Happy New Year!

We had a lovely evening ringing in the new year with our good friends and it continued this morning with a walk on one of the most beautiful of cold, winter mornings. Macadam loved having the Mastans sleep over. His first words this morning (after he pretended to be sleeping by fake snores) was, "Where Ali go?" He was delighted when I said they were downstairs.
We think 2011 is going to be a good one, and wish the same to all of our wonderful friends and family.

A cozy Christmas

After a few days of celebrating the holidays with friends and late nights, Christmas was the perfect day of cozy celebrating between Rob, me, Macadam and even Buster. Santa came in and set up the addition to Macadam's Legoville trains (his helper even ran to the store at 10:30 Friday night for the right batteries) to go around the tree when Mac came downstairs in the morning. At first it was almost too overwhelming but soon, Macadam was down on the ground playing but also wanting to see if Santa had drank the milk we set out as well as ate the cookies and gave the reindeer the carrots.

Stockings were so fun. He had asked for an apple for Christmas and he was so happy when he saw one in his stocking. We're pretty sure that's all he would have needed for the day, but of course, the present opening continued. Between presents, playing and seeing family on Skype and talking on the phone, it was a big day for the little man.

All Mac wanted to do the whole day is play, play, play. Every time we asked him what he wanted to do, he just replied Play! We didn't leave the house all day, it was perfect. Rob and I blow torched (yes, really) our rib roast and it was delish, accompanied by some other yummy goodness.

We hope all of you had a great holiday, no matter where you were!

Ho ho ho!

The holidays are the best yet as Macadam understands the whole magic of Santa and our little friend, The Elf on the Shelf. We discovered the elf a few years ago thanks to our friends, the Boyers, and while last year Mac was excited to find him every morning, this year he's ecstatic. The book itself, we think, did a ton to make it so Macadam was okay with hanging out with Santa. We were invited to go on the Santa Train this year, and what a fun trip! It's on a train from the early 20th century that they've restored and runs from North Bend to Snoqualmie, just a 20 minute train ride and then the kids get to meet Santa and listen to carolers. We were shocked that Macadam not only sat on Santa's lap but he kind of even jumped into it. While shy, he was super happy and excited when with him. It was adorable and so fun to see. In fact, out of the six kids in our group, no one lost it. After Santa, we had some warm cookies and hot chocolate before getting back on the chilly train. We even had VIP treatment from a sweet conductor who is friends with one of ours. He gave the kids train whistles - which to some other adults was not the gift of music:).

Mac doesn't say Santa. He says, "Ho, ho, ho" and "lap." Maybe by next year, he'll have his name down:).