Christmas in PA

After 18 days in Pennsylvania, a very long day traveling back to CA and less than a week later, we are finally back into a routine in California... giving myself a moment to reflect on the whirlwind of a trip home. Unfortunately, something about these trips home makes me forget to take pictures (and forgetting the camera charger in CA didn't help either), so I don't have too much to document our time.  If anyone has any pictures from our visit, feel free to email them to me!  Here are some of the highlights from our PA trip:

Andrew and I flew home on Saturday, 12/15.  Yep, I did the flight with him all by myself!  YAY me!  He was very well behaved (Mike is convinced it was the talk he gave Andrew that morning about behaving for Mommy), and luckily the plane was empty so we had a row all to ourselves.  The worst thing that happened was when we arrived actually... I texted my Mom that we landed, and that's when they discovered that their battery died.  So, there I was, stuck in the baggage claim... with my huge 49.5 lb bag, a stroller, a book bag, a diaper bag, and a very rambunctious 16 month old who had just been cooped up for 5 hours on a plane... I think we brought smiles to some weary travelers faces, but my arms, back and my smile were very weak by the time my parents finally arrived...which, for the record was only about 30 minutes later - could have been much worse!


Left: A Traveling Mom's Favorite Sight!
Right: Giving him an almost 50 lb bag to push occupied some of our time... and he only ran into 4 people!

Waiting outside in the cold... Where are they?!

We spent the rest of the weekend adjusting to eastern standard time and learning what new things Andrew could get into at Gram and Pop's house.  Linda and Mom-Mom came over for dinner on Sunday night... I can't tell you how sweet it is to see Andrew's face light up at the sight of his grandparents.  It really is so heart warming!

On Monday, I went into the office while Andrew went on "Aunt Amanda and Andrew's Awesome Aquarium Adventure (with Gram)".   To be incredibly honest, I was very worried that Aunt Amanda was overestimating her baby-sitting abilities and/or underestimating Andrew's active nature... I had wanted both Grandparents to join, but Pop was on plumbing duty at the house, so Gram and Aunt Amanda ventured to Camden on their own.  Apparently, I was very wrong to underestimate Awesome Aunt Amanda... Andrew had an amazing adventure indeed!  Although, later that evening I did hear Amanda muttering something about maybe not having kids some day... :)

Mike took a red-eye Tuesday night and arrived early on 12/19.  He spent the day with Andrew and Grandmom (or Mom-maw as Andrew has taken to calling both his Grandmothers).  This is the day that Andrew learned the word "lawn mower" and Grandma decided she had to go buy Andrew a lawn mower for Christmas. 

Waiting for Daddy to come!

Mike's birthday was 12/21.  Linda had an open house where all the cousins, aunts, uncles and some friends stopped by through out the night to welcome us home and wish Mike a happy birthday.  The only picture I got from the whole night is below: 

Andrew posing with Brooke and the Snowman.

Saturday night we headed over to Dave's house for dinner.  Andrew loved Dave's fish tank, juggling balls and the creepy angel that was sitting next to the Christmas tree... she had blonde hair, which as it has become quite apparent, is Andrew's type. 

Sunday morning we dropped Andrew off at Awesome Aunt Amanda's so we could do some last minute Christmas shopping.  We are still working out the logistics behind a bi-coastal Christmas, but I was impressed with how we conquered our shopping list in a few short hours - it was our first time shopping alone together (maybe even in a car together?) in MONTHS, and it's amazing what you can accomplish when not chasing after a wild tornado.  After our shopping was complete, we headed to Grandmom Palm's for "Christmas Eve".   Besides the usual suspects, Kristen, Rob and his girlfriend joined us for dinner.  Despite having to vacuum twice before we left due to Andrew's ability to crush a plate of crackers in 30 seconds and break a 5 pound snow globe like an egg, it was a very nice evening.

Great Family Portrait (just missing Pop!)

Under the mistletoe

Stole that kiss!

A Christmas Eve Day Poem
In Pennsylvania, on a cold Christmas Eve day,
What else should you do, but take your kid outside to play?
To Kid's Castle we went, faces filled with glee
Both Grandmothers, both Parents and one very excited baby.

My mom told this kid she was a reporter for the newspaper and he insisted she take a picture of him.

Check out the static!

Poor Andrew... he doesn't look super happy (or normal?) here.  I swear this hat normally looks really cute on him!

Later that night, before Santa came to call
We headed back outside for Andrew's first snow fall!

It's hard to get out of rhyming once you've started... but I'm going to spare you all for the rest of this entry.  Christmas morning started with a Christmas miracle - Andrew slept in! 

"Oooo - Look at this vintage toy!"  Gram found some of my old toys and set them out for Andrew to play with while in PA.  These toys headed to Florida for when Andrew visits there.

Blue Bear!  Blue Bear was lost during my parents' visit at Thanksgiving, and since he was a gift at my baby shower, we didn't hold out much hope that we'd be able to replace him.  Luckily, Macy's still stocks Blue Bear - almost 2 years later, and Gram found him! Andrew's reaction at this gift was priceless!

After Christmas at the Elston's, we headed to Linda's for Christmas number 4.  Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, so I don't have any pictures to post.  Andrew was very spoiled and got a little present-ed out, so he ended up getting some of his gifts throughout the rest of the week.  His favorite toy from Grandma Foster was his lawnmower, which kept him very busy during the next week.  Andrew also loved playing with his older cousins, and they tolerated Andrew pulling their dresses and hair.

On Friday night, we headed to Linda's for a photo shoot with all of Mom-Mom's great grandkids. Andrew was not in the mood to say "cheese" and had to be bribed with candy and raspberries to get him to sit still. I didn't take any other pictures than the two below, so hopefully the photographer got a few good ones!

Where's Andrew?  Oh, playing on the window sill with "Ho Ho Ho"

 Saturday snowed and it was Andrew's first "official" snow, where we suited him up (in the warmest clothes we could find... snow suits aren't exactly a necessity in CA) and played.  We broke out our ancient sled, built a snow man and shoveled the driveway. 

On Sunday, we headed to Harrisburg for lunch at Aunt Julie and Uncle Paul's house.  The trip and been rescheduled from the day before due to the snow, so we were very fortunate that Aunt Laura, Uncle Chuck, Charles and Julie were all willing and able to join us on Sunday instead.  The only picture I got from this trip was the one below... my dad insisted on us taking one car, so he was voted into the trunk.  Andrew was so cute pointing behind him and asking, "Pop?"



 The past few years, we have spent New Year's Eve partying with the Tizers.  This year, due to a 7am flight out of Philly, our plans changed slightly.  Our New Year's Eve consisted of an afternoon at the Tizer's, dinner with our parents and Mom-Mom, and we were in bed by 10:30pm... ah, how our lives have changed.  Happy New Year everyone!

She's either leaning in for a kiss or giving him the stink eye for sitting in her chair... I'm thinking the latter? :)

Andrew and Juliet took turns pushing each other in the baby doll stroller.

Parallel Play in its truest form.

Hey Mom, did you see some of these toys in here?

Try telling these two not to eat the maracas and you get the picture below...

We made our exit shortly after this scene.

Christmas in Cali

As you already know, we got our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving from a tree lot... what you may not know is that our tree came all the way from Oregon... or Washington, I can't remember which one!  Either way, although it's about 3 feet shorter than the standard Foster tree, it is still very pretty, all decked out with our many beautiful ornaments.  We had to put the tree up on a table so Andrew couldn't get to most of our fragile ornaments, but that doesn't stop him from trying to pull off the ones he can reach. He will point to the tree and say a word that sounds a lot like "tree" as well as "oooo" (like in awe of its beauty). He also points to the colorful Christmas balls and says "ball" or growls at my Yosemite bear ornament. We are teaching him that Santa says "ho ho ho", but that's still a work in progress.

This was going to be our Christmas card - with the caption - We hope your holidays are merry and bright.  I ran out of time to print these, so you'll just have to picture how cute it would have been.  :)

We are starting a new tradition this year - Elf on the Shelf - courtesy of Grandma Foster. I am very excited about this for the future (totally inspired by Pinterest and other Mom's ideas), but this year is easy - Buddy (the Elf) isn't getting up to much mischief yet.  Andrew doesn't get the whole concept of not touching him (so Buddy is always in high off the ground locations for his safety) or the concept of Buddy reporting to Santa on behavior (I cannot wait for that part)... but its still fun in the morning to say, "Where did the elf go?" and Andrew will look in the direction he was the previous night and then we look together for him.  Now that he's gotten the hang of that, he laughs when we find him... kinda like, "That silly elf, he's always in the funniest spots!"

Also thanks to Grandma Foster, we got a large box in the mail... filled with ornaments from the store she works at - Pine, Wreath and Candle.  Each box was numbered from 1 through 12 and there was a note that read "2012 - A Year in Review".  We arranged to video chat with Grandma before we started opening the ornaments, so she got to see our reaction as we reminisced about what we did over the past year.   It was a lot of fun to open and a very special present that we will enjoy reopening for many years to come.  I should make you all guess what ornaments we got for which month and why - a quiz to see who's been paying attention... but I'll spare you all - here's the list - can you find each in the picture below?:
January - a plane (for our trip out)
February - a cable car (for our first trip to San Fran)
March - a wine barrel (for our many trips to the wineries)
April - a jelly fish (for our trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium - they had a jelly fish exhibit!)
May - cherries (for our Cherry picking trip on Memorial Day)
June - a saddle (for our trip to the rodeo)
July - a camping tent (for our camping trip to Lassen)
August - a birthday party hat and noise maker (for Andrew's 1st birthday)
September - a surfing Santa (for our multiple trips to the beach this month)
October - a hiking boot and a black bear (for our trip to Yosemite)
November - a piece of pumpkin pie (for our first Thanksgiving as hosts)
December - a holiday home (for coming home for the holidays)

The first weekend in December brought a parade (finally!) to downtown Livermore.  We headed in for dinner beforehand and quickly realized that this wasn't just some dinky small town parade - the streets were blocked off 2 hours in advance and chairs were already out, saving places along the parade route.  After we ate an early dinner, we still had 45 minutes to kill and were a little concerned about Andrew waiting that long... so, we made what perhaps wasn't the best parenting decision ever... we bought him a light saber. You know, like Jedi Knight style.  He LOVED it... but, Mike and I spent the next 45 minutes chasing after him and apologizing to strangers that he whacked while running through the crowd, shrieking in sheer pleasure.  Luckily, our kid is pretty darn cute, so we didn't get too many dirty looks... ;)    The parade was over an hour long.  Andrew definitely would NOT have cared if we left early, but we stayed to the very end to see Santa on top of a fire truck, waving to the crowd.  After he passed, the parade-goers filled the streets, following Santa up to the town center for the tree lighting ceremony.  Santa got down from the truck, we all sang "Santa is Coming to Town" (living out the movie "Elf" - this was my turn to LOVE it!), and then we count down as they lit the tree.  You can't get much more small town holiday magic than that.



Santa's at the top of that fire truck!



Forgive the horrible pic...  but it shows how many people were there...

Merry December 8th!  The beauty of having a small child that does not understand Christmas at all, is that we can make Christmas whenever we need to in order to fit into our bi-coastal December schedule.  Since Andrew and I are flying back to PA on the 15th, it was either do Christmas now, or wait until we got back.  We decided, why not give him a test run at Christmas morning here?  So, Santa's elves were up late on Friday night putting together a wagon from Gram and Pop, and a slide from Santa.  Andrew's wagon was then filled with a few presents for Santa's first visit. A friend with older kids had warned me that Andrew may not be as into this as I was hoping - but he was so wrong... Andrew was a perfect kid on Christmas morning.  He was a little surprised to see such large, new toys sitting in the living room - but couldn't wait to investigate them!  He also did a wonderful job at unwrapping his presents, showing the appropriate amount of enthusiasm and playing with each toy the appropriate amount of time before moving on to the next thing.  It was like he had been doing this for years!



Why do you want me to put this on my head?

And you want me to stick my hand in here?

Thanks Gram and Pop!

Later on "Christmas" Day... we went out to return a couple things I had gotten Mike for Christmas, and we decided to walk through the mall.  Well, Andrew was not dressed for pictures with Santa, but I could not resist when I saw how awesome this Santa was... real beard and all!  There was a little bit of a wait, so Mike followed Andrew around the mall while I stood in line... whenever they would get close to me, Andrew would make a beeline for Santa, right past all the other waiting kids.  I thought that this must be a good sign, until we were finally next in line and Andrew had a melt down.  We figured, eh... we won't buy the pictures if this goes really badly... but, as soon as they said it was our turn, Andrew stood up, held my hand as we approached Santa cautiously, allowed me to place him on Santa's lap and then started adoringly at Santa!  It was priceless... well, not exactly - the pictures were so darn cute, we ended up buying the USB drive. Merry December 8th to everyone!