Christmas 2010

Some photos of Christmas 2010.

It was a very musical Christmas...Santa brought Henry a guitar, keyboard, snare drum and accordion.   Teddy scored a slide and his favorite toy, a scooter.  The boys definitely were feeling the Christmas spirit with lots of classic music (Johnny Mathis, Bing Crosby, etc.), classic TV shows (Rudolph (50 times), Year Without a Santa Claus, Frosty) and classic movies (Wonderful Life, Elf, Curious George Monkey Christmas). Henry and Mom made great cookies for Santa and we had a wonderful Roast Beast for Christmas dinner.  We went all out decorating this whole house this year and Henry has stated on multiple occasions the last couple of days, "I miss Christmas."  We've been wondering when he would "get it"...I think we're there.

It's been a great few weeks.  Henry is really starting to mature.  After months of him being consistently contrarian, he has really started to play by the rules.  He still has his tantrums, but he is 4...  We really believe his first semester of 5 day a week pre-school is playing a big role. After much deliberation and testing at school we've decided to keep him at Redding Elementary where he will move on to pre-K next year.

It appears Teddy is wise beyond his years.  A mother of one of Henry's classmates commented, "Teddy looks like he's always in on the joke."  Walking, crawling or riding his scooter, he's always sure to have a smile.  He can understand most basic conversation or commands and he's impossible to get mad at!

The official "O.P" (Orange Playroom) is finished.  The entire upstairs of our 4 car garage has been converted into a finished playroom for the boys.  We've been spending tons of time over there and the adults are happy to have some rooms in the house that aren't overflowing with toys.

We spent 4 days at the Greenbrier a couple of weeks ago.  It was great visiting with Granddaddy and Mama who came over from Lexington.  It's was Teddy's first plane trip and unfortunately, he only got to fly one way. Traveling by plane with two little ones is a definite challenge in today's airline environment.  The outbound flight was 3 hours delayed and presented some challenges but we finally made it to the Greenbrier.  The return trip wasn't so easy.  After an initial delay of 2 hours spilled into 5 hours, we decided to forgo the return flight and drive the 9 hours home.  A 7:30am departure from the Greenbrier led to an 11pm Connecticut arrival...very very long day.  The boys were remarkably great about the whole ordeal.   The Greenbrier isn't what it used to be...it appears the $99 rooms attracts a certain "element" that doesn't adhere to the old school dress code that I thought made the Greenbrier a special place....that's gone.

We've had a great week of vacation post-Christmas at home.  We survived an awesome blizzard with lots on new toys and finally made it out of the house for a visit to the local aquarium.  A stellar outing that the whole family enjoyed.  Although it was a simple 5 hour day trip, I think we will all look back at that trip as special.

Looking forward to 2011...don't forget to follow us on The Twitter!