Tis the Season for Christmas Lights and Gingerbread....Trains

We had wonderfully relaxing day today... lounging around the house and enjoying our first day of Christmas break together. Edison played with toys, I was able to read my book for a while, Jonathan went out and flew his airplane... and then had to fish said airplane out of a tree. It was a great day.

We decided to top if off with a trip to the store to get all the fixings for a gingerbread house and on the way home, we drove past 3 houses all decked out with lights.

I LOVE driving around at Christmas time, looking at all the beautiful lights. If I had my way... I'd go to Timbuktu and back to look at lights. Jonathan on the other hand is a bit of a different story. He likes to look at Christmas lights... but not if he has to drive far to get to them. So, I pre-staked out 3 houses, all within 15 minutes of our house for us to go and look at. Maybe later on in the holidays I'll convince him to go look at some houses in a different town than ours.

Edison really enjoys looking at the lights as well. He doesn't always notice them right away, but once you point them out to him he doesn't take his eyes off of them. He sits there in his car seat, pointing away at all the pretty lights.

As we were shopping for all our gingerbread supplies, I saw kits for a gingerbread train and I was sold! I thought it would be fun to mix it up and decorate something other than a house. As a side note... I never make the gingerbread from scratch, I always buy a kit... mainly because I don't even like gingerbread. I like the decorating, and eating off the decorations... and then I leave the rest for Jonathan.

I knew Edison was going to be too young to try to decorate it himself, but I thought he'd still like to watch and I was right! He sat right up on the island, watching me put it all together. He also really enjoyed playing with all the candy and making a big mess. But the cutest part was when I started sticking the candy on the train, he started passing me each piece... I'd glue in on and he'd pass me another piece. He was very intent on helping me out in whatever way he could. He also discovered Smarties, which he'd never had before and once he ate one we were in big trouble... he was a Smartie eating machine. Nothing like a big sugar high right before bed!

 

Very excited for ginger-train making 

Checking out the gingerbread... there were a couple of close calls when Edison tried to sample it

How do all these little pieces make a train?!? 

Oooohhh, candy 

Doesn't look very pretty yet, but at least it looks like a train 

Time to decorate! 

Edison, handing me some pieces  

The big mess he made 

Chooo Chooo! Ain't she a beauty?? 

It was a very Christmassy evening and a great way to end a great day! We're looking forward to spending many more great days together over the holidays!

Monkeying Around

Edison is quite the energetic little monkey.... all the time! He loves climbing, sliding, and playing, and he never seems to get tired.

In the last month or so, we've taken him to quite a few different indoor play places for him to burn off some energy and practice his monkey skills. I have some great videos of him playing at a place called Jungle Jacks and I'm hoping I get a bit of time over the Christmas Break to upload them to the blog.

Yesterday Jonathan took Edison to our local Rec Centre where they have an indoor playroom for tots. I wasn't able to join them unfortunately.... having to go to that annoying place called work... but it looks like they had a great time!

On a mission, ready to play! 

Trying not to sink... 

Fun on the trampoline... I love how his legs are blurry, like a mini-roadrunner  

Taking a quick break 

Not sure he likes riding this motorcycle... 

Whipping up a snack 

It looks like they had  a great time. I'm looking forward to joining them next time as today is my last day of work!!!! Well, for a couple of weeks anyway. I'm so excited to spend my days with Edison and Jonathan and not even think about work! It's going to be awesome! Stay tuned for blog posts about all of our fun Christmas Vacation comings and goings. We're staying around town, but we have some fun activities planned!

Wordless Wednesday - Ready for his close-up

O Christmas Tree

In the first weekend of December we decided to head out to our local garden centre (soon to be owned by my Dad and Renata!!) to get our Christmas tree.

Blogging about our Christmas tree made me realize that I've been blogging for just over a year now! Click here if you'd like to journey back to our Christmas Tree last year.... when Edison was just a wee one. This is Edison's second Christmas and its really cool to look back at the pictures from last year and marvel at how much he's grown and how different his Christmas experience will be this year. He'll be a little less interested in the wrapping paper, and a little more interested in the toy that hides inside... unlike last year when the fun part was crunching up the paper.

Since November 25th of 2010, I've managed to write almost 150 blog posts! I have to admit, when starting the blog I wasn't sure I was going to be able to sick with it. I've definitely surpassed my own expectations of this blog and I'm so glad I did. I love looking back at past blog posts... it's such a great way to remember this most amazing year we've had with Edison, who brings indescribable joy to our lives.


Okay... back to the Christmas tree. So, there we are at Trice Farms... looking at all the beautiful trees, when a scraggly Charlie Brown tree calls Jonathan's name and he gets his heart set on bringing it home. It's probably a good thing we picked a Charlie Brown tree anyway, because we didn't want to put a ton of ornaments on it due to the curiosity of Mr. Edison

Edison was more interested in the rocks... which actually come from my Dad's company 

Loaded up and ready to go! 

Perhaps I should have stood in a different spot so there wasn't a giant pole in the pictures 

Jonathan and Edison built a fort in our living room, which we played in while decorating the tree 

Lights! 

Wondering why this candy cane doesn't taste as good 

 Edison, trying to help decorate. It was SO cute!

TA DA!  

My mom asked why our lights only went up the middle of the tree... I said, the branches on this tree are so wimpy they can't hold anything as heavy as lights! Also, after we first decorated the tree, Edison took off all the ornaments that were within his reach... so we now have a tree that is only decorated on the top half. But, I guess you can't expect perfection in a house that has a 16 month-old terrorizing it all the time. It's definitely a Charlie Brown tree with character.


But... lets not forget the real reason Christmas is celebrated in the Reichert household...

For unto us a Child is born,

Unto us a Son is given.

And the government will be upon his shoulder.

And His name will be called

Wonderful, Councillor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

- Isaiah 9:6

Out for a Stroll

I love downloading pictures off my camera and discovering ones that I didn't even know were on there. Jonathan does a great job and taking pictures of their comings and goings during the day while I'm at work.

They frequently go to our local coffee shop (where Edison is always a big hit with the ladies that work there) and then from there, they walk to a park near by. Edison loves to walk... and he never seems to get tired!