Presents under the tree

Your Vancouver grandma bought a ton of stuff for you and Kendall when I took her Black Friday shopping. She asked that I wrap all your presents and put it under the tree. We didn't wrap Kendall's because we thought she was still too young to understand what it meant to open presents and we wanted her to wear the clothes right away. You, on the other hand, totally know what Christmas is now so you kept asking why there weren't any presents under the tree. Well, it's been so hectic with work and also having your Vancouver grandma here so I didn't have time to wrap the presents until now. I'm actually a little bit sad because when I was on mat leave last year I was able to take care in wrapping the presents and even did the whole Advent Calendar with you. I feel like I didn't wrap the gifts as nicely this year and I really didn't do much to prepare for the holidays. We didn't even do our annual Christmas photoshoot :-(

The gifts under the tree. We will be putting more as it gets closer to Christmas.

Happy birthday Jesus!

Well, it's finally here- Christmas!

I kept asking you every day whose birthday it was on Christmas and you kept saying it was God's. I guess you are not wrong, but I reminded you it was Jesus' birthday and that's why we celebrate Christmas. I was actually a little bit annoyed leading up to Christmas because you haven't been behaving well. You've actually been throwing a lot of tantrums and saying bad words- i.e., Hot Jesus (I think you learned this at daycare). I felt like you didn't deserve to open presents. Plus, with the tragedy that happened at Newtown I wanted this to be a more meaningful Christmas. I really want to do something different when you are a bit older and maybe get you to volunteer with me somewhere so that you realize there's a lot more to Christmas than getting gifts. What really bummed me out was when you said, "Mommy, can you get me more gifts?" after you opened all your gifts. And this was after you opened so many gifts!

Opening the first gift.

I can't remember who this was from, but it may be from Jenn and Ed.

Same with this book.

Kendall got a rattle from Jenn and Ed and a couple of other baby toys.
The Minnie Mouse kit is from Dennis' co-worker for Kendall.

Kendall loves her little toy and she won't let go!

From Dennis' co-worker, you got a Cars Crayola set.

Excuse your jjing jjing (grumpy) face. I think you were overwhelmed with all the gifts.
This Nativity scene set was from Auntie Jess and Uncle Wayne.

Look how happy Kendall is! She is my little angel.

I wrapped 2 gifts your Toronto grandparents bought you from their Asian vacation.
They bought a top and a blowfish that lights up.

The top is really cool. It lights up and makes music. It's quite loud so you are a little scared of
it. You kept grabbing the top to stop it from spinning and making loud noise.

Your Vancouver grandparents and Auntie Jane bought a ton of gifts for you that were pretty
good. Auntie Jane asked me what you needed/wanted so I gave her a few ideas and she went
with it. 

Because of you love movies, she got you a few DVD's- 1 being a Christmas Classics set.
I think you also got How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Mommy and daddy got you a key ring toy that makes sounds. You always drive your
Lightning McQueen car and you were using Kendall's teething ring to pretend that it was a key
ring for your car. That's why I bought this for you.

We also got you an addition to your Thomas the Train set.

And more from us- a Cars activity set. You absolutely love Cars so anything with Lightning McQueen
is a hit for you.

Kendall got a ton of clothes from Auntie Jane and your Vancouver grandparents. What a lucky
girl she is!

Your Vancouver grandparents/Auntie Jane also got you lots of Leap Frog books. They were all
Disney-branded books so I know they weren't cheap. Thank you!

Look how happy you are.

Mommy and daddy got you a microphone so you can perform your Gangnam Style song and
dance for us since that's what you love to do these days.

Already testing the microphone…

Last, but not least, your Toronto grandparents bought you a huge remote control truck.
Look how awe-struck you are!

You got gifts from Auntie Sara and Uncle Dan, but you opened it at our family Christmas party on Saturday so that's why it's not here. They got you a Cars drinking cup that you absolutely adore, a Thomas & Friends lunch box and the movie Rio. They got Kendall a baby toy that we can hang off her jumper. And Kendall also got something from Auntie Jessica and Uncle Wayne, but I must have forgotten to take photos of that. They got her a Peter Rabbit body suit that I've been desperately needing. I love suits that cover Kendall's head and cover her feet because it's so convenient to travel with and perfect for when I have to put her in the Baby Bjorn. Thank you!

Advent Calendar: Bake cookies

I was so excited for you to open this box. I saw a commercial back in November of Pillsbury Christmas cookies that had different Christmas pictures on it. When I went grocery shopping a few weeks ago I made sure to pick these up. I grew up with a mother that shooed us away from the kitchen when we were growing up so I never had any memories of baking/cooking with my mom. Don't get me wrong, I have fond memories of enjoying my mom's delicious foods, but I decided that I want to involve you more in the kitchen at an early age. When daddy and I watch the Food Network (we are obsessed!) and I hear chefs talking about how their passion of cooking was ingnited by spending time in the kitchen with their grandma/mom I am inspired. I also want your future wife to be impressed by your cooking skills. Not that today involved you cracking eggs or any actual baking for that matter, but it's a stepping stone, right?

So beautiful you are :-)

Always wanting to do the cute pose.

Lashes to die for!

So so excited.

Another funny face.

Haha, the fake smile again.

I chose the snowman picture cookies. They also had a Christmas tree and something else…
I forgot!

You pulled up the stool so that you could help me.

Putting all the cookie dough on the baking sheet.

It was a VERY important job.

Cookie batch ready to go in the oven!

While we were waiting for the cookies to bake in the oven I took a video of you. I told you the oven was hot and to not go near it and you mentioned that last time you hurt your hand on it. I didn't know what you were talking about, but then I remembered that there was an incident a few weeks ago where you stuck your hand in the gap of the door oven when it was still hot and you cried in pain. I had to rinse your finger in cold water for a few minutes to numb the pain. I can't believe how you remember these things!

Look how they puffed up after they were finished.

You actually ate 5 cookies after they were baked. I think you ate them because you helped me
bake them!

Why, hello there Kendall!

Sorry that most of the posts for December have been mainly about Aidan. It's because of the Advent Calendar. I hope you understand. Since Aidan always wants to play with me instead of with daddy you've been spending a lot more time with daddy. That's fine by me because now you seem to love being around daddy. Today while mommy was playing with Aidan in the basement I heard someone coming down the stairs. I turned around to see and I saw you at the top of the stairs being held by daddy. You were smiling at me and just the cutest little sight that I ever did see!

Advent Calendar: Get a Lollipop & Make a castle picture

We didn't open box #22 yesterday. The reason why we didn't do it yesterday was because it was our family's Christmas dinner at Auntie Jess' new house and mommy was cooking all day. Daddy took you swimming in the afternoon so that you guys could be out of my hair. So we had to combine opening box #22 and box #23 today. 

Holding the toy du jour- Bumblebee and Jolt.

First we open box #22.

I had 3 flavours for you to choose from. You chose grape.

I also got you to pose wearing your new Angry Birds socks that your Vancouver grandma sent
from Vancouver. She sent you so many socks! 

A close-up.
You initially asked for Psy's Gangnam-style socks that I had gotten from my cousin in Korea,
but your Vancouver grandma couldn't find it in your size. She looked everywhere for them.
She ended up sending you tons of Angry Birds socks, Robo Car Poli, Spiderman. She also
sent Kendall tons of Hello Kitty socks. She is such a good grandma…

And what is in box #23?

Your final picture- the castle picture! 

You love these lollipops. They are the ones that come with powdered rock crystals that pop
when you put them on your tongue. 

Ready to work on the castle picture?

Peeling off the stickers to stick on the castle picture.

Haha. This is your face when you get frustrated at something. You were frustrated here because
the stickers weren't peeling off properly. What a bad temper you have…

Work in progress.

I wanted to take a picture of your 4 picture cards that you did. This one is the pirate picture
that you worked on on day #1.

This is the enchanted forest picture that you worked on on day #14.

This is the outer space picture you worked on on day #20.

And this is your final creation of the castle picture.