Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!  Well, at least I started putting this post together before the new year... it's just taking a bit longer to actually write it out.  We had a wonderful Christmas!  Here's everyone coming down the stairs.  That's the advantage of being the dad, you get to head down first to get Grayson's bottle ready for when he wakes up and to be ready to take a video, and if you happen to sneak a few peeks first, well, that's just dad life!  Also, I love in that video when Winry tries to come down the stairs without looking!  So cute.

Grayson has started to be a climber.  He'll be our first climber, and may it pass fast, though from what I've seen from other people it doesn't.  We've started to find him on lower things like these kids chairs.  Fortunately they are small enough he can climb up onto them and get back down himself.

Brooke had her 6 year checkup this past week!  What!?!  She's just getting so big.  She loved going because she didn't need any shots and she loves the doctor!  Everything was good and she's healthy and growing well!

Speaking of Grayson and climbing, he also gets up in the basket of blankets.  This is probably more dangerous than it seems as I'm sure that's a very stable seat he's sitting on.  He loves to walk over and bury his face in the blankets, and now he sometimes climbs up on the blanket pile to bury his face.  He also started reaching for the stockings, so we had to move those out of his reach.

Here's Grayson on a chair again another day.  We eventually put the chairs away where he won't find them.  In retrospect, I'm not sure why it took a day or two to put them back away.

He was a little more bold this time and thought it was fun to stand up on the chair!  Fortunately he was always safe, and hopefully those chairs stay put away, but it was the girls who brought them up.

The girls have started to play with the next door neighbor, Aurelia more.  She invited them over one day, and we had her over I think twice.  They've had a lot of fun together, and I like having a good friend next door.  She's right in between Brooke and Winry's ages, so they all play together great!

Here's Jelly playing with a ping pong ball.  She LOVES them!  She hits them around and chases them and everything.  It's fortunately quiet enough that I never hear it in the middle of the night, but I definitely know she plays in the middle of the night sometimes.

I've got two picture-less videos, both from Christmas Eve.  I was playing the piano and the girls started asking for Christmas songs and sang along.  Top quality.  It's a real shame we didn't go caroling this year.  The second video is of Grayson with Monica's coat.  The fur liner around the hood looks quite a lot like Jelly, and he was grabbing it and rubbing his face on it.  There is a chance he actually thought he had Jelly, because he was loving it until he looked over and saw Jelly sleeping on her hammock and left the coat to see her.

Speaking of Jelly, here's Jelly with her stocking contents on Christmas morning.  She also got a pack of ping pong balls and a ball that rolls around on it's own.

Brooke got her much anticipated, and much loved Fur Real Pig!  The kids took it for a walk across the house, and Brooke has been a great pet owner since.  I do believe the pig has slept in her bed every night.

Grayson loves the baby shark song, and so got a baby shark toy that sings.  He loves it, but doesn't get the concept of squeezing it, so he carries it around for people to play for him.  He doesn't usually sing along with it, which is really too bad.

I wanted to get a picture of everyone from Christmas morning in here.  Here's me opening something.  From the size I'd guess it was my gift from Brooke which she found at Costco, which was a magic kit!  I'm going to learn a whole bunch of magic tricks to I can amaze the kids!

Here's Monica opening... a thing.  I really don't remember what.

We got some camping stuff from my parents, and the girls both got kids sleeping bags (Grayson got a... sleeping bag suit thing).  Brooke loves her sleeping bag and climbed right in.  She even slept in it Christmas night, got really hot half way through the night, and had to climb back out.

Grayson got this little car.  He LOVES going on walks, so I think he'll love this.  Of course, he also has his breakfast in his hand.  Babies just can't wait like everyone else.

Brooke got some piano books and is starting piano lessons with Monica!  She is so excited, and they are going to start doing lessons on Mondays while Winry is at preschool.

After opening everything, eating breakfast, and getting ready, we headed over to Tyson and Tina's house.  I think we've done this every year we've been out here for Christmas, and we always have a lot of fun.  We let the kids bring a few things with them, and Winry brought her Daniel Tiger reader.  She LOVES it so much.  I think she uses it every day, and will just go sit and listen to all the stories.  Each story also has a song in it, and you can listen to all the songs as well.

Our presents from Niki were at Tyson and Tina's house, and Grayson got these puffin booties from Iceland!

We also went to say hi to the salamander again.  Brooke thought it was cool, and Grayson got REALLY excited to see it.

Jelly loved the girls tent.  She loves to get in stuff like this, but she usually goes crazy too...  She'll try to paw at you thought the wall of the tent if you walk to close by the side.  We put the tent away because Jelly was going too crazy in it, and the girls never played with it.

Here's Winry listening to some books while she was waiting to head to church.

I took Grayson for a walk in his car after church.  He liked it, but it was really windy and I wrapped his arms under the blanket for most of the time.  I feel like if I need to bundle him up, the stroller is a little nicer as it has a higher back rest, but he did like playing with the steering wheel when I let him.

We had a super Christmas!  We had a lot of fun and enjoyed spending time together and with family.  All in all it was a good year.  Grayson is growing up so much, and the girls have been loving school.  Brooke is thriving in the learning environment and loves to do her homework.  Preschool has been great for Winry and she's making new friends and having so much fun.  It's been a wonderful year and I'm excited to see what 2022 has in store for us!