Christmas

Here's a little peek at how Sam's Christmas morning went down..

He came downstairs bright and early, a little confused by the piles of wrapped packages scattered about the floor. He crawled around, having a look at it all. 



But he didn't show any interest in doing anything with any of them (he's heard "no touch!" on too many occassions, I think!) until Grammy led the charge. Then he tentatively started ripping off paper.

 

He paused to thoroughly investigate each thing he opened which really paid off at Grammy cookie/paint marker fun box. Cookies for breakfast, why not? It's Christmas!



There was Play-doh in there too. That got eaten as well but not until later. :) (Nice face, Dad!)



This is the awesome Little People nativity that Mom and Dad got for Sam. The stable plays "Away in the Manger" when you put the angel on top and press down. Sam figured out that you can also put a bunch of other things in the angel's place so we've had a cat, Joseph and the innkeeper up there too. Everyone gets a turn!



This is Sam crawling through the tunnel/tent combo. Along with the toy vacuum we got him, I think this is the favorite toy. That Grandpa knows what's fun!

Playing hopscotch, or "dancing" as we call it.



Me reading the Christmas story to Sam.



Sammy with Grammy at his new art table, playing with his new paint markers.



This picture pretty much sums up Sam's feelings about my parents. :)



There's more to see on video but I'll save that for another post. I hope you all had a happy Christmas!

Getting into practice :)

Last night I finished knitting my very first sweater! I need to sew a button on the front and block it but I didn't worry about minor details like that when I asked Jeff to take my picture.



As you can see, I was so excited about the whole thing that I didn't notice I'd put my sweater on inside out. Sigh. Nobody home up there!



Here's what it looks like the right way out.



Sam decided to help mommy out.



In fact, Sam has become a great helper around here. This morning we vacuumed the kitchen floor and then he proceeded to Swiffer the whole thing for me, just to make sure it was clean before I mopped.



After dinner I decided that everyone had worked hard today and declared it a Smoothie Night. I whipped up some fruit and yogurt in the blender and by the time I got into the living room with my cup, this is what I found. My two men, just hanging out, drinking their smoothies. Could I ask for anything more?

Starting over

I think it's time to acknowledge that I am not a very good blogger. :( It's been brought to my attention by several people that I have neglected my public (GASP!) which wouldn't be so awful if that didn't include neglecting to update all of you concerning Samster the Hamster. Mea culpa! I promise to make it up to you. How, you might ask? Starting January 1st, I'll be (gulp) making my best attempt at Blog 365. For those of you unfamiliar with this little endeavor, that means that I will try to post every single day for the entire year. I don't have anything fancy like a phone that accesses the internet so I'm not sure how this is going to go if we leave for vacation. But you'll get my best attempt. (Sara, you totally inspired me!)

In the mean time, I'm putting the rest of Sam's adoption story on hold. I think you know how it ends. :) It was exhausting to write the first part and I'm finding that writing the second part is stonewalling all my other attempts at updating you. Look for Part II sometime in the New Year. When I have more energy.  And while you wait, here's a picture to tide you over: