Here Comes Santa Claus!

Sprinkle this reindeer food outside Christmas Eve.

The moonlight will make it sparkle bright.

As the reindeer fly and roam,

This will guide them to your home.

I just loved this little poem Andrew got at school.  He came home with it attached to a baggie of oatmeal, sugar and glitter.  It was so adorable.  And he really knew what it was for.  He knew all about reindeer, and he was super excited when I told him it was time take it outside.

He ran to the door and wanted his coat and boots on right away.  I was so glad we waited to do this until after we got back from my mom's and it was time to celebrate Christmas, just the three of us.  I really want to start doing this every year on the actual Christmas Eve.

 

Andrew was so cute dumping out that bag of reindeer food.  He made sure to get every last oat!

Then we came inside, got our jammies on and daddy read The Night Before Christmas.

 

Then we arranged a plate of cookies for Santa (Andrew really wanted to eat them himself!)

 

Everything was all ready for Santa to come...

 

This is the view of the room after Santa worked his magic!

You may remember this old kitchen set that was mine when I was a little girl?

My uncle made it for me and my dad painted it.  I played with it for years along with lots of neat food and appliances that my mom had saved over the years.

Well, Santa fixed it all up for Andrew and made it like new!

 

Isn't it beautiful?  Santa really must have known the right colors to use to make it match mommy's house and everything!  That is one smart Santa!

 

Andrew made his way downstairs the next morning, remembering that Santa had come.  He was very excited, almost hesitant as he woke up and I told him Santa had been here!

 

The first thing he did was put Woody in his new shopping cart and rolled him around and around the house!

 

Then he noticed Santa had eaten the cookies!  There were some crumbs left, which he promptly picked up and ate!

 

"Santa ate the cookies!" (the crumb in his mouth!)

 

Then he went right over to his kitchen and started to play!

 

He loved it.  He also loved all the food and things Santa cleaned up for him that used to be mommy's.

And Santa also brought him some new food, which he went nuts about!

He found these right away...chicken and ice cream!  Ha!

 

Then he opened some new pots and pans and utensils to go with his new kitchen.

 

After all that excitement, he opened this neat book of animals, and I figured he wouldn't be too impressed, since the kitchen and food were pretty awesome... but he opened up this book and said "Oh WOW!  Animals!!!!!"  It was soooo precious.  He loved everything and he was so sweet and said "oh wow" every time he opened something.

 

Oh wow, a drum!

 

This whole morning that Andrew was opening and playing with his new toys, he never noticed this interesting gift in the corner... Santa even stumped mommy...I had no idea what it was!

 

Apparently Santa is unaware that Andrew isn't 16 yet and needed a gator just like daddy's at school!  OH WOW!!!!!!

 

He was beyond excited about this.  He keeps saying "Andrew's gator like daddy's!"

 

I just have this feeling I'm going to be thanking Santa this summer (not!) when I am chasing Andrew up and down the sidewalk in this thing!

 

Look out world!

He liked sitting in the back!

 

Just like daddy...

 

After all that excitement, we took a break and Andrew played with everything for a while and we got his stocking out later for him to open.  He was so excited.  He is getting used to this present opening thing!  Too bad his birthday is in another month and then he'll have to wait till next Christmas for more presents!  Ha!

 

He ripped off the paper and said "Oh wow!" again and wanted these out right away.  This is Annie and Clarabel- Two Thomas engines he wanted really badly!  They are just like his cousin Jack's.  Every time we saw Jack Andrew always wanted to play with Annie and Clarabel- now he has his own (Jack is thanking Santa, too!) :)

 

Andrew has been having all kinds of fun playing with his new toys over the holiday break.  He loves his art easel from his Grandpa and Grandma Huegel.

He is quite the little Picasso.

 

He also got a new sleeping bag with air mattress for when we travel.  He's finally outgrown the pack and play!  He loved his new travel bed and wanted to sleep in it that night!

To celebrate New Years we had Craig's brother and his family over- Andrew had a blast playing with his cousins Evie and Jayden.  They spent a good portion of the evening flying down the stairs like it was a slide!

 

I can't imagine having this much energy!  They'd get to the bottom and climb right back up, over and over again!

Jayden decided he wants a gator like Andrew's!  I'm sure Andrew can give him lots of rides on it this summer!  They're going to have a blast!

I made these yummy snow pops I found on Mckmama's blog.  They were soooo yummy!  You can go here for the recipe.

They were soooo good!  I think I may have to make more!  And aren't they super cute, too?

The kids finally all calmed down to watch Toy Story!

 

And Andrew was wiped out when they left!

I can't believe it is 2010 already!  The years are just flying by.  Just a reminder that Andrew's cath is coming up in a couple weeks on January 15.  Please send up some prayers for him!  Tomorrow night we are taking him to Curious George Live for an early birthday present! 

Wishing you a Happy New Year and all the best in 2010!