Christmas

Well, I think that all in all Christmas was a huge success for our family this year! We were truly blessed to be able to spend the holiday together. Ian spent Christmas Eve at his mom's house, so that he could wake up with his brother Henry. This was the first year that's been able to happen,m and since chances are, Isaac wouldn't be as much fun, we thought Ian would have a better, more memorable time over there.

Isaac gave me the greatest gift of all, and slept until after 8:00am! Which in itself was simply amazing.

Once Ian and Henry had their Christmas morning together, he and his mom headed over to our house for breakfast. It was really nice having us all together, I mean isn't that what the holidays are all about?

Alecia stayed and helped Isaac open his stocking, which was adorable and fun. After that we headed in to the living room, and let the present opening commence! We had no doubts that Ian would make out like a bandit, Santa must have him on the tippity top of his nice list. I'd like to think that our homemade holiday goodies helped do the trick, those candy cane brownies were clutch!

After a few naps, and a few dozen new toys were opened and played with, we headed over t my parents. My brother had been waiting for us very patiently I must say.

By the end of the day Isaac pretty much grasped the concept of opening a present. He'd grab hold of a little tear on the package, then start flapping his arms! Hilarious approach, but incredibly efective!

It was really a wonderful Christmas.

Creating a lil' Holiday Magic

Because of the upcoming Christmas holiday, Ian an an early dismissal today, which worked out fantastic for my master holiday baking extravaganza plan! I had never made any sort of gingerbread house before and I saw a way to make them out of graham crackers instead. It looked pretty simple, and I'm usually incredibly crafty, so I thought that we'd give it a go.

My mom had seen a kit to make them out of rice krispie treats, and snagged that one for Michael. We all had a blast making them!

I think that Ian's turned out to be the best of them all. Mine had quite a bit of "structural damage" as I was calling it.

Im almost certain that Ian ended up eating just as much candy as he used for his house! (Thus the blank stare in the picture!)

After the houses were finished, and Michael and Isaac were down for a snooze, I went baker bananas! I made candy cane brownies, peanut butter cookies with hersheys hugs, and three batches of sugar cookies, all decked out with cinnamon dots and colored sugars of course.

Since I'm still at war with my baby weight, I will be giving, sending, throwing these goodies at anyone who comes close enough. . . watch out!

monumental Moments!

So over these past few days, Isaac has had two major accomplishments! Firstly, I put together his baby einstein activity center from his grandparents, so I could do a few things around the house. At first I only put a few of the toys on it, so he wouldn't be too overwhelmed. Well, he just LOVED it! I was worried that he would get frustrated with it, but he did really well with it!

Also on the mommy brag list, Isaac sat up by himself in his tub two nights ago! I couldn't believe it! He's been trying to sit up for a while, and he got so proud of himself when he finally did it! Ugh, I'm so proud!

Videos of today

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/fa641fa56ad7bced8028bf314f85fd38/video/8174029

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/babe100255aa369205f27c7d3187fc23/video/8173997

**The Island's First Snow**

So far, Isaac and I are surviving the big "Blizzard of '09"! It started to snow around 9pm last night, and was dropping a little over an inch an hour! It was so windy it kept waking Isaac up, poor little guy. . .

Our power went out for about 5 hours which made changing diapers a bit more difficult than usual, but we made it work! We got up around 8:30-9:00am, and found that our yard was under a thick blanket of snow! We had a rather hard time seeing out of the windows at first.

My brother, sister in law, and nephew came to our rescue a little later on, since I don't have a 4WD car, I'd be pretty much stuck here. They couldn't quite make it up the driveway at first. A huge tree fell completely across it. Which of course was no match for my brother.

I didn't even know they were here, until I heard someone shoveling out my front walkway. Thank goodness they did that, because with Michael away, I don't think I would have been able to!

We all bundled up the baby, I think he had five or six layers on him, not including hat(s)! And then we set out for the golf course! Poor Jacob tried walking through to the middle of the green, and found a snow-filled sand trap, or maybe IT found him!

Ean, Melissa and I trudged on to the next tee, and slid down the hill a few times, which was hilarious in itself, I must say.

By the end of our expedition, Jacob had an icy brow, Ean an icy beard, and little Isaac was snuggling into my coat trying to hibernate!

Isaac's first trip off the island

Yesterday we had planned to take Isaac to the Cape for some holiday shopping. Unfortunately, Michael had a death in his family, and had to go home to Troy, NY.

Our good friend Joel came along with us, which really put me at ease. It was so much easier just having another pair of hands, and eyes with the wee-one!

I really wanted to get his portraits taken this year, so we headed to Sears. The photographer was so terrific with him, she got a ton of really amazing shots! True, I may have gone a teeny bit overboard, but there were just soo many to choose from!

Luckily, I managed to get almost everything on all three of my lists, which is almost unheard of. Poor Isaac was pretty jam-packed in the back of my car as we headed back to the ferry! (Now I would haven 1,000 times more pictures, but alas my camera died on the ferry on the way to the mainland. Thank goodness Joel had his!)

It's Beginning to Look allot like Christmas

Last week we went to a local farm, and while in the dark, each of us tried our hardest to find a good, Christmas worthy tree. We each had a few possibilities, but it was Ian who found this one. And I have to say, it's absolutely perfect!

My mom and I spent WAY too long replacing burned out bulbs on the strings of white lights, so I was forced to use these. True, the tree has been referred to as an Irish flag, and a rocket pop, but I think it's growing on me.

Tonight we turned on some holiday music, and all hung up the ornaments. Despite my efforts, it was impossible to take a picture of Isaac without him moving around. I have not given up entirely, just for tonight!