It was a full Easter this year. Jen and Jack spent the weekend before with Jen’s grandparents and parents while I was away. Then the Saturday before Easter Jen’s parent’s came over to give Jack his Easter basket and do a little babysitting while we went out to dinner. Lastly, Easter Sunday we celebrated at home, then went to my Dad’s and then went to my Mom’s.
Of course, it was this day that Jack chose to wake up before 5am, then not eat or nap all day. He was a bit of a maniac towards the end of the day. We hit traffic on the way home so Jack slept almost the whole way and then we had to wake him up to get him in the bath and then off to bed. He was exhausted, so he basically cried the whole bath and then fell right to sleep.
All in all it was a great day. He was exhausted and goofy, but he had a great time and think all the family did too. Hopefully he will nap next holiday… or at least not wake up at 5am.
We got lazy playing with our new toys (both mine and Jack’s) and then had a fun snow day on the Monday after Christmas so I never put up any of the Christmas photos. So, I got even lazier and decided to put it all into one big post.
Christmas Eve Eve (or Festivus for the “rest of us”) was fun. Jack and Jen made cookies for Santa and Jack drew Santa a nice picture on his Christmas plate. Jack was very excited about making Santa cookies. He was also very proud of his drawing for Santa.
Christmas Eve was — as it is every year — at Jen’s parent’s house. It was a lot of people, a lot of presents, a lot of noise and A LOT OF FUN! Last year Jen’s Dad dressed up as Santa for Jack to take pictures and add a little extra fun to the day. This year, he dressed in the suit again, but Jack wanted no part of it. For some reason he was very scared. I can’t figure it out. Last year he hated the Mall Santa, but loved Poppa Santa. This year, loved the Mall Santa and hated Poppa Santa. I guess we will never get the balance right.
After the Santa drama, Jack opened his gifts… all of them. He got some great new toys. Then, Jen and I opened our gifts. We too, got some great new toys. Then the rest of Jen’s family came over and the magical chaos that is Christmas Eve ensued.
Christmas Morning was fun. Jack woke up and came out to see if Santa ate his cookies — and if the reindeer ate the apple. He then proceeded to tear through all his presents as fast as he could. Then the fun of opening each toy and putting in the batteries began. I realize its only been 3 Christmases that I have had a kid, but it seems that each year the toy companies come up with new and inventive ways to cause grief for parents trying to open their kids toys. This year I actually needed a screwdriver and a pair of needle-nose pliers to get the gifts out of the packages. CRAZY!
After our Christmas Morning it was off to my Dad and Theresa’s for Christmas dinner. Jack made out like a bandit there as well… as did me and Jen. Then, Jack spend the rest of the day playing with my Dad’s trains. He would run the trains as fast as he could and wait for them to fall off. Then he would laugh and wait for someone to put them back on. He would have done this all day if we let him.
After a long day of Christmas we headed home… Jack fell asleep in the car and barely moved in the transfer from car to bed. Another great Christmas in the books!
Jack is a lucky, lucky kid. Each year he is guaranteed to have at least 4 Christmases – One with my Mom, one with my Dad, one with Jen’s family and one with us. Add in a school party and whatever might be happening in our complex and Jack could be looking at 8 days of Christmas. Its the Hanukkah of Christmases!
This past Sunday was Christmas Part 1 with my Mom and that side of our family. It was a windy, rainy day, but we were glad it wasn’t snow. Everyone had a great time, and just when we thought we were going to lose Jack during dinner, Cars saved the day!
Jack got some really great gifts and had a fun time playing with Jasmine – the dog in the photos. We all had a really great time. Now we just have to hope the rest of our celebrations go as smoothly and that we don’t get too many new toys… or we will have to buy another apartment just for jack and his stuff.
Since we never got around to going to see the tree last year, we decided this past Saturday would be the perfect time to go. We didn’t have any plans and it wasn’t going to be that cold. Turns out I was wrong.
Jack just wasn’t feeling it. He did not want to get out of his stroller and if I stopped for more than 30 seconds, like say, for a traffic light, he starting screaming, “I want to move! I want to move, now!”
We went to see the tree and he wouldn’t get out for a photo and kept yelling, “I want to see something else!”
It was a fun time… So, since we wanted to spend more than 30 minutes in NYC, we decided to walk around and find some lunch. The only problem was we knew Jack would be awful in a restaurant and would not sit still. Then the light bulb went off! We got some Wendy’s and some Five Guys and ate lunch in my office. It was the happiest Jack was all day.
We took Jack to the mall to meet Santa. After last year (search my previous posts) we decided to get him set up for the whole thing. We told Jack that he would need to tell Santa what he wanted to Christmas and that Santa was going to ask if he was a good boy. Jack told us he was going to ask Santa for a Thomas book. If we had known it was going to be that easy we could have returned the hundreds of toys we all bought for him. He also said he was going to tell Santa he had been a good boy.
We got to the mall and Jack immediately starting running around. With the long line, we thought we might be in trouble. But as we got closer he stayed with us. Then we were next. That was when Jack decided he wasn’t waiting anymore. He lifted up the rope and started running. Jen unhooked the rope so I could grab him except that she didn’t unhook it all the way and I ran straight into it and bounced backwards. By now Jack was halfway down the ramp. I threw down the diaper bag, lifted up the rope and ran under just as Jack reached the bottom.
So… then it was our turn. Jack sat on Santa’s lap and told him he wanted a Thomas book. Santa, being as knowledgeable as he is, started asking Jack about James and Percy and all the other trains. It was great. He was a little shy, but we got a couple of great pictures. MUCH better than last year!
For those of you who missed the live Tweet event of the season, I have pasted it below for all to enjoy…
Steven J. Shaw
The Black Friday Christmas Tree shopping will be live Tweeted.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Decided to try Home Depot first. Got a parking spot 20 feet from the door. Will luck be on my side?
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Home Depot is dead. No lines. I’m frightened.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Too good to be true. Off to Target.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Saw a Michael’s. Stopped in. Had a nice tree. Will check Target.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Super impressed with Target. Crowded but efficient. I don’t like the trees. Back to Michael’s.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Winner winner chicken dinner! Michael’s has a $200 tree on sale for $99. On line. Maybe 7 people deep.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Too good to be true.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Trees out of stock. They are calling other stores.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
Its a Christmas miracle! They had a similar tree that was a little taller for $25 more! Just as nice.
26 Nov
Steven J. Shaw
I saved Christmas!
26 Nov
What a thrilling night! What an incredible performance! What a tree!
I really thought I was going to have an easy commute for Thanksgiving this year. We were with Jen’s family and her Aunt was hosting. They live 16 miles from us in Harrison. This was a coup! Rather than dealing with LI traffic, or driving to Northern Westchester I was right around the corner. It was going to be a SNAP!
Boy was I wrong. 16 miles and it took us 55 minutes to get there. It was the longest drive to a holiday we have had in a long time… possibly ever. Turns out, as close as we were there are no good highways to take. Everything is backed up, especially on a holiday.
Well, after using Google Navigation on my Droid to find us a back roads alternate route, we got there. Everything was great. The food, the family… the food.
Normally, when I see things like this, I think about how awesome they would be. Normally, I would read the article, look at the directions, and realize its too much work. Normally, I would not even bother bring it up to the wife.
This time, however, I took the bold step.
I mentioned it to Jen and she immediately fell in love with the idea. Let’s be honest; how could you not? A layer of turkey, a layer of mashed potatoes, a layer of cranberry, a layer of stuffing, more potatoes, more cranberry, another layer of turkey, “frosted” with mashed potatoes and topped with mashed sweet potatoes and marshmallows. Yum!
I tried to be a good food blogger and take pictures as I assembled. But I failed. I missed taking photos of a few steps. But I think you get the idea in the final two shots.
I don’t think I even need to say this, but it was DELICIOUS.
Last Sunday we went to White Plains to help Christy set up her tree. She set out a nice spread of snacks and apps. There was also cake, but we weren’t allowed to eat it since Christy wanted to return it to the store to get her money back. Jack had a great time decorating (or as he says, “decor-A-ting). It was a fun way to kick off the holiday season.
This year Jack was Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. In keeping with our tradition we had the families over for a Halloween party and Trick or Treating in our building. After everyone got to the apartment and gave Jack his candy buckets we had some apps and then put Jack in his costume. He LOVED it. He kept saying, “Infinirty enbeyon!” which, if you don’t speak Jack is, “To infinity and beyond!”
We gave him his Halloween bag and he went to get the bucket of candy for the trick or treaters who were coming to our place and proceeded to dump all of the candy into his bag. He tried to do it the easy way.
The trick or treating went even better than last year. He kept running around knocking on doors. He did not try to go into anyone’s apartment this year, which was good. We were smarter this year and sent scouting teams to the lower floors to find the apartments with candy so that when Jack got to that floor we just pointed him in the direction. Every time he got to a floor someone would say, “Jack, I found one, do you want to go?” and he would scream “Yes yes yes!” and go running. It was great. He also had the biggest smile on his face every time someone gave him candy.
When it was over Jack only wanted a little bit of the candy. We will probably end up splitting it and bringing it into work to let our co-workers get fat.
![It was a full Easter this year. Jen and Jack spent the weekend before with Jen’s grandparents and parents while I was away. Then the Saturday before Easter Jen’s parent’s came over to give Jack his Easter basket and do a little babysitting while we went out to dinner. Lastly, […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Jack_Easter-620x250.jpg "Easter 2011")
![We got lazy playing with our new toys (both mine and Jack’s) and then had a fun snow day on the Monday after Christmas so I never put up any of the Christmas photos. So, I got even lazier and decided to put it all into one big post. Christmas […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Jack_Christmas2010-620x250.jpg "Christmas Parts II, III and IV")
![Jack is a lucky, lucky kid. Each year he is guaranteed to have at least 4 Christmases – One with my Mom, one with my Dad, one with Jen’s family and one with us. Add in a school party and whatever might be happening in our complex and Jack could be looking […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Jack_Grammy-620x250.jpg "Christmas 2010 – Part 1")
![Since we never got around to going to see the tree last year, we decided this past Saturday would be the perfect time to go. We didn’t have any plans and it wasn’t going to be that cold. Turns out I was wrong. Jack just wasn’t feeling it. He did not want […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Jack_RockTree-620x250.jpg "Rockefeller Christmas Tree")
![We took Jack to the mall to meet Santa. After last year (search my previous posts) we decided to get him set up for the whole thing. We told Jack that he would need to tell Santa what he wanted to Christmas and that Santa was going to ask if […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/11132320101204_0004_1-620x250.jpg "Meeting Santa")
![For those of you who missed the live Tweet event of the season, I have pasted it below for all to enjoy… Steven J. Shaw The Black Friday Christmas Tree shopping will be live Tweeted. 26 Nov Steven J. Shaw Decided to try Home Depot first. Got a parking spot […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Jack_Tree-620x250.jpg "The Black Friday Tree")
![I really thought I was going to have an easy commute for Thanksgiving this year. We were with Jen’s family and her Aunt was hosting. They live 16 miles from us in Harrison. This was a coup! Rather than dealing with LI traffic, or driving to Northern Westchester I was […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Jack_Thanksgiving-620x250.jpg "Thanksgiving 2010")
![Yes. You read that correctly: Thanksgiving. Cake. Normally, when I see things like this, I think about how awesome they would be. Normally, I would read the article, look at the directions, and realize its too much work. Normally, I would not even bother bring it up to the wife. […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Thanksgiving_Cake-620x250.jpg "I Give You… THANKSGIVING CAKE!")
![Last Sunday we went to White Plains to help Christy set up her tree. She set out a nice spread of snacks and apps. There was also cake, but we weren’t allowed to eat it since Christy wanted to return it to the store to get her money back. Jack […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Jack_Christy_Tree-620x250.jpg "Decking Aunt Christy’s Halls")
![This year Jack was Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. In keeping with our tradition we had the families over for a Halloween party and Trick or Treating in our building. After everyone got to the apartment and gave Jack his candy buckets we had some apps and then put Jack in […]](https://www.stevenjshaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Jack_Halloween-620x250.jpg "H-A-Double-L-O-W-Double-E-N Spells Halloween")