Yule Blog

We had a very nice, relaxing holiday with friends and family. Now that Danny is a little bit older, we were anxious to again experience the holidays through the eyes of a child. Last year, Danny was still too young to understand what was going on and this year proved to be a little bit more interesting. Danny is still a little unclear on the concept of Santa Clause and the importance of being on his best behavior on the days leading up to Christmas. Up until the last hour on Christmas Eve, it was touch and go whether Santa would be coming to our house. Fortuanately for all of us, Danny improved his behavior and Jason made a last minute telephone call to catch Santa to let him know Danny had a change of heart.

Jason and I woke up before Danny did, so I went ahead and turned on the TV while we waited for him to get up. The first four channels I turned to were playing one variation or another of this:

Ahh, the yule log. We kept this tuned during the mornig present opening ritual. I always get a kick out of this and especially love it when the annonymous, detached arm appears to throw another log on the fire or give it the occasional poke.

Danny got a HotWheels stunt track (No Batteries needed... Whooo Hooo)

Santa also brought this:


I am not at all a fan of clowns, but this retro punching bag clown is just what the doctor ordered to tame the wild beast on these long, dark winter days. We are having a blast with this thing and it is holding up quite well despite the abuse it has endured. Danny loves to punch it in the nose and thinks it's even more fun to kick him in the "peanut"......... Where did he learn that? Must be another thing he learned at preschool.

Moving on, here is the boy looking through his stocking. I am so in love with this home made Peanuts stocking I found on ebay. I have decided that I will take it over if / when Danny outgrows it.

We kept it low key this Christmas and everyone on both sides of my family mutually decided to just enjoy eachother and not buy gifts. Jason and I were also not going to exchange gifts, so you can imagine how excited I was to find an ipod Nano in my stocking. I feel like I am one more step closer to keeping up with technology. Well, sorta. Anyway, I am very excited to say the least.

After we opened presents at home, we jumped in the car to go visiting. We first went to Tom's house. Tom is Jason's kinda sorta ex-stepdad and is the inspiration for Danny's middle name. There was a bunch of family, dogs, and food at their house and we even took in a little Christmas day target shooting out back with Toms new .22 rifle. Good times.

After a quick trip to Jason's mom's house, we headed on to my folk's place for dinner along with my sister Sarah, my brother in law Casey, their little guy, and Casey'd parents. Whew!

Here was the scene:




Danny got a cool retro scooter and a tool kit from Grampeggy and Grampa Dave

After dinner, the two self admitted techno nerds got my ipod and itunes account situated

Here, Andrew has a little after dinner snack. Notice his little hand. I love it when their little hands go exploring when they are nursing.

Danny was a real trooper, going all day without a nap and going to 3 different households with present and family overload. He fell asleep on our way home, leaving Jason and I a couple of hours of peace to watch a movie....a gift I truly appreciated.

Now we have the task of packing up the Christmas things and getting ready for new years. I am not a fan of new years eve but there just might be a Guitar Hero party in out neighborhood.... stay tuned...