Cross Christmas

Whew...finally I have a chance to upload Christmas pictures and post them for everyone! It has been a whirlwind week...cooking and wrapping and then after Holiday sales, a little accident with mommy's foot that left her limping for a few days, visits with Den and Gran, and some time at home playing with our new toys and finding room for them all!

On Christmas morning, Lennox was a late riser. Daddy was excited with his gifts for me so he got us up early and we sipped coffee and opened our presents before Lennox woke up and that gave us time to call Oma and Opa (Mark's parents) to come over and watch Lennox when he woke up. He was so excited when he finally did and loved all his toys. The big hits were the train, of course, Mr. Potato Head, and the basketball hoop. He got a tricycle from Oma and Opa and an awesome dump truck. We spent all day playing. He would not take a nap. In the afternoon, Jill's parents and grandmother came over and we all had dinner together. It was a very relaxing day. Mommy pretty much stayed in her pajamas all day and so did Lennox. We still have a huge mess to contend with and organize.

The next morning Lennox woke up and the first words he said to mommy were "I want to open presents" It was so cute.

Awaiting Santa Claus

The night before Christmas at the Cross house...Lennox snuggled up in his Christmas PJ's and we sat down to a story together...The Polar Express, which mommy prefers to the Night Before Christmas. Lennox loved it because it had a train in it :-) He listened so intently to the entire story. Then we set out our homemade cookies for Santa with some milk and hung the special Santa key on our front door. We have two fireplaces, but I love the Santa Key idea, a key that only works on our door for Santa on Christmas. Santa was busy getting Lennox's presents together when he made it in. Under the tree for the morning were a basketball hoop, Mr. Potato Head, a train set, a dinosaur, and some cars. And Santa must have been hungry because he ate all the cookies and drank the milk ;-)

Round Two

After a long day of cooking and baking with mommy, Lennox was ready to see his Oma and Opa (Mark's parents) tonight for Christmas Eve. We always celebrate with his family on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts. Lennox was so handsome and so grown up dressed in his Christmas garb. At Oma and Opa's it took awhile for him to warm up to the crowd of people. He visited with a singing and moving Santa, played with his cousin Emma, and ate some ham and rolls. His favorite toy of the evening was the firetruck he received from Uncle Philip which he pushed up and down the hallway in the back part of the house. Before we left we changed him into his Christmas pajamas and took a ride around the neighborhood to look at lights one more time.

Christmas Round One!

Lennox had his first real taste of Christmas at Jill's parents yesterday. He opened his first present of the year, a Thomas the Train Set which was a hit. He preferred to push it, even though it could go by itself. He was a good conductor, shouting "choo-choo all aboard!" It was adorable. He was fascinated with his cousin Holly's talking and moving baby doll and Mark and I wondered if maybe we should have gotten him a little baby doll for Christmas too. Then he got Ratatouille from Jill's grandmother which had to go immediately into the DVD player while he listened to his cousin David play on his new guitar. We ate our Christmas dinner together and were exhausted when we headed home that evening...

Cookie Fun

Tonight Lennox was feeling great and we decided to make some cookies for our friends and neighbors. Lennox helped me cut the shapes out of the dough. He preferred the candy cane over all the rest of them. Then we decorated them, which was an adventure. We didn't get many done. Lennox hand painted them all with his fingers, but we have a few cookies we can share. He was very proud of his creations and mommy can not believe how big he looks in these pictures.

Sick Baby

Poor Baby Lennox...sick on Christmas. On Friday, Lennox woke up with a nasty cough which would not subside. Mommy took him to the doctor where he was given a Nebulizer Treatment (which Lennox hated and it was such a fight) and some medication to take home. The breathing treatment worked for awhile, but by the afternoon the coughing was worse and Lennox was turning red and gagging from it. We had to take him back to the doctor. This time they sent the Nebulizer home with him and put him on predisone, along with the two other prescriptions he had gotten in the morning. The doctor says it is all due to the change in weather. Nothing contagious, just nasty and allergy related. We cuddled at home all night. Daddy and Lennox vegged out with Frosty the Snowman on tv. Later he did his breathing treatment like a pro and insisted on holding it himself. Today he seems 50x better so we are happy that the meds are working and that he will be able to play and have fun on Christmas morning. One of the meds makes him super hyper though, so he has pretty much not shut up or stopped moving all day...but on the other extreme he is being super loving. We are getting "I love you" out of nowhere and kisses and cuddling. He is asking to hold our hands when we are chilling out and loving all over our dog, Dobby.

A Light Spectacular!

The magic of the holidays is all around us. Today mommy finally finished her Christmas cards. Tomorrow is Lennox's holiday party at school. And tonight we got some Starbucks and headed out for a Christmas Light hunt. We went to Kuhn Flowers where there is always a big Christmas display. Lennox was so excited. I loved watching his expression when he saw the lights up close. He was skipping and jumping and cried for "Santa" and the "Kissmas Tree" when we left. We took a trip to the Jacksonville Landing to see the big Christmas tree on the water and drove around our neighborhood too. We are trying to do something simple everyday with Lennox to celebrate the holidays and cherish the time we have together. Our next big adventure is cookie making on Saturday. Mommy bought all the stuff today to decorate our creations.

Holiday Trip

Last weekend we went with all of Jill's family to Disney World. Lennox had a blast showing off Disney to his two cousins, Jill's parents, and Jill's grandmother. He played at the Mr. Potato Head store at Downtown Disney and then we headed to our hotel, Coronado Springs, where he watched old Disney cartoons with his cousins, Holly and David. The next morning we headed to Magic Kingdom. Lennox spent the morning riding Buzz Lightyear while mommy and daddy took David on Space Mountain. By lunch, he was already cranky and everyone was tired as you can see from the pic. We ate lunch at the Crystal Palace with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. Lennox was terrified of them and kept saying he was scared :-( He did wave his napkin around with gran to make the Hundred Acre Woods and sing. After a few more rides, we headed back to the hotel for a nap. We slept for hours and woke up realizing it was dark. We all headed to the Boardwalk and the ESPN Restaurant for dinner. Lennox played in the arcade with David and watched football ("feefball") with daddy. He saw an awesome train set in the Boardwalk hotel and was obsessed. You can guess what Santa will be bringing him. Lennox went to bed so late on both nights and still was pretty perfect. On Sunday, we went to Epcot and went on his favorite ride, Spaceship Earth, which had been redone. The parks were so beautifully decorated and we had such a wonderful time spending time with our family and watching Lennox play with his cousins.

Oh Man!

Lennox's new thing for this week...."oh man." We don't know where he picked it up. It is not a phrase that Mark or I use. But, now when he gets upset he gives us an "oh man." It is adorable the way he says it. Last night we opened up our Shrek DVD package and the DVD was gone and it was "oh man." He has been a perfect angel since we returned from our cruise and seems to have grown up a little. No problems when Daddy drops him off to school and eating like crazy (he has always been a picky eater). We have a new little boy almost. He is eating pop tarts and eggos and even asked for a hot dog last night. He got his first bloody nose yesterday. He got excited when mommy and daddy picked him up from school and was running down the hallway of his school. His rubber soled shoes got caught up a little on the linoleum and he fell and hit his nose. Such a big horrible pitiful cry and a little bloody nose. So sad :-(

Only two more days until our Holiday Disney trip and mommy and Lennox's big Christmas break. Yay!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Before mommy and daddy left on their anniversary cruise, Lennox helped us put up the Christmas tree and ornaments (well sort of). He helped mommy unwrap all of our ornaments and inspected all of them. Most of our ornaments are ones that Mark and I collected when we were little and each one has a special meaning. Lennox loved the penguin one above. His "happy feet" ornament. Anything with penguins is now "happy feet." Lennox put some of the ornaments on the bottom of the tree, but then insisted on taking them off too. So after we put on and took off about 15 ornaments, we decided to finish when Lennox went to bed. Right now we are having lots of discussions with Lennox about Christmas vs. Halloween. Because Halloween is the last big holiday he remembers, any sort of decoration for Christmas is now for Halloween according to Lennox. It is so adorable when he says Halloween and so daddy doesn't like to correct him. The only thing that is named correctly is the Christmas tree :-)

Next week we are off to Disney World with Jill's family for the holidays. We are so excited to see the park decorated for Christmas and Lennox's cousins will be with him which should be fun. Last night we drove around looking at Christmas lights and tonight we are headed to a holiday home tour and maybe to Kuhn's to see the Christmas display. Mommy made a holiday journal for the 12 days of Christmas so that we can remember and write about what we did for the 12 days leading up to Christmas! We are so excited!