Christmas

December was a busy, quick month. We spent the first two weeks in Colorado and the last two weeks vacationing in Wisconsin. As December approached, I was starting to feel better--having a little more energy and not as sick. I kept telling my body (and my baby) that we were on a timeline and I had to feel better by the time we got on the plane for Wisconsin--and I did, thankfully.

The first weekend of December, we headed up the mountain to help the Perlman, Halder and Dow families cut down their Christmas trees. The weather was good, and the snow on the ground was manageable to hike through.

The kids were done long before all the trees were found and cut, so half the adults took them back to the cars to warm up. Here's Lennon after spending some time in the car warming up his freezing toes (I think I put too many socks on him and his poor feet were crammed in his boots without much blood flow). He's much happier being warm:

The local fire department does their big fundraising event the weekends around the tree-cutting. We got a yummy lunch and got to see Santa. Lennon was so excited to see Santa, and to tell him that he wanted a "black snowman, a red snowman and a white snowman." (odd, I know). However, when it came time to sit on his lap, he refused--so Santa offered his lap to me and it turned into a family picture.

This is Lennon on the way home from tree-cutting. We were all so exhausted. This picture reminds me that there is still some baby in my little man:
Lennon's first sledding experience. We have a nice, small sledding hill near our home, perfect for a two year old to enjoy flying down the snow. We did a couple rounds where one of us was on the sled with him, but he got it down quick and enjoyed sledding on his own.

Lennon wearing part of his Christmas gift from his Auntie Em--he LOVES his Woody pajamas and feels so cool in his sunglasses (especially since he gets so much attention from strangers when he's wearing them)

Wisconsin

The first day we were in Wisconsin, I got to join in a long-standing tradition in our family, one that I haven't been apart of since I was in high school....cookie baking. When all the grandkids were little, it was a whole weekend, whole family event. The men would take the kids to play in the basement and the women would bake away. The amounts of cookies they bake today is minuscule to what it used to be--imagine this table, times 5 or 6, with each long table being more packed with cookies (no exaggeration is necessary--I promise). Unfortunately, no one ever documented in photos the extent of our cookie extravaganza back in the day.

With my Grandma:

With my cousin Jenny--Jenny came over for dinner Monday night, a day after he spent most of the day playing with her at cookie baking and he said to her, as we were sitting down to eat, "I really missed you today, Jenny."

Our mini version of cookie-baking, so Lennon could decorate:

We let Lennon open a couple presents on Christmas Eve--he was pretty pumped.

Lennon piled 10 cookies on the plate for Santa, and took his job of bringing them to the tree very seriously:

I think my mom may have been more excited for Christmas than Lennon--but they were both having fun in their Christmas pajamas!

Santa followed through and delivered Lennon his black snowman, red snowman and white snowman. Even now, he won't let me put them away with the Christmas decorations. To explain the black snowman thing...I think it all stems from black being Lennon's favorite color (I know, such a weird thing for a 2 yr-old, but I feel it's an improvement from his former favorite color, which was white!) Not sure where the red and white snowmen came from, but when he added white, I stopped asking him, since I didn't want to have a whole rainbow of snowmen to make!

Leah, Drew and Emery arrived on the 26th and the boys had a lot of fun together--here they are with their superhero capes on:

This is usually how Emery would give hugs and kisses-he would put Lennon in a head lock and go in for the kill! Lennon would cower most of the time, waiting for it to be over.

More headlocks!But there were a few times when Lennon either initiated the hug or hugged back!

With his Buzz Lightyear hat and mittens that he got from his Great-Aunt Diane (I guess clothing is optional when you have an awesome hat and mittens on!)

Playing Buzz Lightyear with my Uncle Scott:

Playing with my Uncle Dick--Dick was one of his favorite people to play with because it allowed Lennon to bring out his mischievous, dry humor that he has, and tease his great-uncle!

Our really good friend, Patty came down for New Years Eve and we all had a blast!

We rang in the new year with bowling and pizza--we all had a great time!

Lennon still didn't care much to wait to see the pins being knocked down--after he rolled the ball, he would run back and wait for his favorite part...the ball to come back up the return!

Our return flight was not a great way to end our amazing, relaxing, two-week vacation...Our flight was delayed 2 hours and we didn't get in until 10:00pm. It wouldn't have been as much of an issue, except that we parked our car at the nearby Park-n-Ride and had to catch a bus to get to the lot. However, that late at night, buses don't come that often and we finally crammed onto a standing-room only bus at 11. We ended up getting home around midnight. Lennon was a superstar--he had a blast waiting for the airplane to come, had a blast on the airplane (and he didn't sleep because he loved the plane so much) and he didn't whine or cry at all when we were waiting in the cold for the bus. He sat on my lap on the bus and feel asleep instantly and stayed that way until late morning--he did awesome! I was sick and not doing well with juggling all the luggage and Lennon with Adam--Adam and I were exhausted the next day, so we had a quiet day at home, and did our own Christmas. Here's Lennon playing with his new hotwheels track: