As promised, the photos of Thomas and Santa from the Christmas party at work. He went from "who is this guy" to "get me out of here" in the space of two photos... *sigh* Maybe some day he'll get the whole concept and like the photo op.
Turns out a lot of the parents stood there with their kids and were in the photo. Yeah, that might have prevented a freak out... I guess you live and learn as parents - next year we'll just stand there with him and hope it goes better. "/
Since it was snowing most of this weekend, we did spend a good part of the time inside. Luckily, we just finished a new play toy for Thomas - his felt Christmas tree that his Nonni had cut out for him while she was here. (I know, it took me forever to get it up even though it was mostly all done by someone else...)
Tommy really likes his play tree. He's not great at putting the ornaments on the tree, but he sure excels at taking them all off. And quickly - it took several times of putting all the ornaments on the tree to get a photo of him pulling them off. That little guy is fast!
Of course, he kept trying to pull off the presents at the bottom too - which are glued on. So it required a little bit of oversight to make sure the whole thing wasn't ripped off the wall. Next year I'll probably find a better way of securing it than push pins... "/
Doesn't she look dashing in her winter sweater? This sideways glance is her usual look these days. I interpret it to mean "I'm cool here until that kid gets too close... Then I'm *out*!"
Also high on the list of indoor entertainment, Thomas' cardboard space shuttle. Seen here throwing a toy space shuttle from inside the space shuttle...
His Granny (Matt's mom) bought him this after I came to Alaska. I didn't know about it (or a super cool wooden moose-pony) until our shipment arrived. It just looked like a big flat cardboard package, but the awesomeness of it was apparent once Matt put it together. Thomas loves this thing! It gets some pretty rough play, so it is currently in need of some serious repairs, but he can't get enough of it. It has doors that open and close on either side, but half the time he climbs in from the front or back. I don't care how much tape it takes, we're going to keep this thing around for a long, long time. Look at the smile on this kid's face - it's worth an investment in some duct tape. ; )
This weekend was predicted to have a lot of snow. Which was exciting to us, because it's still new and exciting to the transplanted Texans. As always, I remained skeptical of the forecast though - it's notoriously wrong up here. And I've been excited about upcoming snow to have it never appear. But this time - it snowed!
And snowed...
And snowed!
When there was a break in the snow, Matt went outside to shovel the driveway. I think it was his third time this weekend to shovel. He figured staying on top of it is the best method. (He's right - Duncan and Brittney are currently in Talkeetna and their driveway has snow that was up over my tall snow boots!)
Tommy and I figured Matt would like some company, so we bundled up and went outside to play in the cul-de-sac while he was hard at work.
Of course, it's hard to resist playing with Tommy while he is around looking so cute. Matt brought over some snow for Tommy to check out since he was so curious what his dad was doing.
Of course with all that snow right there, you know some of it was going airborne... And Tommy thought it was hilarious. I guess this boy would be alright in a blizzard, because the snow falling on him was the funniest thing he had experienced in a while. :)
Apparently work really likes to throw parties for families up here. Which I think is pretty awesome! And since the Halloween Party was so fun, there was no way we were going to miss the Christmas one. And in a bit of coincidence, Matt was already dressed up and we got a good family photo! Thanks as always to my personal photographer, Brittney!
We even stood in line to try to do the obligatory photo with Santa. I've technically gotten two of him already, but neither one were very good. So I figured he was already in a great mood and dressed so festively, the third time *had* to be the charm!
Not so much... But I guess every person has to have a photo of them losing it on Santa's lap... They are supposed to post the photos online for us to get copies of at some point, if I get it - I'll be sure to share it. It's pretty awful / hilarious!
Luckily there was a clown there making balloon animals that Thomas *did* like. I mean, clown or Santa? Not the one I would have placed money on. But he liked him and loved playing with the balloon dog he got from the clown. And since his dog matched his shirt, I may have gone a little crazy with photo editing. Sorry, that's what happens when you find the photo editing software you've been wanting forever on sale right after Thanksgiving! :)
The upside to having friends in Alaska is that they become your surrogate family when your family isn't in town visiting. Which means that Brittney and Duncan got the honor of joining us for the Holiday Train this weekend! None of us had ever been on such a thing, but it sounded like fun anyhow. I think Thomas is technically a little younger than their target audience, but with Santa, caroling and hot chocolate (for us!), how could it go wrong??
Brittney and Duncan were much more coordinated than we were - look how well how all three of them are sporting their holiday colors. (I can take credit for Thomas - his sweater even had a train on it!)
See? And technically black is always coordinating... :)
I let Matt dress himself. I probably should have said something like "Hey, we could get cute Holiday Photos if we all dress up." Thinking of two outfits was challenging enough, obviously... ;)
And Santa finally came around for photos. Let's just say Thomas was not all that impressed. I think he was much more curious who these people were trying to sneak in the photo of him and his dad! The audacity!
All in all, I think everyone had fun... until the very end. Apparently handing out a bunch of candy at the beginning of a train ride guarantees a meltdown of *all* the kids thirty minutes before the train ride is over. I get the feeling it might be Brittney, Thomas and I next year while the husbands either stay home or go skiing... :)
Matt and I came up to Alaska last year to visit the Hydens for Thanksgiving as a test run to see exactly how cold it gets. That and to go have a Thanksgiving feast at the Roadhouse in Talkeetna. Needless to say we loved both Alaska and the feast at the Roadhouse. So this year, we decided to stay in Alaska for Thanksgiving and go to the Roadhouse again for their family style Thanksgiving dinner.
Last year, we stayed at the Museum Apartment about a block away from the Roadhouse and we really liked it. Unfortunately, it was already booked by the time I called to reserve rooms. But the Little Cabin Out Back was available. The only downside was that it didn't have a bathroom - the one inside was literally 10' away though. I heavily debated this fact as I usually have to go visit the bathroom in the middle of the night, but decided it was worth it to not be in the main house worrying about who Tommy was disturbing if he woke up crying.
Then my whole family decided to join us. The small cabin just got super cozy...! And all kidding aside, I loved the cabin! The floor got a little chilly the second night when the outside temps dipped to -24 degrees, but we just put Tommy in bed with us instead of leaving him close to the floor in his playpen. And that boy is a great heater - as well as the thermostat controlled fireplace in the corner of the room.
And there wasn't *too* much grumbling from the family about the cold temperatures. The Roadhouse is super family friendly and their side room had a fireplace for dad, games for Tommy and puzzles for Mom & Heather. We did manage to take a short walk outside just to say we did and so I didn't feel silly for bringing Tommy's full snowsuit. And he was quite the hit in his snowsuit - some other random visitors to the Roadhouse were taking photos of him and talking about how adorable he was.
And what's a walk outside in -24 degrees without a giant icicle to play with? Of course, he dropped it in about 2 seconds, but he was pretty excited about it anyhow. Like father, like son... :)
Finally moving in to the new house! We closed on Friday, but the movers couldn't come until today! What kind of torture is that?!? They're dropping everything off today, then they will come back and do all of the unpacking tomorrow.
I was kinda shocked to see three trucks show up to drop off our stuff... Who knew we had collected so much?
And isn't our house so cute all decorated in snow?? :)
The long awaited moment arrived - it finally snowed! We had gotten a few small dusting of snow already, but nothing of substance. This promised to actually leave a few inches of snow on the ground and we were all super excited! We bundled Tommy up in his new puffy jacket and took him outside to see what he thought of it. And he apparently loved it!
Actually, it's hard to say who was most excited - Tommy or his dad. :)
Work threw a Halloween party downstairs in the atrium and invited all of the family members to attend. So Matt went and got Thomas from daycare and met us up there for the party. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty fun - though we did decide it was a little too chilly to go on the hayride around downtown. Maybe next year!
They had a play are for the smaller kids since most of the games were for older kids. Tommy loved the spinning art and even impressed the ladies running it with his awesome marker skills. Then he played with the Legos and Mr. Potato Head until his mom and dad got hungry and decided it was time to eat.
And since we love the zoo, we decided to go there as well. Though apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea - it was packed! Duncan ended up having to drop the rest of us off because there was nowhere to park. But since it was a little chilly outside, we didn't end up staying too long. Though Tommy certainly seemed to enjoy the animals and just walking around looking at all the fun costumes.
All in all, I'd say it was a successful Halloween, even though we didn't get much candy. Lucky for Matt, that stuff goes on sale the day after Halloween. :)
Thomas technically was around last Halloween, but I'm pretty sure he slept while we walked around the neighborhood with friends. This year we thought he might be old enough to get some fun out of the event - plus his daycare and my work were both having Halloween parties. Yay for indoor activities when it's super cold outside! I had no idea what to dress him up as, but Matt's mom made him a skunk costume and mailed it up here. It got here just in time and fit perfectly!
The daycare party was the weekend before Halloween and we thought it would be a good test run for the big day. And of course, Tommy had no clue what was going on or why he was supposed to walk up to random people with his bag to get candy. So he didn't get very much candy - unfortunate for the parents who were going to eat it for him...
But since the daycare went all out, there were things for him to do besides get candy. He really liked the pumpkin crafts, wasn't too sure about the temporary tattoos... And he loved looking at all of the big cut outs they had made for the occasion. All-in-all, I'd call it a win!
The night before Halloween - we were in a bit of a panic as we hadn't decorated pumpkins yet! We figured the adults could do it after dinner, but Tommy had limited time between daycare and dinner, so we put him to work as soon as he got home. He really got into the finger painting - that boy takes his art very seriously.
Tommy's pumpkin will have to dry for the full effect, but he seemed pretty excited about just smearing paint all over it He started out with a very nice pointillism technique, but that soon turned to full on smears of paint. Matt tried to keep adding new colors so the whole pumpkin wasn't gray, but apparently Tommy likes gray...
Then after dinner, the adults finally got in on the action. And we had a blast - though the pumpkins up here are kinda weird. They are super stringy - like spaghetti squash. We couldn't ever get it all out, we just got tired of scraping. The bowl of pumpkin guts looked like a bowl of shredded cheese. Though I doubt it would taste as good.
The finished pumpkins! (In order - Tommy's, Brittney's, Matt's and mine)
Not bad for a bunch of procrastinators, huh? :)
