Long Awaited Christmas Photos

Here we go! I loaded these pictures out of order so we'll start on Christmas evening and work our way backwards through the family festivities! Hope you can follow the madness. Kinda like one of those really annoying t.v episodes or movies that you have to pay attention to or you lose your place. We love those kind of shows!

Ready or not...

Christmas Evening

Here Chase is hanging with Aunt Zandy under the tree tent on Christmas night.
We headed to MomMom and Fuji's house for the afternoon. I can't remember if I posted the reasoning behind Fuji's name before. Since Chase already had two MomMoms, one Grandma, one PopPop, and one Grandpa, Jas' stepdad couldn't decide what he wanted to be called. So we call him Fujisan(Japanese for grandfather)-the product of random Googling one day. Chase however, is proficient at saying PopPop, so we now call him both!

Opening presents for the third time that day.

WooHoo- old school sit n' spin
Mommy and Daddy got an electric snow shovel:) among many other wonderful things!

Rewind back to Christmas Morning.

Brunch and presents at our house. Chase, Mommy and Daddy all stayed in our pjs. Daddy is wearing the crazy Christmas hat Uncle Chris ended up with at the previous night's pollyanna.

Riding in his new sled with Aunt Zandy. My next picture of our dining room will have curtains. The bare windows and the lovely light are driving me crazy.

Uncle Kyle and Aunt LJ had to run to another family function, but you can't leave our house without posing for a picture.

Chase's first pair of boots. He wore them the other day and walked around even more stiff-legged than usual. After we got home he spent the rest of the night walking around carrying them. I think he likes them!

Sitting on his Cars potty-he already knows what to do!

Back it up again-

Our first Christmas morning waking up in our own bed! We had a relaxing morning opening presents before everyone came over. It was wonderful:)

Summer made a break for it before there was no walking path!

As soon as Chase saw the car he didn't want to open anything else. Who do you think he takes after? Here Daddy is showing him how to push the pedal with his hand because he is a little too short to sit on the seat and reach it with his foot. Jason has already looked into how he can add more horsepower.

On to Christmas Eve-Party #2

Each year the White Elephant gifts get more hideous.

A little smaller crowd than usual!

Chase and his Great Grandparents

Making sure his gifts are the right size

I had to include this picture. At one point during the evening's rotation of gifts my 91 yr. old grandfather ended up with a black thong from Victoria's Secret in his hands. Like I said the gifts get crazier every year.

My cousin has the coolest basement for kids of all ages!!

Christmas Eve Party #1

Always fun trying to squeeze everyone in and set the timer on the camera. I am usually the one setting the timer and running. So most pictures I have the same pose!

More presents!

Another day, another party

R Rated White Elephant gifts this time...

In front of Cindy's amazing Christmas tree

Our friend John made his own dickey out of a woman's turtleneck to go with his outfit. If you don't know what one is, Google it, just watch your spelling. It brought many of us back to our childhoods and reminded me of my grandparents. We decided that next year we should all wear ugly Christmas sweaters.

Woody trying out his spy glasses

Rewind one last time!

First Annual Swanson Family Christmas party at the shop.

All I want for Christmas is a giant box to play in with my second cousins

Playing darts

Hug or Get off my toy?

I seriously think almost everyone in this picture is blond!

Whew! I can't look at this screen anymore. Time to wrap up.

Thank goodness we both had the week before New Years' off. Big families, and lots of wonderful friends mean you always have lots of fun, but also lots of places to go! Luckily this year we didn't have to pack up the car to travel for a few days for the holidays. Like I said before, it is always nice to sleep in your own bed.

Chase made out like a bandit and had a high-flying Christmas.

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2011

Look at me now

Hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday week. We sure did!

Unwrapping and Wrapping Up

Jas and Uncle Kyle on t.v at the hockey game

Before 2011 comes to a close, and so various friends and family will stop pestering me- without further adieu, here is a tidbit from our holiday week. Right now Chase is upstairs fussing, so this first post will be a collage. As you can see from above Daddy is at the Winter Classic Alumni game! More on our holiday festivities to follow shortly!!

This free picture collage created with Smilebox

Merry Wishes!

Hope everyone's days are filled with as much wonderment as ours! Wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family-near and far!

This is the first year in a very long time that we'll be waking up in our own bed on Christmas morning. Don't forget to cherish the little things...

Tree Time

I read a post on how to take the perfect picture of your child in front of the Christmas tree...turn on the tree lights during the day, wait for the perfect amount of sunlight to come through the window, and sit them several feet in front of the tree. Clearly that person did not have a freaking toddler-

Decorating before pictures

Making his plan of attack for what to grab first. "Hey buddy can you turn around and look at Mommy?" This was attempt #1. There was clearly too much to look at.

Try #2(really #20 or so probably, but that's the beauty of digital)-At this point Chase has started to move on, and is getting ready to do laps around the house with his grocery cart and/or Ferrari.

So I am left with Summer, who also rarely listens to me.

Except for this day...

So here is our first baby, who is now 12yrs old.

Posing for me for the perfect Christmas tree shot

Countdown to the Holidays

Time to Make Ornaments!!

Rolling the dough

Pretty skilled with the rolling pin

"Mom I know you told me its salty, but I want to try some."

All gone! And not too gross

Mommy forgot to poke holes in them before putting them in the oven

Ooh, smushy. I think I'll just paint my fingers

Thank goodness this is washable and nontoxic!

You can't see the finished products, sorry. They are presents for my grandparents!

Simon

My very own cell phone

Chase has been spoiled with some gifts from our out-of-town family recently. Jas' family in New Mexico, and my brother and his wife from Wales got all of their presents in the mail in a timely fashion. I, on the other hand, still have not sent out their boxes! Soon guys, I promise. Since Chase loves wrapping paper almost as much as the gifts themselves, I couldn't have him wait another week to rip them open. He got some awesome holiday books and a pillow pet from Grandma and Grandma, and a Vtech cell phone from Aunt Fay and Uncle Tim. Chase loves any kind of books, and rolling around with the pillow pet while being read to is a new favorite pastime. The cell phone is a slide and talk smartphone, and the best part of it by far is the fact that its from the UK!

Let me tell you a little more about the phone-

At first Chase needed assistance sliding the phone open to text and check his email. Since his favorite new word is "help", I spent quite a while helping him slide the front open over and over again. He was obsessed with the on/off button I didn't get the chance to really hear the prerecorded messages at first. The British accent was adorable, but I didn't realize I was in for more entertainment as Chase hit his "contacts" button. The children each state their name and something about themselves. "Hi it's Emily, I like to eat apples. Hi it's Jacob, I have a pet dog." etc. After pushing the same button over and over again(this time is was me)-It was addicting! I got "Hi it's Ethan, I like drawering." That isn't a typo(many of you know I am a spelling freak).

Immediately I couldn't help but think of...

The SNL jingle:

"Well, you know my name is Simon

and I like to do drawerings.
I like to draw all day long
so come and do drawerings with me.
Come and do drawerings with me!"

Now does the title of the post make sense?

If you lived in a hole and never watched SNL, or were born after the early 80's(a few of our blog followers fall into this category) you may have no idea what I'm talking about. I recommend you hit Ctrl T(open a new tab) right now, and check out Hulu or YouTube clips to get the full effect of Mike Myer's character in a tub talking about "cheeky monkeys or bum-lookers" Nothing beats those old Saturday Night Live skits!

But seriously-Although we rag on my brother for his transplanted accent and sayings, the fact that Chase has family in Europe is awesome! We all love the gift, especially me:)

We're fortunate to have the majority of our family located on the East Coast, but Chase misses his grandparents and aunts out West, and his aunt and uncle in Wales. Time to start Skyping people! After all he'll be 2 yrs. old before everyone visits again in June.