sky and the fact that all three of us were worn to a frazzle from a hectic day, we decided to trudge out to Allen to see Santa and have a little Family Fun Night. What really happened is something completely different. It's a long story involving electronic check-ins, miscommunication and poor planning on the part of Santa's Little Helpers.
As a result there is no Santa & Sam picture - yet.
It wasn't our fault.
It wasn't even Santa's fault.
We're over it.
We made the best of the night and tried a new place to eat - Freebirds Burritos. The staff there was outstanding and gave Sam a sticker that HAD to go right on the front of his Christmas sweater. (
whatever
...) We also discovered a huge Christmas tree that sings Christmas carols, and Sam spent a good twenty minutes dancing in front of it, entertaining his shivering Mommy and Daddy.
We decided it was worth it.
Oh kih-kih-me, oh kih-kih-mee,
You're full of many "no-no's".
Actually, Sam's done very well with the ornaments and the tree. We didn't put one up last year because he had just started crawling and was trying to pull up on things. But now that the initial excitement and urge to pull off all of the "bawls" and "yights" has passed, Sam is enjoying his tree, gently touching the branches and "bear-wees", and pointing to all of his ornaments including "Gee's bird" and "baby Zeezus".
Sam loved his first museum visit.
We visited the Dallas Children's Museum at Fair Park with our playgroup. It was a great place with different rooms set up for the kids to play in. There was a fire station, complete with a truck/slide, coats and helmets. We explored the theater with fun-house mirrors and the musical instruments station and the construction site, where we pretend-sawed some things in half. Sam's two favorite spots were the water table, where fresh, cold water trickled down from a mountain (and gave giant rubber duckies a place to float) and the farm where we played with fake veggies, collected wooden eggs from clucking chickens and milked Elsie the cow. I liked the backyard exhibit, despite the many glass cases full of creepy-crawly bugs, because the termite tunnel wore Sam out for the long ride home!
I promise I'm not making this up.
I took Sam to the park by our house this morning. He loves the playground equipment, especially these four green steps that lead up to one of the platforms. He's too little to climb on them, even with my help, so we usually just bang on them and pretend we're drumming. Today, as we were rat-a-tat-tatting, I noticed two sticks on the ground that would make perfect drumsticks. I showed Sam how to tap them on the "drum" and then handed them to him so he could try.
He tapped them two or three times on the drum and then stopped and tapped them together and said:
"Whan, tyoo, free, fhmw", which translates to "one, two, three, four", before continuing with his "riff".
Where did he pick THAT up? I laughed so hard I startled him! But he kept on going, tapping his drumsticks together and saying 1-2-3-4, drumming for a while, then repeating the whole process. This went on for a good five minutes, which is a long time in Toddler World.
Usually when he does something funny we know immediately where he picked it up or who he is mimicing. But this one baffled me. He's been so into music and dancing lately, he must have a little of Mommy's show-choir gene and Uncle Funky's musical instrument gene.
I was going to title this post "Little Drummer Boy", but I decided it didn't sound rockin' enough. He's more than a little boy with a drum, he's a ROCKSTAR!
We've discovered a new favorite snack to help Mama get through this trying time known as Toddlerhood - Frosted Mini Wheats. Turns out, Frosty likes them, too.
We went to a Frosty the Snowman playdate/photo shoot this week and while Sam enjoyed playing with all the stuffed snowmen and musical, dancing snowmen, I wasn't really getting good shots of him. I asked him to feed Frosty and then give him a big hug and that did the trick. One of only a handful of times this week Sam has actually cooperated! Added bonus - action shot of our pint-sized athlete, running with a "foo-bawl"!
