Foster Fun House: 2013 Wrap Up

This year, due to my big belly, we stayed in CA for Christmas and had a quiet holiday - just the 3 and 3/4ths of us. Although staying "home" can never beat going home, it did give us the opportunity to give Andrew a "real" Christmas - waking up in his own bed, running down his own stairs and seeing way more presents than we could have afforded if we flew all three of us back to PA. With that said... I can't wait to bring both my babies to PA next year for Christmas!

Waiting for Santa's arrival.

Like last year, we got a big box of ornaments in the mail from Grammy - 24 to be exact. Twelve for Andrew and twelve for Mike and I... to represent the 12 days of Christmas. Each night, leading up to Christmas, we would open our ornaments and find a spot on the tree. Andrew especially loved being allowed to hang the ornaments, since we were more often than not telling him NOT to touch the tree the rest of the day.

"Cheese!"

That's better!

SANTA CAME! This year, Andrew's big presents were a Work Bench, Easel, and about 20 trucks and tractors (we just couldn't help ourselves.) He also got an elephant chair and stuffed elephant (one of which will be for his baby sister), a soccer ball (because Mike lost his over the fence and it was never returned), a set of wooden blocks (because both Mike and I had these as kids and it was a must for Andrew), a few books and a re-gifted Harley (we tried to give it to him at Easter, but his feet didn't reach the pedals - so it's been sitting in the shed ever since). He did an excellent job at giving each gift a fair amount of play time before moving on, and the morning easily lasted from 7:00 to 11:30.

We were so impressed he knew exactly how to use this little electric drill!

This was our view much of the morning. :)

Time to open stockings! Bubble bath, a slinky, art supplies, a small tractor, and some yummy treats.

My very large belly! Only 3 more weeks to go!

His feet reach!

He got 2 of these packages, plus another big tractor. from Santa.

The boy loves his trucks and tractors.

The Friday after Christmas, we headed into San Francisco for the night to meet up with Mike's Uncle Tim, Aunt Suzanne and cousin William. They had a layover on their way to Hawaii, so they decided to explore the city for the day and stay over night, and invited us in to join them for dinner. Since Grammy's flight came in early the next afternoon, we decided to stay over too and enjoyed a morning in the city before heading to the airport. It was a very nice visit and Andrew loved playing with his cousin William.

Andrew loved our swanky hotel room!

This huge chair was in the lobby of the hotel.

Early Saturday morning, we waited in line to take a trolley down to Fisherman's Wharf. Unfortunately, Andrew wasn't so sure of the whole thing because the man operating the car kept yelling at everyone to move here or there and wouldn't let Mike hold Andrew. We'll try again when we have more time to wait for a better spot.

Checking out the Sea Lions!

Yet another ride on the carousel! (Andrew chose the seal.)

We didn't bring a stroller, which was a big mistake - Andrew napped for over an hour on Mike's shoulder as we walked through the city.

A couple pictures from my birthday (no, I didn't take any of Mike's birthday... I'm horrible!). I found these party hats from when I was a little girl... they're vintage!

Andrew had to blow out his own candle before he'd eat his cake. Ugh.

And, finally, to wrap up 2013 - a couple shots from New Year's Eve.

We opened presents from Grammy, Mom-Mom and Uncle Dave - this new towel was from Mom-Mom and Andrew wasn't so sure at first, but used it tonight and looked so cute in it!