The blur of the holidays....

The holidays were great and went by so fast. We had a wonderful time with Meme and PopPop, who flew all the way out from Boston to be with us. Since they arrived before Christmas, we were able to do some sight seeing in San Diego, Newport Beach and Laguna. The weather was warm which was a nice change for them from the snowy New England weather. Ethan was very anxious for Christmas and did a very good job of showing self-control around the presents in the days leading up to Christmas. Well, he showed as much self-control as any 2 year old can...we did once find him hiding behind the chair trying to unwrap a present! On Christmas morning when we told him that Santa came overnight and left him presents he was awestruck and ran as fast as he could downstairs. Santa didn't forget about Meme and PopPop who got their first Christmas stockings ever. Ethan loved opening gifts and demanded to open everyone's gifts for them. He was a very good boy this year as between Hannukah and Christmas he got so many wonderful presents. I think his favorites are his new train table with Thomas trains and his workbench. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and Happy New Year

Conductor Ethan directs his trains

Is this big one for me?

Boston fans...Red Sox and Patriots!!

A picture that says it all....

Drediel, drediel, drediel!

Hannukah is officially over but not in Ethan's mind. He truly loved every part of Hannukah. Everyday he would point the menorah and ask if we could light the candles only to be reminded that we had to wait until Daddy came home from work. It was very cute as the first night we lit the candles the first thing Ethan said when he saw the candles burning was "Happy Birthday Ethan" and immediately wanted to blow them out. He would listen very intently as we said the prayers and when we were done, would say "Happy Hannukah mommy and daddy!" It only got better from there as once he realized that he was getting presents his eyes became as big as saucers. I bought him some little drediels and even though he couldn't spin them he liked trying. We even made potato latkes for the first night and he ate them right up. This weekend we went to a Hannukah Festival at the Town Green and there was a much bigger drediel for him to spin. While the candles were being lit by a local Rabbi, Ethan yelled out "Time to open presents!" He still asks at night where his presents are and I have to remind him that Hannukah is over. I think he thought that this getting presents every night was an ongoing gig. Not so fast buddy.

Snow in California?

No, it did not snow here in SoCal. Every year one of the local elementary schools makes 5 tons of snow for the kids to play. We thought it would be fun to refresh Ethan's memory of snow and went down. It was a bit crazy as there were tons of kids and not a lot of space to play. Bryan and I were laughing as the kids were amazed by the snow and overheard some of the kids saying "can you believe this is real snow!!" We wanted to tell them that the novelty wears off after shoveling one too many snowstorms! Yet, now that Ethan is a Cali kid, is he going to grow up thinking that snow is a novelty despite his new England roots?