Vasona Park

You gotta love 60+ degree weather in December. It was a perfect day to visit Vasona Park in Los Gatos, near Grandma and Grandpa's house. This park had a train ride, a carousel, a big playground, and a huge lawn to run around. Can't wait to go back!

Fun with Brady

Brady reacts to a few Christmas gifts that he didn't ask for.

First, Prentice's little stocking stuffer, a Santa laser. Yes, they actually sell these in pet stores so you can mess with your pets.

And then, my new Roomba. This drove him crazy. Guess I'll only be able to use this when he's not home.

A Very Merry Christmas

I was thrilled to wake up on Christmas morning and find that Santa had visited! And Mommy caught it all on video. Ahh, the magic of Christmas!

This year I really wanted an Elmo play-doh color mixer. I came across a YouTube video a few months ago of this woman demonstrating her Elmo play-doh color mixer, and since then I've been obsessed, watching the video almost every morning. I was so excited when I opened my gift from Santa and saw what was inside!

After opening presents and playing for a bit, Mommy made us a yummy breakfast of waffles and sausages. Later, we headed to Grandma's house for more Christmas fun and another round of opening presents.

Enjoying a warm Christmas afternoon at the nearby park.

Gifts from Cao-cao

And finally, I received one last gift from Poh-poh the next day! She had been hiding it at the side of the backyard waiting to surprise me, but I accidentally found it when I was outside with Brady. So much for a surprise!

Love my new bicycle!

I'm sad that Christmas is over, but am enjoying all of my new toys!

Christmas Eve

On the day before Christmas I spent most of the day in the kitchen helping Mommy bake cookies. It started out as a quick activity to bake some cookies for Santa Claus, but after the first batch, Mommy got carried away and went into a baking frenzy. She ended up making four different types of cookies, and I insisted on helping with each one. Which of course meant things took twice as long. It was a fun morning/afternoon!

For dinner we went to The Old Spaghetti Factory in Redwood City. You gotta love a family friendly spaghetti dinner on Christmas Eve. Mommy and Daddy joked about this becoming a new Christmas Eve tradition, but I think they might actually be serious.

Nothing says Christmas Eve like an after-dinner trip to Target.

I enjoyed staying up past my bedtime in anticipation of Santa's visit!

I somehow got the idea that reindeer like to eat baby marshmallows, so we left some out for them, along with Santa's milk and cookies.

K Sings Christmas Songs

On Christmas Eve, Kaitlyn performed some of the new Christmas songs she's learned in the past few weeks. Here they are: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Jingle Brady. Yes, she made the last one up.

Preschool Christmas Sing Along

My preschool invited the parents to visit during class for a Christmas sing along. Only two of the eight songs we performed were actually familiar Christmas tunes. But they all loved watching us laugh and sing together. Here's a clip of a few of the songs we performed. You can definitely tell who the class clowns are.

Christmas Cookie Video

Kaitlyn watched an episode of Caillou where he was making Christmas sugar cookies with his mommy, and for days afterward she was begging me to make "star cookies" with her too. So one Saturday morning, after days of promises and anticipation, she finally got what she asked for. She was so excited, and loved every minute of it.

Prentice took all these video clips throughout the process so I used iMovie for the first time to make a little Christmas video. I think I'll stick to just making cookies from now on.