Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Midwest Christmas Highlights

Welcome to Christmas in the Midwest! We started our celebration in Michigan visiting Grandpa and Nana. Here is Evan "working" on his Handy Manny Radio with Daddy...
Evan's cousin, Nadiya, was being goofy putting many grapes in her mouth!
At Grandpa and Grandma's house in Indiana, Evan was eyeing the stack of packages...
Oooh, this one's mine - it has Elmo on the paper!
Rockin' the tunes on his guitar with Daddy...
Evan was very excited to get his GeoTrax trains!
Playing with blocks with his cousins...
Cousin Keira and Evan just stared at each other. It was very cute! Finally she gave him his package!Here are more of Evan's cousins at Grandma's house (Isaac, Clayton, Arianna, and Nadiya)...Evan got a Band in a Box and was eager to pay with the maracas... Relaxing with Mommy...Evan was tired!But never too tired to play with Thomas!Stockings were meant to be worn, right?!
Phew! This exhausted little boy is resting up while Santa flys through the night sky...It Christmas morning and I'm ready to go! Did Santa come last night?He did! Let me see what Santa put in my stocking...
Peeking...Daisy was excited to see what Santa brought her...She was a very good girl...
Ooohhh...look what Santa brought Evan...
I think he likes it!
Eating cookies on Christmas morning while opening presents...a Mears tradition!
Evan got lots of GeoTrax this Christmas and LOVES them! Here he is playing with part of one set at Grandma and Grandpa's...
"Make it go" as Evan would say!
Later that evening we ventured to two more Christmas celebrations. Here is Evan (far right) with all of his cousins and second cousins and Great-Grandma Catherine in the middle...
We had a wonderful trip home to see everyone for the holidays. Our visits always seem too short but filled with lots of fun!

White winter wonderland

At the beginning of our trip back to the midwest for the holidays, we ventured up to Michigan to visit Grandpa and Nana. They had lots of snow to play in and it was definitely a white winter wonderland! They had about 3 feet of base snow and it snowed every day we were there. No joke!Let's play in the snow! Evan was not too thrilled to be dressed up like Randy ("A Christmas Story" - my favorite Christmas movie!)...Evan wasn't very happy at first with the snow. He wanted to be held all the time. Here he is with Aunt Wendy...Daddy was enjoying the snow also. He was trying to get a sledding path in the yard, but the snow was too deep. We ended up sledding down the driveway!Yep! Evan went sledding. Here is his first run with Clayton (see the smile on Evan's face?!)...Hanging out with Mommy...All bundled up...what a beautiful face...

Check out the rosy cheeks!

Evan eventually liked the snow. He started playing in it...

Trying to make snowballs...

Taking a walk in the winter wonderland...Clayton, Uncle Jim, and Daddy were working on digging a trench and tunnels near the road. The snow was even DEEPER out there because of the snow plows. Here is Clayton in one of the trenches...it's almost as tall as he is. Pretty deep snow, huh?To cap the day outside, Evan and Mommy went sledding a few times. Evan liked sledding if we didn't pile into the snow drifts and tumble over. All in all we had a great time in the snow!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Winter Lights Festival

Keeping in the holiday spirit, the Mears family ventured to Seneca Creek State Park (basically our backyard) for their Winter Lights Festival. Ever since people started putting up their holiday lights outside, Evan takes note and says, "more lights" or ooohhhs and aaahhhhs. We have a longer car ride home from daycare every night because we're checking out all the lights in our neighborhood. Because of his interest in the lights, we thought this festival would be perferct. It sure was!
It's a 3.5 mile stretch that you drive through. It was pretty amazing...
Here are Evan and Daisy checking out the lights (Daisy didn't like the flash on the camera!)
Snowman family...Santa and his reindeer...Santa's workshop?...
Santa! Ho, ho, ho!A bear and penguin on a snowmobile...Penguins and their igloo...Winter Woods, complete with "running" water...Evan checking it all out...A sailboat on the lake (check out its reflection!)...A fisherman on the lake...Peacock...Jingle bells, jingle bells...This was really cool...the bears putting the star on the tree kept teetering back and forth and back and forth (on purpose, of course)...Patriotic archways near the end...Back at home, Evan was still enamored with our tree...
Phew! This Christmas lights thing is exhausting...
The Winter Lights Festival was really neat! Driving along, hearing Evan say, "oooohhhh!" with the Christmas music in the background...what else could you want!