Christmas Day!!!

The stocking were hung by the chimney with care...

About two weeks before Christmas James saw a Lightening McQueen bike at Costco. He liked it of course, he likes anything with McQueen on it! Lightening McQueen for those who don't know is the Disney Cars Character. After we were at Costco every time I asked him what he wanted Santa to bring him he would say "Speed Bike". Well he had already told Santa that he wanted other stuff so Santa wasn't really planning on bringing him the bike. EVERY day for about a week I would ask him what he wanted Santa to bring, thinking he would change his mind, but no he didn't! So luckily Santa had an extra bike for James!
As soon as James woke up in the morning he came in and got us, then while Craig went to get the video ready we went and woke up Brianna. As soon as we headed downstairs James could see his bike and he was SO excited, he dropped his blankie at the top of the stairs and couldn't get down the stairs fast enough, saying, "my bike my bike", the whole way down! It was so cute to see!
James opening his stocking

Brianna opening her stocking

Brianna helping James set up his toys

One of Jake's favorite toys...his sippy cup!

Brianna got a snuggie for her B-day and I got one for Xmas!

Jake's other favorite toy...ELMO! He loves Elmo, he cracks up at Elmo!

Brianna also asked Santa for a bike this Christmas. She was so excited as well!

James has never ridden a bike so we were kinda concerned on how he would do and if he would get it. He gets pushing the pedal down but it is pushing it around that is the hard part. Craig has been working with him every day though and he is getting better every day!

Breakfast is Craig's specialty. So every Christmas morning my Mom and Tom come over to our house to watch the kids open their presents and Craig makes breakfast. Here are all the boys in the kitchen watching Daddy cook!

I just had to put these two pictures in here to show what a little cuddle bug our Jakie is! :)

After we finish at our house we get on the road and go to Craig's sister's house. There we join his family for lunch.

Somebody had to help Jake open his presents, he wasn't old enough yet to understand, so here I am helping him open his present. He wasn't even very interested in the paper!

James on the other hand very excited to open all his presents

Jake more interested in the fireplace

James opening his stocking from Nonna

We have a very busy Christmas day...after Craig's sister's house we go over to my Mom's house for dinner and Christmas with my Mom's family.

Jake Vince and Michael

Robyn and Ian

Aunt Rochelle and Jade

Nonni and Jake. Jake is done for the night!

We had a wonderful Christmas with all of our family. Can't wait till next year!

Christmas Eve!!

Christmas Eve we spend at my Mom's house with one of my brothers and his family. Our day starts early because we meet at my Mom's for lunch. Of course it is an Italian lunch, this year we had meatball and sausage sandwiches, pasta salad, and of course cannolis for dessert!
Me, Brianna, and two of my nieces

James opening one of his gifts. He was so excited to finally open gifts, he kept asking where are my gifts, like there should be more and more for him to open!

James got a lot of great gifts but I think this is one of his favorites. A new, bigger Thomas train set from Nonni and Papa. I am SO glad this is staying there! It took me about an hour to put this thing together, of course I started it out wrong so that maybe was why it took so long! Why I got stuck with it I have no idea! Isn't this a Daddy thing to do???

Everyone playing with the train set

After lunch at my Mom's we head to church, this year we were a little discombobulated. We always go to mass at 4:00. This year we decided to go at 6 because it is way less crowded, we won't have to get there an hour and a half before just to get seats, and we don't have any plans at night so it just made more sense that we don't have to rush in the afternoon. Well, Brianna went to church at 4 with her Dad because she goes with him on Christmas Eve and they do their Christmas stuff with his family that night. So it was kinda weird not having her with me for the first time at Christmas mass. Then Craig and I had had a MAJOR miscommunication. My Mom and Tom went to get seats at church and we were going to leave the house later so we didn't have to sit there with the boys for so long. I had brought all our clothes to my Mom's house to get ready for church. Well the clothes I brought Craig were the WRONG ones! He needed to go back home to get some clothes, I thought let me and the boys get dressed, we will go to our house, he can run in, and then we will go straight to church. Well it was getting rather late and there was no way we would have time for all of that. It was 5 minutes after the time we were supposed to leave my Mom's and I told him just go and I will take the boys. By that I meant go home, change, and MEET me at church. It seemed like it was taking Craig a long time, Craig was not showing up, I was wondering where he was, I didn't have my phone. I ask my Mom to check her phone. Craig txted her asking if she knew where I was!! She txt back, "in church". He thought I was going to pick him up at our house!! WHAT?? He totally MISSED church! So it made it even more weird having xmas mass first without Brianna and then without Craig! James slept through the whole mass, thank goodness, otherwise I would have been outside the whole time, and Jake was of course a good little boy! So, for the first time I did not get a family picture at church with everyone dressed up! I was so bummed especially since it was Jake's' 1st Christmas!
Jake in his Christmas outfit

Trying to get a picture with the Santa hat on Jake, he kept taking it off, he thought it was a game, the little stinker.

James with his Handy Manny tool box trying to fins something to fix! He loved that present too, he slept with it that night! :)

There was one present under our tree that James had picked up the first day I put the presents out and it was for him. Every day he would pick it up and ask if it was Christmas and if he could open that gift. I bought it intentionally for him to open on Christmas Eve because after church we go back to my Mom's for some leftovers, since we aren't that hungry, and we usually watch a movie. James LOVES Charlie Brown so I bought him Charlie Brown's Christmas and thought we could watch it after church. He was so excited when I showed him the gift and gave it to him to open.

Yeah! Charlie Brown!

Craig and James drinking eggnog and watching Charlie Brown. James' first experience with eggnog and he loved it!

X-Mas Cookies!

I love baking Xmas cookies. We ALWAYS bake over at my Mom's house. We usually make sugar cookies and press cookies, but this year we only made sugar cookies and for the first year I made gingerbread men. The gingerbread came out so cute and they were very tasty! We will definitely do them again! So Wednesday we spent our day baking cookies at my Mom's house while she was cooking for Xmas Eve and Xmas. James didn't help much, he just wanted to eat everything again! He was even eating the sprinkles out of the bowl! As you can see here the sprinkles all over his face!

Brianna working diligently on decorating her cookies!

Some of our sugar cookies, we were so proud, they came out so cute! :)

And my cute gingerbread men!

Gingerbread TRAIN!

I had bought a gingerbread house for James to make but Brianna's best friend's Mom gave James a gingerbread train! He was so excited to make the train! This was our first time making gingerbread anything! I was so excited too and a little nervous as to how much of a mess James would make and of course all he wanted to do was eat all the candy, not decorate! Well I was right, he wanted to eat all the candy and there was a big mess. He kept dropping all the candy balls on the floor and the frosting is just a mess in itself!
James and I decorating the train!

Me telling James if he eats all the candy there will be none left to decorate with!

Finished the train and James eating the train

The finished train!

Boat Parade

This year we went to the Balboa boat parade all by ourselves. Last year was the first year my family...my brother's and their families didn't go because my brother's were over the crowd and trying to find parking. When my Dad lived there they didn't have an excuse they had to go! Last year we went with some friends and we had fun but the restaurant we went to for years sold and we didn't know until that night! We were kinda bummed. This year I didn't really have a plan. I didn't have reservations anywhere so we knew we weren't going to get in anywhere so I thought we would just grab a bite at this Mexican place, that doesn't really have anywhere to sit, and we could walk with our food and eat. Well it is a good thing we were by ourselves because we MISSED the parade!!! It went by at 7:00 and we didn't get down to the water till 7:30, although we were there at 7:00 and I knew that the parade was coming by that point at 7:05! Gosh I am not having good luck with the Christmas festivities this year! It was very weird there too, we went on a Thursday which we normally do because we think that is the day that is the least crowded and there was NO one there. We found parking right away and the island looked like it was just a normal night. It would have been perfect! So since we were down there we decided to walk around the island, (which I haven't done since my Dad passed) and look at the houses, since they do have contests too for that I knew we would see some good houses, and we did. It was nice and we had a good time anyhow!
Here is the only picture I took of James eating a sprinkled covered marshmallow on a stick!

Disappointed at Disneyland

I know in reading this title you are probably thinking, what is she talking about. She posts Disneyland all the time and they seem to enjoy themselves so much! Well you are right, usually we do. And it wasn't that last night that we didn't enjoy ourselves but I was very disappointed. :(
I have wanted to go to Disneyland during the holidays at night so we could see the Christmas lights,the Christmas parade, see Santa and his reindeer, see it "snow", and watch the firework show, since James has never seen it at Disneyland. We went last night because it was Craig's B-day and we thought it would be a great night to go. Plus we needed to get his free $72 Disney dollars since it was his B-day! I was so excited, I thought it would get us more in the holiday spirit, it has been cold and I couldn't wait to see all this stuff bundled up with some warm coffee. My Mom watched Jake for us so it was even better that we didn't have to cart him around! Poor Jake. Craig, James, Brianna, my niece Alex, and I all went.
So we get there at 6:35. As soon as we walk in I see Mickey. I look at my parade time sheet and the last showing of the Christmas parade was at 6:30!!!I am bummed, but oh well. So we go eat dinner. We have a yummy dinner at the Mexican place and we decide to walk back to where Santa is and his reindeer to see them before we go on any rides. Well guess what...he wasn't there and it was closed! So now everyone is giving me a hard time because two of the things I wanted to see we weren't able to! We then went on a few rides, I felt like it was the middle of summer, on a Saturday the lines were SO long and it was SO crowded. I have never had to wait in line for the merry-go-round! I asked someone if it was true that they have snow on Main St. since my group didn't believe me. He said yes at 9:00. It was 8:45, so we walked down to Main St. waiting for the snow to come out, during this little walk James fell asleep! It was past 9:00 and there is no snow still. Craig goes to get his Disney $ and I go ask another worker if there is really snow because we are debating whether or not to leave. I want to see it snow, we are all talking about what we think the "snow" is...he says yes there is, it is on Main St. between the Christmas tree and the castle. I am thinking FABULOUS! Then I ask him what the snow actually is and he tells me it is bubbles! I was so disappointed, I thought it was real, fake snow. When we heard that all of us decided let's just go!
So I was really disappointed in the whole experience. I was expecting so much more from Disneyland! I'd rather not hassle with the crowds next year. Been there seen the lights and that's enough for me!
Here is a picture of It's a Small World with all the lights.

Craig and sleeping James in front of the tree

All that really counts is James had a good time at the Happiest Place on Earth! And he did!

And He's OFF!!

Jake was 10 months on Monday and the last few weeks he has been trying to walk. He had taken up to 15 steps I mentioned before and some considered that walking! I didn't because he wasn't doing it THAT often. Now he is walking more and more and he is getting pretty fast. He is doing so well at it! I think I would consider him walking now!

Christmas Time

Finally it feels like Christmas in our household. I don't know why but I feel so behind this year on the decorations. Actually I do know why...all my friends decorated and had their trees up right after Thanksgiving! (Most of who have FAKE trees) Agh, you guys how do you have fake trees?? I just don't get it! Tonight we got our tree decorated!
James helping Mommy put the lights on

James putting on his first ornament

Jake just noticing the tree and wouldn't leave it alone. We are going to have to watch him! No ornaments in reach of Jake!

Brianna putting her ONE ornament on the tree.

She was too much of a teenager this year to help decorate!

Craig and James enjoying hot chocolate while I finished decorating the tree. James' first cup of hot cocco, as he was calling it and he loved it!

Our tree

And we have another stocking added to the mantle this year!!! Baby Jake!

Now all we need is some presents under the tree! Don't think those will go out until the day before, I don't want to have to re-wrap everything!