Christmas! #1

That's right. Can you believe that Santa already came to Dublin, Ohio? We celebrated our own little family's Christmas on Sunday. We'll be in Chicago on the actual day this year and Sunday was the last non-work day before we head off to the great white north. So we exchanged gifts and had a wonderfully lazy and relaxing day (although somehow I was exhausted by the end of it)! We got some big gifts for Colin this year (things that definitely wouldn't travel easily, even in the van). We set everything up Saturday night. In the basement was his new red retro kitchen that only took his dad about two hours to assemble.

Just the right size for a Christmas elf

In the living room was his tent and tunnel set and Howdy his blow-up bouncy cow. We also had many nice gifts from Keith's aunts and uncles and godmother to open too. Colin came downstairs on "Christmas morning" and was all set to chase after Minnie when he stopped at the site of the toys set up in the living room. It was a fun moment to see him take off to check them out. We spent the morning opening gifts and playing upstairs and didn't even make it to the basement to see the kitchen until almost his nap time. He loved it! He had played with the same kitchen at a neighbor's house so we knew he liked it. He doesn't have any food or dishes for it yet. We asked some relatives to buy him some of those. But in the meantime he's enjoyed playing with his spoons, bowls, and some old food containers. He was a little scared of Howdy the cow at first but got over it pretty quickly once we showed him how fun it is to bounce on him. He took right to the tunnel and tent.

This year Colin can actually rip into gifts - fun!

Hi Howdy!

Charging full speed ahead down the tunnel

The box warns that it is not for outdoor camping. Good thing, I'd be cramped.

The only truly productive thing we did on Sunday was to make Christmas cookies and lasagna for dinner. The rest of the day was spent watching Colin enjoy his presents and putting away our own. Keith got me some very nice things this year. I was impressed by his great taste! It was a very nice day. We're so lucky to have three Christmas celebrations this year! Our second Christmas will be in Chicago and Naperville with the Okrzesiks and our third will be back here in Dublin with the Masons over New Year's weekend. Now if I could only get through these last three days of work!