Here's my conundrum with this blog post: Aunt Wacky took 375 pictures of two little boys over the course of six days. And every picture is adorable! However, I need to be a realist and accept that I cannot include every precious smile, giggle and eye twinkle in this post. So, with that understanding, here is my best attempt at an abbreviated blog post about my fabulous Christmas holiday with my family. Grab a snack and a ice-cold Diet Coke and settle in for the overview of Christmas 2012:
Watching Walker on Day One: I was still in the stage of thinking, "Everything he does is ADORABLE!" Yes, that's right - when he fiddled with my key and headphones I couldn't resist taking five pictures.
And then he discovered the mail slot on my front door and, in increasing volume, kept saying, "Outside!" For the rest of the week, whenever anyone left the house, Walker would high-tail it over to the mail slot to yell, "Bye-bye!"
In tribute to our dearly departed Dad, we pulled out the Battleship board game that Amber gave me years ago when Dad passed away (it's a long story...worthy of a blog post on its own!).
The game was obstensibly for Sawyer and Nana, but both required a little coaching and trash talking from Daddy and Aunt Wacky. I'm not sure why I thought it was necessary to get in the face of a five-year old and say things like, "I'm going to take you down. All the way to Chinatown.", but in my defense, I was confronted with trash talking along the lines of, "I hope you brought your books because you're about to be schooled!" From a five year old.
On Christmas Eve, Jocelyn wanted to put the boys down fairly early, so by 4pm these kids were in their jammers!
Jocelyn purchased a Christmas Eve package that included a plate for Santa's cookies, a mug for Santa's hot chocolate and a letter from Santa addressed to Sawyer and Walker. I'm KICKING myself that I didn't record Susan reading Santa's letter to Sawyer and Walker.
The letter was very cute and Sawyer was so attentive to everything Susan was reading..
...especially, when Santa informed him that he made the "Nice List" this year. Bless this little boy, he started jumping up and down, clapping his hands and saying, "I made it! I made it!"
He could not have been more thrilled. And, then he was truly adorable. He turned to Susan and with all seriousness asked, "What about Walker? Is he on the 'Nice List'?" When he realized Santa's letter was addressed to both boys, he was delighted!
At Santa's invitation, he immediately sat down and wrote his letter to Santa. I have to say, for five years old, his penmanship and spelling is pretty darn good.
"Dear Santa, I love you so much. I love that I am on the good list!!!! Sawyer"
As I had hoped, Christmas Day was loads of fun for everyone. Mom, Susan and I lived in fear that we wouldn't be there when the boys woke up and came downstairs (we stayed across the street at Amber's house), so we set our alarms for 5:30 and were in position in my living room at 6am. Well, as "in position" as tired adults can be at 6am!
I lit the tree; made sure the presents and stockings were all in order; and then we waited.
Wouldn't you know it....the one day these stinkers sleep in! Finally at 6:45, the whole family made their appearance in matching jammers. How cute is this?
The only thing that would have made it better was if Allen was in a one-piece or footsies. That would have been my Christmas wish!
After a quick read of Santa's letter to Sawyer, the boys were off and running...
As is always the case, you spend tons of time and money on presents and wrapping, and this is what they want to play with:
Walker filled and emptied this bag of used wrapping paper more than once. Why spend money when you have old wrapping and ribbons and a stuffed Rudolph?! Together, these kept the little guy entertained for an hour!
The one exception was this dress up doctors' outfit. Now, this was a present Walker loved!
Mom scored with her gift to Sawyer. She set him up with a bunch of medieval soldiers with horses and suits of armor and a 3-D castle. The kid was in hog heaven!
Yes, this one actually is the best family picture we got. Check out Sawyer. Hahaha..
We surprised Mom with a new iPad - it was a hit!
After opening all the presents, Walker had a little fun with the empty boxes and Susie's cowboy boots.
The little guy loved these boots and did not want to take them off...until he wanted to walk somewhere, and then the boots just didn't work!
As Dad put together the castle, Sawyer gave me a class in sword fighting. The kid has a future in this!
Once Allen got the castle assembled, Sawyer, Mom and Susan sat down for a two-hour marathon session of soldiers! Good old fashioned Christmas fun!
After quiet time, we decided it was time to try out the walkie-talkies Susan gave Sawyer. In Sawyer's mind, the walkie talkies were perfect for "patrolling the neighborhood." And, if he's going to patrol a neighborhood, he needs to be appropriately outfitted:
Meet Captain Huggy Face. I swear. That was the name he gave himself. Captain Huggy Face. Talk about menacing!
He and I went out the door in search of "Sinister Susan". His partners in crime, Admiral Awesome and Lt. Midget, were on the other walkie talkie, guiding him to Sinister Susan's hiding place.
Susan and I could barely contain our giggles as his cape was flying behind him as he chased her.
As Captain Huggy Face was in pursuit, I heard a message come through the walkie talkie from Admiral Awesome, "Captain Huggy Face, you have a bogey on your 6!" That's when I knew we were in a whole new territory of fun. We basically tore up my little development in pursuit of Sinister Susan, but he got his girl!
He could not have been more pleased with his ability to track down the villan!
The one and only photo I have of the three of us looking at the camera and smiling. The only one.
I love that Sawyer came down to Christmas dinner in his button-down shirt and tie. Quite the gentleman!
We had a delicious dinner, if I do say so myself! All the fixings, plus a few extra goodies! We had a lot of clean plates, so that's a good sign!
After dinner, once Walker was tucked into bed, the rest of us went to the basement for a little game of "Minute to Win It". I pulled together seven different holiday-themed games, each of which had to be completed in a minute or less. The games lived up to my expectations - we howled with laughter at nearly all them, but these were the definite winners:
Sawyer playing Cookie Face Off, in which he had to put a chocolate chip cookie on his forehead, and without using his hands, get it in his mouth.
Allen eventually had to give a little assist by shaking Sawyer's head back and forth and up and down - the poor kid was about to be stricken with shaken baby syndrome! Notice the mouth wide open and the cookie in his left eye - I mean this is just good entertainment for the aunties!
Finally, success...the chocolate stains to prove it!
The Good Sport Award went to Jocelyn, who unfortunately picked Jingle in the Trunk. I put 12 jingle bells in a kleenex box, which I then strapped to her waist. Even though not one bell fell out, she kept jingling her trunk!
One of the gifts that Susan, Mom and I gave Allen, Jocelyn and the boys was a series of "Washington adventures." Their first adventure was a trip the ICE! exhibit that Mom, Susan and I went to a couple of years ago. We thought it was great and thought Sawyer would be into it too. He wasn't. I think he spent 15 minutes in the exhibit. Oh well, we still enjoyed it and we got a cute family picture out of it too!
Sawyer sort of liked the ice slide...but not enough to do it more than once.
Unlike his Dad, who did it a couple of times...
and his younger brother who struggled mightily to get down the slide because "lay down" was not yet in the vocabulary! Getting Walker down a 15-foot ice slide took us...oh, over a minute. With Allen at the top and me on my knees at the bottom, I think we provided entertainment for all other families as we yelled "Come on, Walker. Scoot down. You can do it....scoot down...." Oy vey. How on earth does an 18-month old stall out on an ice slide?!?
During the hours we were at home, my basement became ground zero for all manner of sword fights, karate, tickle matches, wrestling and other shenanigans. Susan and I were in a constant competition for who had more bruises!
Even Dad got in on the fun!
In between all of the wrestling and tickle fights, we also had lots of quiet time to read stories, play games and enjoy each other's antics.
Walker LOVED when Mom did this game with him. She played "This is the way the [lady, priest, farmer, hunter] rides" with him and he couldn't get enough. Mom's legs, however, could get enough! After her 10th time, she was pooped out! Walker kept saying, "One more." How could she resist?
A two-year old around an empty bucket? Well, that's just inviting this to happen!
Stopping to check the blackberry for messages...
Playing in the park - in our jammies! And of course puppy was along for the ride too. We didn't go anywhere after Christmas morning without Puppy.
Another of Sawyer's Christmas adventures was a trip to the Spy Museum, which he loved. He's very into secret agent stuff right now, so he wore his button down shirt, a tie and the secret agent sunglasses Susan gave him for Christmas to visit the museum. Here he is describing his trip to us:
This one is my favorite - he's describing the tools that spies use in tradecraft and he used air quotes to tell us that spies us "computers". Hilarious.
We also took the family to the Newseum, which I really love and which was a hit with Sawyer. He learned all about how to be a reporter, and even had the opportunity to do a weather forecast. Aunt Susie had to help out a bit because he got a little stage fright, but he pulled it off!
Back at the ranch, Susie and I taught Walker how to cool down a bowl of spaghetti...how adorable is this?
And we taught him to take a moment to smell the roses. Do little boys come any cuter than this one?
And I may have taught him how to do a little cleaning! Nothin' wrong with child labor in my book!
Before we knew it, the week was over. We took one last picture with Walker (Sawywer was in no mood for pictures!)...
