New Year's Eve Hike

We were blessed with some unusually warm weather on New Year's Eve so we drove just down the road to the Cascade's hike and waterfall. We weren't sure how far the boys would make it. It's about 2 miles in and 2 miles out. While the views along the way are lovely (especially in the spring with the rhodedendron in bloom) you don't actually get to see the waterfall until you're at the 2 mile mark. We sort of planned that we wouldn't see the falls, but the boys were troopers! They both made the hike in completely unassisted! Yey! The fun rocks to climb on and rushing waters in the creed that runs alongside certainly helped!

Mommy and Luke

Our trusty guide!

Mimi and Grayson

Rich and Jolene with the boys.

We made it!

A little family photo op...

Whooped, but still hanging in there!
Nothing a little chocolate can't fix...
OK, so they had to rest a few times on the way back. And I think each enjoyed a little piggy back for a portion of the trail back. But still, we were THRILLED to reach this point where we can actually complete a four mile family hike with very limited complaints!

Christmas Day

I'll have to admit that Christmas was more fun this year than it has been a many years. Watching your children enjoy the day is far more fulfilling than any present in a box could be (although I did get some really good stuff)! Steve continues to maintain his stance that we don't buy the boys enough stuff at Christmas. I think he must literally want to wade through the toys Christmas morning (which would be OK, but the practical side of me has to ask - what then? I don't want to wade through toys the rest of the year and our house is not exactly large.) So we compromise and hopefully the boys will look back one day and think they got plenty of good stuff!

Here was what Santa left Luke this year:

And here was Grayson's stash:

Then Santa left them this fire station/police station as a "together" gift. I thought this was a pretty cool find, but the boys were less than impressed. One of the biggest hits of the day was rollerblades/skates. Grayson got the real deal and was actually doing pretty well by the end of the day. Luke got the training variety and thought he was hot stuff. We also got them a ramp (really for their bikes) but we did end up setting up the ramp in the house as well. Between the skates and the ramp they were happy as clams!

Grayson has definitely entered that stage of tearing into each gift, barely noticing what it is, and then hurriedly moving onto the next package to unwrap. I think he got to the end of his gifts and didn't even really know what he had gotten!

Sometimes it's the little things that get the biggest smile! Steve was pretty happy with his beer that I embellished to look like reindeer...
And for Luke, he was thrilled to finally get the purple carabiner he had spied at Lowe's a few weeks earlier.
Mom joined us later Christmas morning which brought some added excitement for the boys (and another chance to open gifts). Then that night we headed to Rich and Jolene's for yet a third celebration and more gift opening!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year was a quiet evening at our house. Well - as quiet as you can get with a 3 year old and 5 year old the night before Christmas. We had what is becoming our tradition of a little seafood buffet that night complete with grilled oysters, clam chowder, and baked crab dip. Rich and Jolene joined us for the evening and we all enjoyed the company and the anticipation of what the next day would bring.

Sadly, my piano doesn't get near as much use as I would like. But we did enjoy it more this year around the holidays than we ever have before. The boys enjoyed pretending that they could play the piano. They can't, but they did learn the lyrics (not the tune mind you, just the lyrics) to an impressive number of Christmas songs this year. We were serenaded quite frequently throughout the evening.

My Mom's neighbors of almost 40 years gave us a cute gift complete with everything we would need to bake cookies for Santa and his reindeer. We went ahead and put that gift to use and this is what we came up with! Luke was my big cookie helper. I have to admit that I think we did a fabulous job this year with our cookies for Santa. We've come a long way in a year....
December 2011:

December 2010:

Of course we had to track Santa using the NORAD app on Steve's iPAD.

We let the boys each open one gift on Christmas Eve before heading to bed. This year they got to open their gifts to each other. Both boys were very appreciative of the gifts and did a great job of thanking each other even without prompting!

Christmas Lesson

We decided that this year would be a good year to begin teaching the boys about the joys of buying for others. Both boys took money out of their own piggy banks to buy each other presents this year. We employed the "matching funds" policy and kicked in an equal amount so they would be able to get a little bit more of a toy.

Steve too Grayson to buy Luke a gift and I took Luke to buy Grayson a gift. Luke was thrilled to pick out something for his brother and unroll his dollar bills at the cash register. He actually made a thoughtful choice and chose a little four wheeler pulling a trailer with a dog in it for Grayson. Grayson enjoyed Dana's dog Pringle so much that Luke thought he would enjoy pulling this little dog around in the trailer. He also chose a plane for Grayson, I think because the two of them have been fighting over the same little matchbox plane at home for about a week now. He was very excited to get the gifts home and wrapped before Grayson got back.

A Visit from Santa

My office had a Christmas party for families with kids one night. It included crafts, cookies, a movie, and of course a visit from Santa.

Some of the boys looking outside to see if they see Santa coming...we were all wondering where he would park his sleigh since you have to have a university parking permit to park on campus.

He made it! The kids loved hearing about Rudolph!

Grayson and Luke both asked Santa for racetracks for their matchbox cars.

Cookies with Nana

On the drive to and from Disney we read books to the boys quite a bit. The favorite of the trip turned out to be a book titled, Gingerbread Baby. Luke, especially, loved the story about a gingerbread boy that didn't cook long enough and came out as a gingerbread baby. Mom bought some gingerbread mix and a Mickey Mouse cutter at Disney and then we had the regular cutters at home. Grayson made gingerbread Mickeys and Luke made gingerbread "babies."

Time to Get in the Christmas Spirit!

Back from Disney, it was time to get in the mood for Christmas. Of course, the best way to start that process was with the annual pilgrimage to Clark's Tree Farm in Floyd County. Mom was still with us from the Disney trip so it was nice to have her along. There are so many wonderful trees at Clark's that you really can't pick a bad one.

Last year Grandma Rawlings sent some money for Christmas. So right after Christmas we let the boys pick out something to buy with the money. They wanted a Christmas Train they had seen at Home Depot so we headed out and picked it up on clearance after the holiday. It was been stored away in our basement all year. Regularly, the boys would ask to go down and see the train. They just "wanted to look at the box" all year. We had promised that we would get it out after we got back from Disney. They didn't let us forget. They boys were thrilled with the train - I always know the toy is a hit when the boys fight over it and fight they did. The train got taken away the same day we put it together. I did, however, agree to return it the next day if they promised not to fight over it. So far they've kept it now since it's return.

Disney Day Three - Animal Kingdom

Hands down, the boys' favorite was Animal Kingdom. I had been there before and basically remembered it as an elaborate zoo. Seeing it through their eyes made for a much more enjoyable experience.

A little family photo op in front of the tree of life...

Kimodo Dragon - not exactly what Grayson thought a dragon would look like...

The boy's favorite thing was the safari ride through Africa. And the bonus was that with the cool weather, we got to see tons of animals out an about. They were much more active in December than in the summer.

Luke's favorite animal was the baby elephant.

We found a more hands-on portion of the park called Rafiki's something or other. The boys enjoyed some little activities in this area. The first was to go on a "hunt" for some animals on a card they were given. Rich and Steve helped the boys find everything.

Grayson loved brushing the goats.

In the afternoon we got to see the holiday parade.
We found the Dinoland area late in the day. The boys could have stayed here all day. They really enjoyed the gigantic playground and pretending to be archaeologists digging for dinosaur bones.

We decided to press our luck and attempt a dinner at Rainforest Cafe. It actually turned out fairly well. We had to take Grayson out everytime it started to thunder, but all in all a nice last meal at Disney!

We may, though, have tried to squeeze in a little too much on that last day at Animal Kingdom!