Ames Christmas

You know, it really is kind of nice to celebrate Christmas three times every year. I think Benji really could get used to all of these festivities. And it's nice not having to travel nearly as far for the holidays as we used to.

Our visit to Ames this year was completely full of family visiting. On Friday evening we had dinner with Matthew's Uncle Mike and Aunt Lana, whom we hadn't seen in a year and a half. On Saturday morning we had our Christmas morning celebrations with all the present opening (lots of pictures below). Benji was a great Santa's helper, until he opened his presents and wanted to play with them. There sure were some great presents that morning! And on Saturday afternoon Matthew's cousin, Brenda, and her family came to visit for dinner. Her clan was quite boisterous and Benji loved watching their antics and joining in the laughter and fun.

Other activities over the weekend included the traditional Jones soda tasting, shopping for Iowa State gear, and a women's basketball game. Of course there was also a stop at Olene's for Sunday dinner and plenty of time just playing with our new presents.


We arrived early enough on Friday afternoon that we were able to have dinner with Mike and Lana while they were visiting.


I love when all the presents are stacked under the tree!


While we were waiting for Ava to wake up and everyone to get ready for present opening, Benji was too excited to wait. He took presents from under the tree and brought them to Grandma to find out who they were for.


Oh, yeah, and he got hugs from Grandma, too.


During a previous visit to Richmond, Grandma shared her Cheerios and milk with Benji. Now every time he sees Grandma he has to share her cereal.


Benji was a great Santa's helper, handing out presents to everyone. That is, until he opened his first present and was totally distracted. But it was very cute while it lasted.


So many things going on. Do I watch Daddy open his present or see what Ava is doing over there?


Benji doesn't get all the cool presents. Daddy got a John Olerud bobblehead, perfect for the computer room or the rec room decor.


Ava looked a little sleepy and uninterested in her present.


But now that there are tags to play with she perked right up!


Giant present for Benji!


It's so big Grandpa needs to help.


What is it?


After opening the easel and finding the letter magnets that came with it, we lost Benji's present delivery service. It kept him happy the entire weekend!


As the morning continued on, Ava got more into Christmas.


Ava seemed more interested in the bow than in the present.


After a while Benji stopped playing with his easel and instead decided to explore the tree. This year Grandma covered the tree in bells, which was perfect for Benji. Ornaments you can play with and not break! And while we were busy opening presents, Benji decided to sing "Jingle Bells" with the bells on the tree.


When I tried to sing along with Benji, he got upset and stopped. But he later moved to the other side of the tree and sang some more.


Throughout the weekend both Benji and Ava enjoyed playing with the easel. Benji even found a new use for the easel — hide and seek!


Grandma and Grandpa saved the best for last. What a snazzy looking tricycle with chrome bumpers and all.


OK, I'm done with Christmas. See you all later!


A rare photo of Grandma with both grandbabies.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Christmas Afternoon

After all the Santa excitement at our house, we went over to my parents' house on Christmas afternoon. We had more presents and a delicious crab leg dinner. (As a side story, Benji must have really liked having Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner in the dining room because on a subsequent visit he tried to drag his high chair into the dining room and wanted to eat in there.) As was the case that morning, Benji was very excited about presents, but he quickly got sidetracked by wanting to play with them. So while we were opening our presents (and Benji's clothing presents) he played with his Duplos, Uno cards, and Cabbage Patch Kid (this one "eats" pretend food, which seems to go along very well with Benji's love of the pretend microwave).


Now that Benji knows what a snowman is, he loves the decoration on his stocking. Grandma made a similar one for Benji at our house and then decided he needed one at Grandma and Grandpa's house, too. I agree! They're both adorable.


Hmm... I wonder what's in here. Maybe some "tickets". When Benji opened his card and found some Christmas money, he called it "tickets". They're not quite the same as Enchanted Castle tickets, but he's got the right idea. Smart lad!


Santa has such handsome helpers, doesn't he?


Such a cute giggle and smile!


One present was a giant set of dominoes. Benji thought they were both fun for counting the dots and for making towers.


Which case should I pick? Or should I take the Deal? Benji loved his "Deal or No Deal" electronic game. I bet he could do as well as many of the real contestants.


Of course everyone needs a new set of letters for Christmas!


Now that we have real winter, Benji needs some warm sweaters. Grandma crocheted a beautiful beige sweater for him, and it looks like he'll be able to wear it for at least two seasons.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Benji's third Christmas, Act 2

After breakfast we got back to the present opening, which Benji loved. Oh yeah, and Mommy and Daddy loved, too. Especially watching Benji's excitement. Isn't that what the "magic of Christmas" is all about?


Benji enjoys playing with Thomas the Tank Engine train sets at storytime that we thought he'd like a train set of his own. We were right.


As with the Duplos, we had to pause from all present opening to play with his new train set.


The past several times we've gone to Enchanted Castle we've saved up the tickets. Since Benji gets a kick purely out of taking tickets from the games and putting them back in the counting machine, we thought it was better to save up for a bigger prize. And we finally had enough for the giant Care Bear.


Big hug!


Or maybe big tackle!


Giant bear is actually taller than Benji. What's not to love about a teddy bear larger than you are?


Ah, now there's a sweet hug.


A present for Mommy and Benji? What could it be?


Benji must remember our fish back in Richmond. He immediately recognized the fish food canister in the present and got very excited. We still need to find the best place for the fish tank and go pick out fish, but it will be really nice to have fish again.


When Benji saw the nativity scene earlier in Advent, he immediately called it "Church" which I think is a fantastic recognition and association. And since the nativity is actually plastic or vinyl or something unbreakable like that I wanted to let Benji get up close and personal with the nativity.


His favorite part was the stable animals, especially the sheep. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since he could count the sheep. But he did like the baby and the mommy and the daddy, too.


Daddy got presents, too.


Benji helps Daddy read his "Entertainment Weekly" magazine subscription. Not as much fun as Mommy's fish present, but still good fun.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Benji's third Christmas — pre-breakfast

As I've said before, this Christmas season has been amazing! Two years old is a magical age for Christmas and I've just loved introducing Benji to the season. Christmas morning was no exception to this magic!

Although Benji didn't drag us downstairs Christmas morning (which I'm sure he will in future years), once we got there and he saw the presents under the tree he was so excited. Honestly, I expected him to tear through all the presents at lightning speed since he's been starting to grasp the idea of brightly wrapped presents holding new toys. But instead he was the slowest present-opener I've seen. Unlike so many older kids and adults who want to move on to the next present, Benji showed more excitement and gratitude at each present. He wanted to open all the boxes and play with each toy immediately, which we more or less tried to honor. And although we did move on to more presents, it wasn't because he was losing interest in the current one and discarding it. I think he could have played with his new Duplos so much longer than we let him (we were getting hungry and decided it was time for breakfast) so that just goes to show how selective the proverbial short attention span of a toddler can be.

Since I took so many pictures, I'll split Christmas into a few posts. More to come later...


Since Benji had no real concept that Santa had come and left presents under the tree, he was just as happy to play in Mommy and Daddy's room in the morning. I'm sure it will change soon enough that he will wake up super early on Christmas morning and drag us downstairs.


We finally got so excited to watch Benji open presents that we dragged him downstairs.


Look at everything Santa brought! I wonder who the giant present is for.


Oooh! Presents for Benji! Now he got excited.


Blocks! Benji was so excited about his first present that we had to open it immediately so he could play with it. I guess Santa knew what would be a big hit!


After being so excited about the idea of presents, I'm surprised Benji got totally sidetracked. We built towers and animals with his new Duplos, totally uninterested in the rest of the presents. Of course that's probably a good thing since he's acting less greedy and more appreciative of the presents he received.


Benji has been so interested in taking pictures that we gave him his very own camera for Christmas. Granted, it's our super old 1-megapixel camera, but it seems to work well for him. It's actually quite large which is good for Benji to handle. By today's standards the picture quality isn't fantastic, but it used to be what we were very happy with. And he enjoys taking his own pictures.


I just loved the expression on his face in this one.


Remember when I said earlier that Benji liked to put presents in the tree?


Halftime! By breakfast we hadn't opened very many presents. But look at what fun the Duplos were!

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Making trees and cookies

I've always loved getting ready for Christmas, but this year was absolutely fantastic. It was so much fun to introduce Benji to the many traditions of Advent and to see his excitement and understanding of these traditions (admittedly only the secular traditions because the real religious importance is far too abstract for a 2-year-old). I'm not quite sure how we're going to wean Benji off of Christmas now that it's over, but for now I'll just reflect on and treasure some of Benji's favorite parts of Christmas.

Christmas carols: Many nights at bedtime I sing various children's songs to Benji as a lullaby. But sometime in November I got tired of singing the same songs and realized I know tons of Christmas songs. By the time Advent rolled around, Benji was familiar with Christmas songs and even had his favorites. The first one we heard him singing on his own was Jingle Bells but he got pretty angry if you asked him to sing it on command. By the end of Christmas I would also hear him singing Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph when he didn't think we were listening. And he certainly had favorites to ask Mommy to sing — "the snowman song" (Frosty), "the reindeer song" (Rudolph), "the drum song" (Little Drummer Boy), "the house song" (a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song that goes with one of the animated light shows on YouTube), and "the tree song" (12 Days of Christmas, think about the partridge in the pear tree).

Christmas lights: I have been completely into Christmas lights for as long as I can remember. The tackier and more outlandish, the better. So it's no wonder that Benji loved the Christmas lights. When Matthew put up the lights outside our house (which isn't a huge display) Benji was so excited. He loved going up to the fake deer and petting them. Imagine his excitement when we went on our annual car tours of the area for light looking! His favorites by far were any of the animated displays where the lights flash and dance in coordination with music. And when we couldn't get out to see lights, YouTube was good for a quick fix!

Christmas presents: On December 6, St. Nicholas visited our house and put a variety of presents in Benji's shoes. He had started figuring out what presents were about at his birthday, so he was really excited by the pile of presents at the front door. For several days after St. Nicholas Day he would periodically declare "Benji present" and troop off to bring us one to open. It was great practice for the big day! One day after all the presents were already opened he declared "Benji present" so Daddy wrapped a piece of paper around the DVD remote and told Benji to put it under the tree. We later found out Benji was putting these "presents" in the lower branches of the tree, not under the tree. So funny!

Christmas TV specials: This is probably the Christmas tradition Benji was least excited about, but he still enjoyed snuggling on the sofa with Mommy to watch "Frosty the Snowman" or cutting cookies while watching "Rudolph." He was not impressed at all by "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Christmas tree: It took us three days to put up our Christmas tree, but it was worth it to take our time and involve Benji as much as possible. Our artificial tree requires you to find the letters on the branches to get them in the right order and of course Benji was capable and happy to help with that task. When we were finished he declared "Benji make a tree" which is actually a pretty accurate description of the artificial tree process. The next day we let him follow after Mommy holding the lights and garland when I draped those on the tree. And the third day Benji hung most of the ornaments on the tree (and the remaining ones Daddy hung at Benji's direction when he wanted one higher up). And he certainly had his opinions about where the ornaments would go. For example, all of the teddy bear ornaments are on the same branch. I guess he thought they belonged together. This year most of the ornaments are on the bottom three feet of our tree so it's a bit unbalanced, but I wouldn't have it any other way.










Christmas cookies: This year I was both excited and nervous about making Christmas cookies with Benji. I knew he'd love Christmas cookies, but I was nervous he'd either try to eat the dough or track a mess all over the house. So I was thrilled when my mom agreed to help with this adventure. It was so much more fun to share this holiday tradition and easier to get the task accomplished.

We plopped Benji in his high chair to control the mess and give him a good surface to work on. We started with the family crescent cookie recipe and Benji enjoyed playing with the balls of dough and then giving them to Grandma to put on the cookie sheet. He didn't try to eat it at all. Later that day we brought him back for the rolled sugar cookies and cookie cutters. We let him pick which "shape" each time; I think he was partial to the tree and the snowman. He also liked the sprinkles, which didn't surprise me at all given his fondness for Parmesan cheese. Throughout the rest of the Christmas season Benji loved eating the fruits of his labors, asking Daddy for "snowman cookies" on a regular basis. (I'm happy to report that he hasn't asked for one at all since we got back from Iowa, which is good since we don't have any more Christmas cookies.)



















Nativity scene: This year I set up my grandmother's nativity set under our Christmas tree for the first time in a while. I figured Benji was well beyond trying to eat the nativity and maybe we could learn a bit about Christmas. The first time Benji saw the stable, he immediately declared "church". I hadn't told him at all what it was so I was thrilled and amazed that he immediately made that association. Then we talked a bit about the baby and his mommy and daddy. And of course we counted the sheep and called the donkey a horse. He treated the whole thing very respectfully and seemed to like the baby Jesus.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas

Fifth time's a charm

Benji is loving the Christmas season — the lights, the cookies, the music — but it took a while for him to get warmed up to Santa. In concept, he recognizes Santa in pictures, but his reaction in person is quite different. Overall I'm glad he's wary of strangers, but it did make getting my classic Santa photo more difficult. Just wait until next year when he really understands that Santa brings him presents...

Santa #1: This was our first visit to Santa for the season. Although the picture's not very good, you can still see that he's not too thrilled with Santa.


Santa #2, Round 1: This Santa was downtown when we went for the Festival of Lights parade. Even though Santa gave him a little teddy bear, he was still quite skeptical.


Santa #2, Round 2: Since the line wasn't long and they didn't charge you to take pictures (most won't let you take pictures with your own camera), we tried this Santa again. Benji was intrigued by Santa so he was amenable to walking up to him and meeting Santa again.


He seemed happier standing next to Santa so I thought that would be OK for a picture. But, we couldn't get him to look at the camera.


Santa played little games and tickled Benji's hand to get him more comfortable, which Benji actually seemed to like. Santa was very nice and spent more time with us than I would have expected.


Santa #3, Round 2: To finally get the good picture, Matthew took Benji to the mall on a weekday afternoon. I believe they had to visit Santa twice to get Benji acclimated to Santa once again. I'm quite pleased with the final outcome.

Libellés : Benji, Christmas