Virginia Christmas - Part 1

Despite the fact that Caleb is only 20 months old and had no idea what Christmas was, he was up about an hour early Christmas morning. He ran straight to the tree, asking Dave to turn on the lights. We drug our wore out selves out of bed a bit earlier than normal but were blessed with a beautiful sunrise to watch out the window while opening presents.


We had a lot of places to be Christmas day but decided to take the time as a family in our own home that morning to open presents before running around everywhere. Getting up so early also helped us not to be rushed.

Most of Caleb's presents were Melissa and Doug related food items to go with his kitchen set, including a set of fruit, a box of vegetables, a bread cutting set, a sandwich making kit, and several bottles/jars with condiments, jelly, salad dressing, etc. He LOVED these and has been playing with them a lot since then. He also got an antique pick-up truck bedding set (comforter, shams, sheets, wall decor) and some books which he was less excited about although he normally loves trucks and books. Dave gave Caleb a mini camping chair too. (I think it's always so sweet when daddies pick out presents!)

Veggies

The not so exciting truck comforter

A book about bellybuttons

Now that's a sandwich!

The bread cutting set seemed to be Caleb's favorite toy.
He kept saying "knife, knife" and "cut."

A special present from Da-da

After opening his own gifts, we let the professional little present opener help us tear open our packages.

We bought Dave some type of TV antenna box thing he wanted.

I got the final three seasons of the Waltons to complete the set!

Before heading off to all the places we needed to go, Dave read the Christmas story from the book of Luke and used the Little People Nativity to act out the story for Caleb. Caleb decided Mary and Joseph had a sheep with them on their journey to Bethlehem, placing it with them as they journeyed across the floor.

Merry Christmas from Dave, Lindsay, Caleb, and Baby Girl!

Illinois Christmas - Part 2

The following day all of us anxiously awaited the arrival of Dave's sister Amy's family.

Meanwhile, Caleb got to spend quite a bit of one-on-one
quality time with Grandpa and drug him around

the house by his finger for a good portion of the morning. When he finally
sat still for a moment, Caleb wanted Grandpa
to look through the same books over and over. Needless to say,
when Caleb took a nap, Grandpa needed a rest too.

Grandma was busy in the kitchen preparing cupcakes to celebrate
Jesus's birthday. So that they were safe for Luke to eat, she made
them egg and dairy free. They tasted pretty much like normal
cupcakes to my surprise.

Getting lots of attention from your grandparents is great and all, but the real fun begins when your energetic cousins arrive! Caleb greeted Luke and Lydia at the door and then they were off through the house. One minute Caleb would be chasing them and the next he'd be leading the pack down the hallway. Even though they are older than him, both Luke and Lydia were great about including Caleb and being gentle with him.

Grandma had some My Little Ponies and other toys
to check out before we opened the new ones.

Who's that big kid?

Caleb was very fascinated with the pony shoes and
kept walking around with them on his thumbs.

We didn't keep the kids waiting too long to dig into their gifts though. Right after supper, everyone gathered in the living room and quickly unwrapped all of those packages.

Luke was a pro.

Looks like the train set is a hit!
(Caleb kept running over to see and try out what
Luke got rather than opening his own gifts at first.)

Caleb received a set of dishes from Grandma Swan to go with
his hand-me-down play kitchen that used to be mine.

He also got some very realistic play food. He tried to lick
this ice cream cone and attempted to take a bite out of a
slice of bologna and a slice of cheese that came in the set.

Yay! A Little People barn, tractor, and animals from Grandma and Grandpa!

Dave got the bibles and antenna thing he asked for...

....and I got six seasons of the Waltons! I was super excited
about this especially since we don't have cable or satellite.

Baby Girl even got a special gift from the Tyndalls. Luke has
a blue dog named Hungry that he takes everywhere. The dog
in this picture is a pink version of Hungry. I'm hoping she latches on
to this fluffy friend rather than to my hair like her brother!

The next day the Tyndalls went to visit a couple Lincoln tourist spots. Meanwhile, Caleb took a nap and then we headed to see one of Dave's high school friends named Christine and her kids. Again, Caleb jumped right in and was thrilled to have other kids to chase and be chased by around the house. That evening, the cousins were reunited and spent more time playing toys and trying out the piano.

Maybe Lydia, who is taking piano lessons,
can teach those boys a thing or two.

Uh oh, Luke! I think Caleb is eying Hungry!

That night Caleb for some reason decided that he was going to be the rule enforcer of the family. At dinner, he said "no no" to Luke who was standing on his chair to try to reach the table better. He also told Grandma "no no" when she tried to stand on a chair to reach something up high in the cabinet and got after Lydia the next day when she was walking across the couch cushions. This just shows that he knows what he is supposed to do and not do even if he doesn't always follow the rules himself! I think it was Keith who said Caleb might just grow up to be a policeman, making sure everyone does what they are supposed to do. For now, we'll just have to work on getting him to do what he is supposed to do.

After the kids went to sleep that night, each of the adults took turns filling the stockings Grandma McKinstry made. This tradition started before Grandma McKinstry was married. The way it works now is that each adult buys one thing to put in each person's stocking. We take turns playing Santa and the following morning everyone opens their stocking.

The adults' stockings have their first initial and the grandkids'
stockings have their name and a little picture cross stitched on them.

Caleb understood this tradition better this year than last.

David and Goliath!

Here Caleb is playing with his bulldozer as well as the as
the ambulance he snuck away from Luke's pile of stocking stuffers.

Sadly, we had to head home soon after the stockings were emptied but I'm so thankful he had a few days to play with his cousins. It was also great that he got some quality time with his grandparents so they can see all the new things he's doing and saying these days. Caleb also enjoyed listening to Aunt Amy's singing and getting some attention from his uncle Keith as well. Hopefully we will all see each other again soon once our little girl arrives!

Illinois Christmas - Part 1

Almost every year we go after Christmas to visit Dave's family. This year we mixed it up a bit and went the week before. Our first stop was to visit Grandma Swan in southern Illinois. She recently broke her foot and didn't feel up to traveling so we went to her. Rather than flying this time, we decided driving was the best option since it was about $800 cheaper. We didn't think Caleb could handle the twelve hour drive very well if he was awake, so we left at his nap time, then stopped for dinner and to let him run around Walmart to burn off some energy, and finally tucked him back in his carseat to sleep as we drove through the night. It worked relatively well as long as we kept driving, but if we needed to stop to switch places or something, he usually woke up and was hard to get back to sleep. (This was frustrating since my doctor had told me to stop frequently to avoid blood clots that come from sitting too long during pregnancy.) The uneven pavement on some of the roads and bridges also caused him to stir a few times. However, the most upsetting part for him seemed to be that he wanted to play with my hair to get back to sleep and the crick in my neck could only endure so much toddler hair pulling.

We finally made it though and in good time. Caleb woke up in the morning as happy as usual - not phased at all by the fact that he woke up in a new place. The next three days were spent catching up with each other. Caleb showed Grandma Swan the new things he could do and gave her a ton of hugs. At one point he started referring to her as "Swan." In this little video you can hear him say it if you listen closely:

Our short visit also gave us a chance to catch up with Dave's great aunt and uncle - Lotella and Phil Cole. Caleb warmed up to them immediately and told them all about the different books he had. At one point he got in a slight debate with Uncle Phil over a picture of a salamander, which Caleb adamantly stated was a frog despite his uncle's best attempt to explain frog's don't have tails. They were both patient and attentive to him which he enjoyed.

After a few days with Grandma Swan, we headed to see Grandma and Grandpa McKinstry. Grandma McKinstry, who is often a forward thinker, had a small stuffed dog for Caleb to unwrap when we arrived and plenty of old toys from Dave's childhood set out to entertain him until we opened our gifts the following day.

My mom saved the same Little People barn and a very similar
house from my childhood, so Caleb was already familiar with it.
However, I think this set had more animals which was definitely
of interest to this toddler.

She also had the parking garage and a lot of cars to
go with it. This was Caleb's favorite!

He got the hang of it quickly.

Another exciting "toy" he found was Grandma McKinstry's piano from her childhood. We found him running back to it time after time. Even after falling backwards off the bench once and hurting himself, he didn't seem discouraged. However, the fall did make for a great sympathy story that he kept trying to tell his grandparents over and over again because they'd missed the whole scene.

Christmas Traditions: Alger Christmas Party

As a kid, I remember going to the Alger Family Christmas party. For those who aren't familiar with my family tree, my mother's mother's family are the Algers. Grandma had seven brothers and sisters plus her, so you can imagine it was quite a large group of people to get together. This is especially true now that my grandma and many of her siblings are now great-grandparents and four generations are celebrating together. For years we've had to rent a place to hold us all - usually the Luray Rotary building.

While I haven't been able to attend every year, last year was the first time ever I remember them not really having the get together. It was disappointing since it would have been the first year for me to take Caleb, but this year the party was back on and Caleb was old enough to run with the other kids. As usual the stage at the front of the building was a hot spot for running about and showing off a little.

There was a great turn out:

After finishing some wonderful food, Angie and Tammy (our cousins who are in charge of organizing this event) had games for the kids to play. Caleb didn't understand some of the games but he did participate in "Pin the Nose on the Snowman." They gave a prize to the boy and girl who got the closest and to the boy and girl who was the farthest away. Caleb was the littlest cousin to participate but somehow, even blindfolded, he managed to win a prize for being the boy who got closest to the real nose.


He won some Legos which Mommy stored until he's at an age that he'll be a little less likely to eat them:


Later the kids played a version of "Hot Potato" using candy canes. Caleb decided just to watch this time.


As vain as it may sound, I was excited to go this year and have the opportunity to show off my little man. He had a great time running and dancing with all of those cousins. This is one tradition I hope stays around for a long time!