Tree and Lights

This year, I had the honor of hosting my side of the family's Christmas, and in my family we decorate a tree together on Christmas Eve.  We decided we might as well get a smaller tree to hold us over until then, and who doesn't like having two Christmas trees anyway?

Ethan really loved decorating the tree and didn't want to stop ever.  He kept exclaiming, "Isn't it AMAZING, Mommy/Daddy?!?" and, "It's AMAZING!!"  Oh, and the way he says "ornament?"  So cute. We literally had to drag him upstairs for bedtime because he did not want to quit.

Ethan and Daddy decorating the tree (taken with our back-up camera, so excuse the less than stellar quality).

Finished product

Ethan admiring the ornaments.

Me trying to be artistic.

And because we got a small family tree this year and I usually have about 10 or 12 white lights on our tree (yes, I'm a little light crazy), I had plenty of lights left over to do this:

I love lights.

 I absolutely love it and I'm considering leaving them up forever.  Cory has finally gotten on board with my Christmas lights idea and he executed my vision perfectly.  Very Griswold, no?

Christmas Festivities 2011

Things have been mighty busy this month, so I'm using that as the reason the blog has yet again been neglected.  So here's a nice round up of all the things we've been up to this season.

The first Christmas activity we attended was a party with all of Ethan's buddies complete with a secret Santa gift exchange.  Ethan has really started to like interacting with his friends and he enjoyed getting together with everyone, and of course getting his first present of the season.

E and a few of his buddies enjoying brunch at the party

That evening we headed down to the capital for their tree lighting and holiday sing-a-long.  We've never done this before, and while it was no Rockefeller Center, it was okay.  It was pretty uneventful, though.  We heard a few Christmas carols, saw the tree, and then took a stroll down Congress Avenue admiring the lights.

Me and Ethan

Our attempt at a family photo.  Again, nothing like last year.

Daddy and Ethan

Nana and Ethan

Another activity we did this year was a Christmas Cookie exchange.  Well, I did it actually, and it was my first ever.  I'm not really a sweets person, but I knew two guys who would be all over getting six dozen cookies.  Their faces when I came home with my stash was totally worth it, and then they got right to work.

Examining their goodies.

We also had a house guest the week before Christmas, my good friend Kathy, so we had to drag her along to a timeless Austin tradition.  She was sad to find out the Trail of Lights was no more, but we enjoyed a bit of the Zilker Tree.  Ethan LOVED the spinning part.  I'm just glad we decided to eat dinner after visiting the tree, things could have gotten ugly.

The tree.  Gotta have a picture every year I suppose.

Spinning.  Blurry, but I still love it.

Nana bought him a sussie.

So that's a little bit of what we've been up to.  More Christmas posts to come.

A quick catch up... Halloween

Just a quick back track so we can get on to the Christmas fun.

Halloween was lovely.  Ethan has only done trick-or-treating once as a baby Bevo, and it was only to a couple of houses on our street.  This year, we had him all ready for the big night.  I was a little nervous he would be too shy to go up to stranger's houses and ask for candy, but he was a pro.  He even remembered his manners and said thank you and "bye' to everyone.

When he got home, he was all about digging into the candy, and he told us all about how he saw some scary things.  He never really got scared and we explained it was all pretend, but he continued to tell everyone who asked for the next few days that he went "twick or tweet and saw some sca-wee fings."  It was pretty adorable.

Getting ready to go

walking with Nana

He immediately stripped down because he was hot, and then discovered his love for Tootsie Rolls.  And of course, had some of his favorties, M&Ms.

Better late than never, Happy Halloween.

wordless Wednesday

because we haven't had one in awhile: