I Love God for Making Santa!

Rudy and Moonlight preparing for Christmas.

Moonlight enjoying the view from under the tree.

After church Christmas Eve, we waited for Paul's family to come over. Rudy found some post it notes and decided to stick one on his nose. I think he said he was being Rudolph.

Neil introduced Rudy to Angry Birds (yes, we have deprived ourselves and our child from knowing exactly what it is).

Rudy passed out his gifts first. Grandmom liked her napkin holder.

Grandpa got a little village house.

Rudy was very excited to see Grandmom got him a Mario shirt...

... and even more excited to discover that it came with a Wii mario game.

The adults do a pollyanna type gift exchange (everyone has a different name for it). Sean thought if he sat away from everyone, no one would steal his alcohol (he was wrong).

Rudy and his grandparents.

Christmas morning, waiting to see the presents.

Organizing all the presents into a pile while he waited for us to look at our stockings.

My favorite gift - notebooks for Paul and Rudy to write and draw in since they are always creating stories together.

Lou even got a gift - a bone he carried around as he tried to eat.

Rudy learning to play his Wii games.

An uneasy truce between Moonlight and Lou. Moonlight seemed to think Lou's pillow was there for his own enjoyment.

Moonlight enjoyed watching Rudy play Lego Indiana Jones. This gift, from Santa, is the one that inspired Rudy to exclaim, "I love God for Making Santa!" Video will be posted soon.

Rudy also got several lego sets, here he is playing with many of them together.

Paul's favorite gift was a drawing pad and pencils. He spent the day trying it out.

Again, Moonlight and Lou sharing the pillow. Lou doing his best to ignore the fact that there is a cat near him.

Rudy with his mohawk hat.

As has been our tradition for the last few years. On Christmas night we went out to dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. This year it was packed! My dad and Paul's mom went with us. It was a nice relaxing end to a fun few days.

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

After tagging our tree several weeks ago, today was finally the day to go pick it up. Before we arrived I made the mistake of questioning whether Rudy really remembered where the tree was. He immediately ran to the exact tree when we arrived.

This was the tree Rudy had picked and won the right to bring home through a game of Rock, Scissors, Paper.

When the man went to cut down that tree, though, we discovered that the truck was very crooked and it would be very difficult to put up straight, so we went with our second choice.

As we waited for the tree to get put in the car, Rudy and I relaxed around the fire with some hot chocolate.

This was the tree we ended up with - a little smaller but a lot fuller.

Rudy loves setting up this nativity set- and playing with it all season.

Moonlight's first tree- we expect to be squirting him with water - A LOT!

Rudy used his blocks to add walls and a roof to the nativity set.

Attempts at a family portrait by the tree.

 Love the dog's nose in this one!

To top off our Christmasy day, Santa came by on a fire truck.

Lou and Moonlight felt a little left out and stood at the door watching.

Our beautifully decorated house.

Santas, Santas Everywhere

It's been a busy few weeks. We got a new camera- and tried it out by taking pictures of Lou. Our poor dog was not doing well, but the vet gave him some new medicine that is definitely helping him- for now. We don't expect him to be with us for too much longer.

Rudy went to his first birthday party from Kindergarten. This smart parent had the party right after school on a Friday -still light and warm enough to be outside. The kids had 3-legged races and ran around the yard.

Rudy and K.

The party was a pirate theme...

...with a treasure chest pinata. Rudy has already declared for his next party he wants a pinata shaped like the death star. He told me how easy it should be to make!

We went to a train and collectibles show.

Rudy bonded with an older kid over Star Wars figures.

Then we stopped at the candy store and watched taffy being made.

Moonlight is still very kitteny - he attacks himself in the mirror, chases anything that moves, and has a new-found fascination with the shower - especially when someone is in it.

At Smithville, Rudy showed us how to play a frog instrument. (He had a visitor to his class that showed off some Native American things and this must have been one of them because as soon as he saw it, it started explaining it to us.)

He posed with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

And Santa himself.

All the leaves in our yard were piling up, so we decided to rent a good leaf blower. Rudy immediately thought it looked like the Ghostbusters pack and wanted one of his own.

Old book bag plus hose from dehumidifier = happy boy.

Dad's birthday was the 8th, and he requested Mexican food, so we went to Mexico (the restaurant obviously, not the country). Rudy was very excited for the food, then disappointed when real Mexican food really wasn't like what I make. He really enjoyed the whipped cream from the flan, though.

In Ocean City, Rudy met a horse named Nicholas and we took a carriage ride (not once, but twice).

"Rudy look at me." This is what I get.

Then we saw Santa again.