post christmas fun

The weeks after Christmas are always so fun because you get to just hang out and play with your new stuff.  

The biggest hit in our house was definitely the train from Baabee.  

The train is actually called the Chatanooga Choo Choo which is awesome in itself, but Jimmy was thrilled that it had all the cars mentioned in one of his favorite books: The Little Red Caboose.  

Ours cars aren't in quite the right order and we also need some flat cars to really make it authentic, but it is pretty darn close.  Jimmy likes to recite it (slightly paraphrased):

"First came the Big Black Engine."

"Then the coal cars, then the box cars, then the oil cars..."

"But the Little Red Caboose always came last."

It is a really cute book and was an early one for Jimmy to memorize.  Little boys do love their trains.

And I just love "Little Golden Books"

... especially classic ones like this with such fun illustrations.

My favorite thing is when I catch Jimmy reciting it quietly to himself while he lies on the ground watching it go around.  However, he actually talks to himself all the time so this is not that unusual.  I will be sitting right next to him and he thinks I can't hear him.  It cracks me up.

Of course, post-Christmas is also prime lego building time.

I don't even attempt to open the boxes on Christmas for fear of the mess that would be made and the pieces that would be lost.

Getting to build Legos is in fact Zach's second favorite part of being a dad (snuggling apparently won out by a hair).  I have said before I think it was the main reason he wanted to have kids.  He still claims that his old Legos are still his and not Jimmy's.

This set makes one of three different things.  We left the Light House up for awhile, but Jimmy and Zach just finished this Boat House:

Jimmy did so much of it himself and is ever so proud.  He told me there are "two awesome things": a lever that makes the boat pop out and a button that turns on a light.  Now to keep it away from Gus. Another thing that has been difficult to keep Gus from destroying: 

Our Swiss Family Robinson Set-Up.

We borrowed the two Playmobil pirate ships and island from Baabee's house and turned the "spare room" into and ocean and gigantic tropical island.  More detailed pictures later.  For now it is just being appreciated and messed up quite frequently so I haven't really gotten good pictures of it.

boxing day 2011

Once again, we celebrated the day after Christmas with a family gathering and a big feast.

Jimmy was very excited to help Nano with the Turkey.

Gus was the center of attention, but I think the game that everyone created which involved him standing on the middle of the coffee table and then jumping to someone might not have been a good idea.   I can't keep him off of the coffee table now.

However, the snuggle game that Aunt Emmy invented is a keeper.

He also got to snag the turkey before everyone else.

We were joined by lots friends and family and all the food was great.

Zach joined the boys at the kids table.

Then we all popped our Crackers to get our to get our paper crowns, cheesy jokes, and awesome toys.

And while the traditional game of Feudal was post-poned, there was the traditional loud and crazy game of Farkle.

It was a very Happy Boxing Day indeed.

christmas 2012

Santa must have been hard at work in his workshop this year because when the boys came out in the morning Santa had brought some awesome stuff:

Jimmy got the Playmobil "Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse with all the stuff in it" that he asked for.
It came complete with Mother, Father, Fritz, Ernst, Frances, Roberta, and a variety of animals.

I don't think it was exactly what he had pictured in his head (since he had never seen one before).  I foresaw this as a problem so we had a few talks about it before the big day.  Upon seeing it, he told me all about how it was different from what he thought it would be like, but then told me, "But this is good."  I think he slowly discovered how cool it really was once he explored it a little more. He was very intrigued by all the fun tricks it had like the trap door, the tiger pit,  and the organ that plays music. Thank goodness Santa didn't forget the buckets of water because Jimmy "really wanted it to have that."  More detail is surely to come on this toy in a later post.  Jimmy and I have big plans brewing already.

Gus loved his Little People Family Village.

I was surprised by how excited Gus was about his toys.  He played with his presents more than the wrapping paper which was surprising.  When he opened a little bumble bee pull toy from Mimi, he pointed and said, "Pease! Pease!" as in "Get that thing out of the box as fast as possible please!"  That was his cutest moment of the day perhaps, but there are so many it is hard to choose.

My dad, Aunt Erin, and Uncle Danny all came over too and we made a delicious breakfast of strata, cinnamon rolls, bacon, and other happy things.

There was lots of sword fighting going on all day.

Then we went outside...

And found that Santa put a new swing on our swing set!

Perhaps, the most exciting present was the electric train from Baabee. 

Jimmy gasped when he heard that we could set it up around the Christmas tree.  

Both boys are obsessed.

This rudolph nose stocking stuffer gave us plenty of entertainment.

(Aunt Angie's was actually the best, but she made me promise not to put it on the blog.)

Then it was nap time for a few and time to watch a Muppet Christmas Carol and build Lincoln Logs for some others.

My boys made out like bandits this year.  Sometimes I wonder if it is all too much, and they can't fully appreciate it all, but I think Jimmy is pretty good about playing with everything he gets and always saying thank you like a polite little boy.  It is just one day a year they get really spoiled, so I suppose that is okay, right? 

Gus' great grandparents got him the Little People Nativity which I love and was very excited to get. 

The only problem was that it was missing Joseph and had a duplicate wiseman.

I found it set up like this:

To which I said, "Jimmy, why is there a Pterodactyl next to the manger?"

To which he then replied, laughing hysterically, from the other room, "Nano! She saw it!"

What a jokester.  Nano thought it was all pretty funny, too, because I caught him singing "We are Siamese" with these two:

Well, it was a very Merry Christmas at the Weisse House indeed.