Sunday, December 28, 2014

Christmas 2014

Christmas came quickly this year. It was fun to watch Declan's curiosity about the tree, decorations and the gifts under the tree. Every morning he would crawl over to the tree and methodically take down each ornament within his reach for inspection. Then he would attempt to put them back on the tree branches. He loved doing this and I loved watching his excitement. One morning he realized he could remove the pretty wrapping paper from the packages! We had a wonderful Christmas season watching Declan's excitement and visiting with friends and family.

The Monday before Christmas Nana Lynne and Aunt Whitney arrived from Ohio late in the evening. We picked them up, visited a bit and then headed to bed. Tuesday Declan was excited to see them both. He showed them all of our Christmas decorations. We went to the store to pick up a few groceries then went home to relax and visit. Brad came home from work early. We all went out to dinner at Elliott Bay Pizza. It was delicious. After dinner, Nana agreed to watch Declan while Brad, Whitney and I headed to Cinebarre to see Mockingjay. It was really good!

On Christmas Eve, we relaxed and played with Declan. Declan got a letter from Santa in the mail telling him what a wonderful baby he's been this year.  We ate an early delicious London broil and cheese fondue dinner before heading off to Christmas Eve church service. We sang carols and heard the Christmas story. I even saw a former student who's now a senior in high school! We came home to drink hot chocolate, eat cookies, snuggle on the couch with baby D and watched The Grinch! Declan headed to bed soon after to dream of Santa.

Declan woke up about 8:30 Christmas morning. He was so surprised to see a picnic table from Nana in our living room and a tall car race track! He got into unwrapping presents and liked ripping off the paper. We had mimosas, cheesy potatoes and french toast casserole for breakfast and then finished exchanging gifts.





















In the afternoon, we drove up to Snohomish to have Christmas dinner and games with Grammy, Papa, Great Nana Hope, Uncle Scott, Aunt Kristine, Elias, Uncle Todd, Chess, Cousins Krista and Danimal, Grandpa Dick, Grandma Roberta, and of course Auntie Paula. RJ and Loki came along too.
We were excited to give Elias his measuring stick that I had made earlier in the fall. Declan also gave him a little car. Elias gave Declan a travel sock monkey and two board books! Auntie Paula had a firefighter hat for each of the boys and a special book all the way from Disney world! Uncle Todd gave Declan a special Alaska ABC book too. We had a great meal of steak barbecued by Papa followed by delicious cookies and cheesecake from Roberta. When Declan took his nap, we had a wonderful time laughing with everyone playing Apples to Apples.

Declan with his Aunt Whitney 

Elias with his measuring stick 







 Getting the tonka cars from Great Nana


Declan's travel monkey from Elias











































Nana, Brad, Declan, Lisa and Whitney 
Dan, Paula, Krista and Great Nana 


Auntie Paula and Great Nana Hope 



 Here are a few of the boys playing with Elias's train set:




 Cars made by Great Papa Glen Fuglsby:





Playing with Cousin Dan 


Playing with Cousin Krista 








Declan with his Grandparents 

Declan and his Uncle Todd




We went home tired, full and happy. We decided to play a couple of rounds of Cards Against Humanity. We all laughed so hard and had a great time. It was a very merry Christmas.

The following day, Brad stayed home from work. We took Nana and Whitney to the casino for the breakfast buffet, followed by a trip to the outlets to exchanges some gifts. Then we went to Best Buy and Nana ordered us a new tv for our living room. WOW! We went to Scuttlebutt's for my favorite fish and chips! Yummy! We headed home to relax together the rest of the evening.

Nana and Whitney left very early the next morning. Declan woke up disappointed they were gone. We took him to Snohomish for a haircut and then went to run some errands for Brad.

Sunday Brad and Papa went to Steven's Pass for their first ski day of the season. Declan and I went to church in Snohomish with Great Nana Hope and Grammy. Then we played at Nana's house for a little while. We headed back to Grammy's for Declan's naptime. CC came over to walk around downtown Snohomish with us after Declan's nap. Later we had a delicious pot roast with the skiers.