Christmas Celebrations

Christmas is such a fun time to be with family. I feel really lucky to have been able to spend Christmas in Colorado. My family has a lot of really fun Christmas traditions that I know I would really miss if I weren't there to take part.

Look at these cousins! They had so much fun together. Beckett loved his train vest.

This Christmas it seemed like the theme for everyone was the Christmas cold. I read lots of posts on facebook about Christmas and sickness. Unfortunately, we did not miss out on that lovely gift of Christmas. All these boys had to go home after Sacrament Meeting because they were too sick to go to class.

The Funks

It's not Christmas without that Danahers. They came over on the Sunday before Christmas, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and the day after that! The new hit game of the season: Reverse Charades. It's pretty funny. We also got in a round of Telestrations, but I think we are getting better at drawing because there weren't as many off-the-wall guesses this time.

Paige and Brandon

Taggart, Danielle, Sue, and Megan

Grammy and Charlie

Felix enjoying some wrapping paper.

Felix went from a crawling baby who occasionally took a couple steps to a full-on walker at Grammy's house. He's right with the program. All the grand boys have perfected their walk at Grammy's. He was 10 months on December 26th. He's such a competent walker at such a young age.

A funny side story: Beckett heard so many people calling his parents by their first names (and we had been talking about what our first names are at home too) that I was at least as likely to be greeted with a "Hi Joyee" as a "Hi Momma." Nate got called Nathan a lot too.

On Christmas Eve these boys told us the Nativity story.

You might not have remembered the part in the story about the firetruck, but it saves the day (and drives on the stable roof).

Pajama Time!

Leaving cookies for Santa.

Eating cookies under the table.

Santa left them a very nice note.

Christmas Morning. Beckett loved the stocking.

Felix opened presents with Grandpa.

Beckett was really excited about getting the Polar Express (it has a train, you know).

A second funny side story: Beckett calls Felix "Baby" when he's upset with his brother. As in "No, no Baby, no touch my train." or "Crawl away Baby." On Christmas Felix went to touch one of Beckett's new toys and Beckett got upset. We said, "Beckett please be nice to Felix, it's Christmas. We all should be extra nice to each other." So Beckett turns to Felix and says, "It's Chrimas Baby," and slugs him in the arm.

Other undocumented events: Paige and I made lots of delicious cookies. Felix got up at 5:30am everyday (7:30 EST, he never adjusted). One night when I was tired and needing to get to bed because of the 5:30am wake up call, Taggart said to me, "Go to bed now? Who are you?" and I responded, "East Coast JoLee." I spent much of the Christmas Day and Boxing Day making a Shutterfly book for my Gramma's 85th birthday. I hope she loves it. We had a lot of fun thinking of 85 favorite memories.

Merry Christmas!

Behind the Scenes: Christmas Card

This is why there wasn't a picture of the boys together on our Christmas Card this year:

Felix wears Beckett's jacket:

Individually they did much better:

Merry Christmas and Happy 2013!

Strasburg Rail Road

We get a lot of comments on this blog about the fun places we visit. I think we can be particularly proud of this one because I really did find it myself. I occasionally read a blog written by a mother or three who lives in Baltimore and posts about the fun things do with kids in the area. She wrote a post about Cherry Crest Adventure Farm. Cherry Crest Adventure Farm looks really fun, and we'll have to do it one day, but what really interested me was that Cherry Crest is a stop along the Strasburg Rail Road. When I read that we'd be able to ride a real steam engine, I knew we had to go.

The Strasburg Rail Road was established in 1832. It is the America's oldest railroad operating under it's original charter. It was almost abandoned in 1958, but instead, the locals turned it into a tourist destination.We have been wanting to ride a real steam engine for a long time. I'm so glad that this is a short (1 hr. 45 min.) drive away.

Here's Beckett's first look at the steam engine. It was loud.

Beckett pointed out the engine's parts.

We found Thomas! (His face is removed, for safe keeping, perhaps.) If you have ever seen the Thomas Special where they talk to all the kids at the Day Out With Thomas, Strasburg is where that was filmed. They have three Days Out With Thomas every year. If you want to ride Thomas, this would be a fun place to do it. I've seen some other locations that are definitely not the Island of Sodor. 

On the train, ticket in hand.

It was the first day of the Christmas Extravaganza. They had a brass band, carolers, and Santa on board. Felix loves everyone, even Santa.

It was such a lovely, scenic ride. We saw lots of fields and farms. We saw tractors. We saw Amish folk plowing with their horses.

After our ride on the train we went across the road to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. This is one of the best train museums I've ever been to.

Beckett, the fireman.

The engines and cars are in an enormous showroom, surrounded by the countryside.

Beckett loved this huge engine and spent a lot of time "driving" it.

One last look at the steam engine.

Share Bear

Beckett's preschool class has a stuffed bear that takes turns coming home with the kids. They do something fun with Share Bear, write about it in Share Bear's journal, and then report about it at school. Share Bear went with Beckett to see the planes at the airport.

Zero

On Grandma Dorothy's last day, she took Beckett to Build a Bear. It was so cute.

He's making his bear strong.

He got to refill the fluff machine at the Stuffiteria.

He was really good at giving his bear a bath.

Thank you Grandma Dorothy.

Beckett really loves this bear. He sleeps with it at night. I sometimes hear him pushing the button in the bear's hand over and over again until he falls asleep. On the bear's birth certificate Beckett typed the bear's name himself: 1234567890. We have decided to call him Zero for short. Beckett has been pointing to Teddy Bears in books and telling me that they are Zero.