Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Sam loved the Christmas tree and presents, and especially loved the Christmas lights and decorations in peoples' yards. We toured another neighborhood, Spring Park, before Christmas. This neighborhood had a theme for each street, and the streets were competing for awards. Sam's favorite was the street that made train tracks out of Christmas lights, and had Christmas themed train cars in each yard with flashing lights that made it look like the wheels were moving. He kept saying, ooh and ah, and choo-choo.



Here are some more cute shots of Sam in front of our Christmas tree. It took several attempts to get a shot where he was looking in the general direction of the camera, centered in front of the tree, in focus, and not moving. Ultimately we had to use props to distract him.



This one is from a shopping trip to the Galleria. He loved watching the ice skaters and the Christmas tree lights in sync with the Christmas music.



We had beautiful weather Christmas Eve. We didn't have any last minute shopping to do so we got to spend the day around the house. We went to the park for a while. Sam had a blast climbing up the spiral slide (with my help), and then sliding down the tube slide. I think it was the first time that he'd been down the tube slide. It goes really fast, and he is generally not a daredevil, but he was signing "more, more" every time he went down it.



We went to Ian and Roya's house for Christmas Eve. We had a yummy dinner and watched them open gifts. Ian and Roya got Sam a rocking horse, so he spent most of his time going between that and their cats. We staid over there pretty late, so Sam didn't get to bed until about 10:30pm. Then Chris and I staid up pretty late getting everything ready for the next morning.



Sam was mesmerized when we got him out of bed on Christmas morning. There were so many new things to look at and his whole play area had been rearranged. He ran around and played with the big unwrapped things that Santa had gotten him before we sat down to investigate what had been left in the stockings.



This is a video of Sam with his Christmas stocking.



Sam playing with his new train on his new table and chairs.



Winnie the Pooh ride-on




Even Cleo got a stocking. Sam got a big kick out of giving her the gifts. I was surprised at how much Sam helped open the gifts. He was pretty much tearing the paper himself, and he was really getting into it by the end. He didn't play with the paper and bows like he did last year. This year he was more interested in the boxes and the bubble wrap. He even helped Daddy open his new camera. (Yes, Chris got a new camera. I'll let him do a post later on why he needed/wanted that!)




It took us three hours to open all the gifts. We had to stop and play with everything as it was opened, and we took a few breaks along the way. With the late night before and non-stop playing all morning, Sam was super-pooped. He took a three hour nap and woke up ready for more.



This is a video of Sam playing with some of his new toys. (Sorry about the audio ... we were listening to Christmas music and my camera only picked up the base.)



Chris took this picture of us getting ready for dinner with his new camera. I think he took the picture without a flash.



Some where in the sequence of shots, Sam showed us the new face he's been working on. He just started making this angry face in the last week or two. It's really hard not to laugh when he makes it because he looks so cute.



We went over to Roya's parent's house for Christmas dinner. Sam was a little shy at first, but was soon dancing a jig around the house for everyone's entertainment.



There were a few presents left to open, so Sam helped out by playing Santa.



My mom came to town the next day and we had Christmas #2. Sam was a very experienced present opener by that point, so he really got in on the action. He had even learned to ooh and ah, so that was good for a few laughs too.




This was the third night in a row that Sam staid up until after 10pm, so he was going strong the whole time. It's going to be really tough getting him back on his regular schedule after the holiday.




This is a video of my mom reading a pop-up book that Andrea got for Sam about counting cookies.



I found these picture on my point-n-shoot from Sam's 18 month well visit in early December. I'm not sure why they put him in this gown, but it was too cute.



Sam's newest trick is climbing up on the ottomans and then sort of jumping to us on the couch. I'm not a fan of this new trick. It means we have to keep a closer eye on him when he's in the living room. Melanie teases me about being sure to catch him when he jumps. When she was about his age, she was jumping off a chair to me, but I didn't catch her and she broke her foot. I'll never live that one down!