Christmas 2010!

Santa Jakey!


caught in the act (of walking!)



Christmas Eve Day - me and my drool monster






playing with his new favorite toy! thanks Jackie, Geoff & Kyra!!

ready for church - Santa hat and all!

enjoying Christmas Eve dinner at Gran & Pa Pa's

family photo time

my handsome little man

goofing around with Uncle Mike:

Jake and Pa Pa

(Jake is pointing at the Christmas tree)

Jake giving Pa Pa hugs - so cute!

Jake's place card :)

Jakey with The Grinch (one of his MANY gifts from Gran & Pa Pa)



Jake hanging with Nana:

4 generations lookin' good!

Jakey trying on his new hat from Jenny & Uncle Mike!

in his Christmas PJs ready for his story (he looks so little in this big chair!)

"Twas the night before Christmas..."

Christmas morning:

Santa came!

is that doggie for me?

Jake likes his new Elmo book!

bubbles!

starting a pile of new stuff!

Jakey's new changer (remote control) so he doesn't mess with the real ones!

so busy with all of his new toys!

trying out his new rocking horse!

later that day:

checking out his new tent from Gran & Pa Pa

Merry Christmas!

We had an ER free Christmas this year! Hallelujah! Our 2010 Christmas was SO much better than our 2009 version. We started our festivities by going to Joe's office Christmas luncheon on the 23rd. Jakey loved exploring Joe's work and crawling/knee-walking like a mad man! He had his first walking related injury that morning (a bloody, swollen upper lip from falling on his face - poor guy - he looked like Rocky!) and he has been very cautious with his walking ever since. He is way more comfortable walking at home on his own turf. So he only walked a tiny bit at the luncheon - but he was still able to draw a round of applause! He loves an audience, this kid!

That afternoon Jackie, Geoff and Kyra came up to visit us. It was so cute to see Jake and Kyra interacting! Kyra is already a pro at standing and they were so adorable standing together at Jake's toy table. We went to one of our favorite Mexican places to celebrate an early Christmas/Jackie's birthday, and a good time was had by all.

On Christmas Eve we met Janice, Erik and their twins Kyra & Dylan for lunch at another local Mexican restaurant! The kids love Mexican food, and so do we! That afternoon we delivered cookies to friends and neighbors (Jakey wore his Santa hat for this), and then got ready for church. We had to arrive early in order to get seats so Jakey only lasted about 30 minutes into the actual church service. He was getting loud and cranky, so we decided to leave early and head over to my parents house for dinner. My mom made our traditional Christmas Eve feast - sausage and peppers! SO yummy! We had cannolis for dessert from a local Italian restaurant/deli called Roma. They make the BEST cannolis! Jakey had a great time playing with my parents, Nana and Uncle Mike, and we changed him into his Christmas PJs and put him to bed there so that we could stay up late and play poker - for nickels (another holiday tradition!) We left my parents house around midnight and Jakey went right back to sleep at our house without a peep. Such a trooper! And sometime after we got home Santa came!!!

The next morning was SO MUCH FUN! I have always loved Christmas morning (who doesn't?) but it is so much better now that I have a little one. Joe and I agreed that this was our best Christmas ever! It was so cute to see Jakey get excited over his new pile of toys and books. He even helped open some of his presents by tearing the wrapping paper. Too cute! And I can only imagine how much more fun it will be next year when he really knows what is going on!

We hosted Christmas dinner for my parents and Nana, and my Great Aunt Gin came over for appetizers. I spent all day in the kitchen - first making our traditional Christmas breakfast of eggs with leftover sausage and peppers, then making tomato sauce with pork and meatballs from scratch and then appetizers (including stromboli - yet another Christmas tradition). When my parents arrived we had Christmas #2! They brought over a ridiculous amount of presents for us and were way too generous as usual. And they totally spoiled Jakey with tons of gifts! My favorite present that they gave Jake is actually more of a present for Joe and I - a DVD player for the car! This will come in handy when we travel since Jakey gets quite antsy on long car rides. Not sure if we can hook it up until Jake is forward facing* though.

Jakey had such a great Christmas and was so pooped from playing with all of his new toys that we put him to bed early and he went right to sleep! We finished our Christmas off with another family poker game :)

Jakey has been repeating several words lately. His favorite seems to be the word "apple." I love the way he says it, and he must love it too because he will say it over and over again. It seems like 15 months is the magic number! All of a sudden is walking and talking up a storm. Can't wait to see what he learns next!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!!!

[*The current minimum requirements on when to turn the car seat around are 1 year and 20 lbs. Jake is over 1 year and 24 lbs. but we still keep him rear facing. Why? We always get his car seats installed by the Fire Department. They offer this free installation service and are very thorough and informative. When we had his "big boy" car seat installed after he outgrew the infant car seat, the firemen who installed it were very adamant that we keep him rear facing AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. They explained to us how MUCH safer it is, and we believe them! Our car seat can remain rear facing until Jakey is 35 lbs., and we intend to keep him rear facing until he reaches this weight limit. Even though we have a tall child, it is better to keep him rear facing - he may have to start folding his legs soon, but it is so much safer for him to ride this way! For those interested, here is the link to a youtube video with further rear facing safety info including crash test clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DVfqFhseo Just because you can turn your baby around at one year doesn't mean you should. Help spread the word!]