Gingerbread Boy

This was a first for both of us.

I'd never done an official gingerbread house before, only the graham-cracker-on-a-milk-carton kind when teaching second grade years ago. This came from a kit I got at JoAnn's and it was very sturdy and easy to put together. Sam had fun deocrating once I got everything assembled. He worked on this with me for a long time. He put each "little ball" on the roof very carefully and was dilligent about getting every last peppermint somewhere on the house. We think it turned out pretty cool!

Candy Cane

Silly boy.

One of Sam's friends gave him a candy cane at his Christmas party. Sam had tried one a few weeks ago and didn't like it, but this one made him quite happy, and silly!

Galleria Tree

That is one BIG tree.

Sam and Gram and I visited the Galleria yesterday to see the tree-mendous tree and watch the ice skaters.  The tree was sooo big my camera couldn't fit it all in, so I pulled out my phone and was able to get some good shots!  The first and last pictures show

almost

the whole tree!  So much fun going to Galleria with Sam since I used to come here at Christmas when I was little, too!  Next week we're heading out to Northpark for more Christmas-y window shopping.  Let the holiday fun begin!

Holiday Shoots

For Sam, Christmastime has arrived early.  

We met up with some Lens Baby friends for a couple of holiday shoots this week and we are officially in the Christmas Spirit!

Recognize this porch with the black door?  

I brought some baby here

last year

- don't know where he went to!

So pensive...

This counts as a big pile of leaves here in Texas, so we had to have a little fun with them!

Had to include this one, even though it's not Christmas-y.  This is Chester, Chestnut Square's resident cat.  He really had fun with all the kids that day.  He'd run away when they chased him, but always came right back for more. Sam and I were the last to leave and while I was packing up all the props I noticed them sitting so quietly together.  I grabbed my camera and quickly snagged a couple shots of these two boys right as Chester was snuggling up to Sam.  It almost made me reconsider my feelings about cats.  Almost.  I guess any cat who likes my boy this much must be pretty okay so I'll make an exception for Chester!  He even got in our car, twice, while I was loading props.  Sam's eyes were huge when he saw Chester hop in the front seat!  I think we'll have to go back soon and visit our new little friend.

Christmas Eve

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.

(Gram and Pops gave Sam his own rake for

when they work in the yard

...)

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! 

Dear Santa

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!

Spritz a la Sam

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!

We Drove 52 miles for a Singing Christmas Tree and a Burrito

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.

Kih-Kih-Mee

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".

Feeding Frosty

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"!

Uncle Randy!

Sam had a special visitor at our house this Christmas.

Uncle Randy.

Sam and Randy quickly became friends.

 

We had so much fun.

And Randy took lots of pictures.  Sam's good at posing for pictures.

We played and played.

He brought cool toys, too.

He stayed at our house for lunch and dinner!

And then, lucky us, we visited Uncle Randy again two days later.

Granny Nell was there, too.

Sam liked Uncle Randy a lot - we think he reminded Sam of his Daddy.

We read stories, played and had a nice chili supper.

Then we had to go. 

It was hard saying goodbye. 

It made us all a little sad.

But we know we'll see Randy again soon.

Thanks for visiting, Uncle Randy.  You made our Christmas special!

Christmas, Part II of II

We didn't have to dream of a White Christmas - we had a real one.  Because of that, we ended up spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Gram and Pops house. It was just too icy and windy to drive home. 

Sam had lots of fun opening presents on Christmas Eve, and we all enjoyed a cozy dinner of mushroom-crab soup, salad and bread.  Sam slept really well in Gram and Pops' crib...Sophie kept us up throughout the night, but we kind of expected that. 

Christmas morning we had a nice breakfast looking out on the snow, then spent the rest of the day hanging around, watching TV and eating snacks.  With hardly any room left in our tummies, we finished the holiday off with a ham and sweet potato dinner!

Enjoy the pictures and video of our little guy's First Christmas! 

Christmas with Gram and Pops 2009 from Sara Straka on Vimeo.

Christmas, Part I of II

We had a very nice Christmas celebration at Granny Nell's house last night. We had a nice steak dinner, opened presents, and played with Baby Sam. He got lots of neat presents; I'd tell you what his favorite one is if I knew - I think they're all his favorite! If I had to pick, I'd say the Noisy Car book (it makes noise) and the Gymboree musical instruments. Those were cool!

Sam did really good, considering he can't take a nap there.  After our dinner he took a quick snooze on Daddy's lap, but woke up again in time for a little more playtime with Granny.

 

Christmas with Nell and Vic 2009 from Sara Straka on Vimeo.

Just in Time

These moose jammies from Great-Great Aunt Carol came just in time. Sam was busting out of his ducky jammies.

(note: My child does have sheets. On this particular day, both sets were in the washer/dryer, I'm sure you can guess why.  And he normally doesn't sleep with a crib full of wooden blocks and fuzzy critters, but for some reason we just needed them that day)

Look at those moose ears!  Speaking of jammies and cute things to put on baby feet, check out Sam's snowmen.  They were a gift, along with a fleece Santa blanket, from one of Gram's collegues.  Just wook at those widdle baby swippers!

Christmas Shopping

We did a little Christmas shopping this weekend. Christmas window shopping, that is. I took Sam to NorthPark Center this weekend and we invited Gram and Pops to join us.  NorthPark is a very well-known shopping center, the oldest and largest in Dallas.  It has fountains and sculptures and the kinds of shops you usually only see in fancy magazine ads! Gram and Pops brought me here to see the Christmas decorations, from the time I was a tiny baby, so it was nice to be able to bring Sam as well. While some things have changed, there was a lot that felt very much the same!

Pops, Sam and Gram in front of one of the many Christmas trees placed throughout Northpark.

 Sam was ooohing over these guys:

They are mechanical, and I remember coming to Northpark to see them when I was very small.

 He really, really liked the moving sculpture.  Such a guy.

Whose presents are these, flying overhead?

 Why, it's Santa Claus and his reindeer!  Santa and his crew are made of very old nuts, shellacked marshmallows and other petrified bits.  We know they are at least thirty-something years old...

 Rudolph, with your nose so bright!

There were no penguins, as there were when Momma was a little girl, but they did have ducks and turtles.  That's two of the three WonderPets!

 It was love-at-first-sight for the salesgirl at the Nasher Sculpture Center Shop, so she had to find lots of fun toys to make Sam laugh.

Because our timing was a little off, we didn't make any of the puppet shows like we'd planned. But that was okay.  Sam enjoyed a snack in front of the gingerbread house and met a couple of babies while we listened to the Plano Civic Chorale sing Christmas carols.

There were lots of fun things to touch, too, like these very soft cactus forests. 

They looked like little Christmas trees, and we felt like GIANTS!

But the best thing about the day was that Mommy's sweater had buttons.  Go figure.

We'll be back next year, for sure, although we might try for a weekday instead of a Saturday afternoon!  And next year we'll make the puppet shows and, if he wants to, we'll take Sam to the Miniature Train Show.  Can't wait!

Santa Kisses

We visited Santa today. Sam did great.  Not only was he the most handsome little guy, he was very brave.  Santa's helper gave us a suggestion they find to be helpful with the little ones:  don't let Sam see Santa while we're waiting, then back him up and plop him on The Big Guy's lap.  That's just what we did and it worked!  We didn't get a smile out of him, but we didn't get tears either.  And Sam got a bonus - kisses from Santa!  While I worked with one of the helpers to pick out the best photo, Santa gave Samuel lots of little smooches on his chubby cheeks.  It didn't seem to bother him, although, he still hadn't looked behind him to see whose lap he was sitting on. 

I wonder what he asked for for Christmas...Toys?  Things to hammer?  Food?  Yeah, probably food.

We Couldn't Help Ourselves

The Christmas Spirit just snuck up on us. It started with this, a stocking for Sam (not yet finished):

Then we decided Mommy and Daddy needed a stocking, too, also not finished:

I wasn't going to put up our regular tree, because we just don't have a good spot for it, especially considering the fact that Sam is very adept at crawling and grabbing right now, but I couldn't not have a tree at all, so we got Sam a little table-top tree.  We had fun decorating it with garland, lights, and ornaments:

But Sam and I decided having only stockings and a little tree just wouldn't do, so that's when Mommy braved the spooky attic and found garlands, berries, lights and wreaths and VOILA!

Now it feels like Christmas!