Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a pretty low key day for us. Troy was gone all morning getting the oil changed and having maintenance done on my car (thank you for not making me go dear husband) so Luke and I just took it easy. I also didn't feel the greatest and would figure out I had a mild form of the stomach bug that's been going around. Luke and I did make sugar cookies for Santa although I cheated and bought premade dough. Luke had a great time putting the sprinkles on the cookies as you can see below.

We went to church with the McBride family at 4 and they kindly included us in their Christmas Eve dinner. We had a good time but we didn't stay too late because I did't feel well and we needed to get Luke in bed before Santa came. When we got home Luke got to open his traditional Christmas Eve gifts of pj's and a new book. He was very excited to open gifts and it made Troy and I anxious to see him Christmas morning. Luke went to bed quickly after he read his new book. We had a bunch to do to prepare for Santa so we didn't get to bed until much later than I wanted but I've heard that's how it goes for parents on Christmas Eve.

Art and Cars

This is Luke's art project from MDO today. He was very proud of his snowman. On the car ride home he told me how he put the eyes, nose and arms on all by himself. The snowman now has a distinguished place on the refrigerator.

While I was fixing dinner tonight Luke gathered all his cars (most of them received for Christmas) and lined them up along the baseboard in the kitchen. Every time he grabbed a new car he would ask me, "Mom see all my cars?" You might say that he is slightly into having things in order.

Oh, one more fun item of note for the day. Before bringing his cars into the kitchen he was playing with his Little People Garage. He was adament that the cars were riding up the "alligator" rather than the "elevator."

Update and a Bit of Toe Fuzz

Okay, so things have finally calmed down after the holidays enough that I have some time to get a post on here. We had a wonderful Christmas and week after celebrating at home as well as with numerous family members and friends. I plan to do a post for each family celebration as time permits hopefully all within the next few days. I have SO many pictures from all of our celebrations but this is one of my favorites from Christmas Day. Luke is singing Wheels on the Bus rap style on his new "piano." It was beyond awesome!!!! There will be many, many more pictures to come.

And now on to the toe fuzz....Luke is quite obsessed about the quantity of toe fuzz his socks create; I mean what 2 1/2 year old isn't, right?!? If he happens to take his socks off during the day he must stop any activity until the toe fuzz is completely cleaned out of his toes! This is usually at the insistance that I do the cleaning of the toes--such joy for me :) The other time toe fuzz comes into play is at bath time. Luke refuses to get in the tub before all the toe fuzz has again been cleaned out. And if a piece should be missed and makes it into the tub, it becomes top priority for the closest adult to remove the toe fuzz so that it will not touch Luke. As you can imagine this is a huge amusement for Troy and I. Neither of us can even remember how Luke learned about toe fuzz or why it is such a concern for him. I guess we all have our quirks and Luke is no exception.

Our Gifts from Luke

These are the gifts that Luke made for us at MDO. We didn't open them last week when he brought them home because I thought we should save them for Christmas day. I didn't make it that long (I'm a sucker for all things made by Luke if you hadn't noticed). The first one is a hot pad although I don't think I'll use it for that purpose. The attached card reads:

This isn't just a Christmas tree,
as anyone can see,
I made it with my hand,
which is a part of me.
It comes with lots of love,
especially to say,
I hope you have a very special Christmas day!

The second one is an ornament with a snowman made out of Luke's finger prints on it. I collect snowmen so I really love this one!

What wonderful gifts from our sweet little boy!

Some thoughts and a few Pics

I'm not sure why this month has been so tough for me to blog but it has--even as I'm typing now I don't really want to be but feel I need to. I guess I'll just put a few recent pics of Luke on here and call it good for now.

I can say that we are all very excited for Christmas and visiting family and friends. We will be home just the three of us this year for Christmas day and Troy and I are really looking forward to experiencing the day and excitement with Luke. I don't know that Luke understands all about Santa and presents but we've been talking about that and also about the real reason for Christmas. He asks about the nativity scene on a daily basis and so we talk about Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph along with the Wise Men. Luke seems to understand that these are all important people but that's an even harder concept.

I don't anticipate another post before Christmas so as Luke has taken to saying, "I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." He's singing the song and has told me several times, "Mom, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas." I love it! Luke also sings Jingle Bells very well. So, a very Merry Christmas to you and your families!

Our cute reindeer!

Troy's birthday was over the weekend. He was very excited to get the banjo he had been wanting. Luke enjoyed popping the bubble wrap it came in.

Our friends the Dolezals came to hang out with us yesterday--it was great to see them!

We also had the Biery family stay with us last night on their way to Kansas. The boys enjoyed exchanging Christmas presents and it was good to see them too.

"Sleep with me Mom"

Occassionally Luke will request that I "sleep" with him after his nap or when he gets up in the morning. I LOVE when he does this because he's very snuggly and affectionate. The first few times this happened I wished that there would be some way for me to get some pictures of this special time with Luke because I was always home alone with him. Thankfully he has started asking for this time more and more and Sarah was able to get some pictures of it while she was here. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE MY SWEET BOY!!!

Chesapeake Lights

The lights decorating the Chesapeake campus are so awesome! We went to see them for the first time over Thanksgiving so this was our second visit. Luke likes the lights but is more interested in visiting the ducks that hang out in the stream that flows through the campus. So, the rest of us took our time taking pictures and enjoying the views. The pictures don't do any justice to how awesome these trees are in person. It's amazing!