Christmas Break 2010

The first few days of Cole's winter break were spent inside, doing nothing aside from trying to stay dry and warm. It rained and rained.
So it was such a relief when the rains ended and my sister Amanda invited us to go to legoland with her and her little boy, Connor. Here's Luke and Connor checking out the map.

Riding the train.

Digging for dinosaur bones.

Marveling at the amazing lego creations.

Cole loved it too. Here he is in front of New Orleans.

Had to get a picture with Hagrid.

Feeling great peddling along on this ride.

The next day was Christmas Eve. We had a wonderful get-together with all of my mom's family. I was in charge of helping the kids do a live nativity. Very low key, but I loved it! (It's hard to tell, but Luke was the "star".)

All the mexican food was delicious (the treats were great too!)

There were two white elephant gift exchanges, one for grown-ups and one for the kids. Here are the kids ready to start passing gifts around.

We went back home that night and woke up the next morning to find Santa had eaten his cookies, and his reindeer were mighty hungry too.

Santa also left this letter (ALL of this was Clay's doing) explaining that they were such good boys, that as a special treat he had one of his elves design a magical quest for them, and if they were successful, their Christmas presents would magically appear under the tree.

Along with Santa's letter was another letter, this one from the elf who would be guiding them on their quest. This letter explains that there are 7 noble feats they must accomplish, each one helping a magical creature living nearby.

The letter also explained that this Christmas sparkle and these two wands were needed for their mission.

They were also provided with a map.

Here's Cole and Luke ready to help out some magical creatures.

Most of these creatures lived at this park. Here, they did a magic spell to help a troll living under this bridge.

Here, they helped some pixies. Clay kept himself hidden at all of our stops, but always close enough so that the boys could hear the sound effects coming from his laptop (sense the elf had said that the boys would be able to hear the magical creatures but not see them.)

Well, as you can imagine, the boys were successful in their 7 noble feats and had just enough magic left from their Christmas sparkle to make their presents appear. When they got back home, their presents were all under the tree and there was a note of congratulations from the elf.

Luke was very happy to get his Buzz Lightyear. It was the only thing he asked for this year. Also, I had to get him these wings because he is constantly pretending that he has buzz wings anyway.

Cole is so into maps lately. I searched everywhere to find him something fun and map-like.

We also added to our pet family. We got the boys a snake, which Cole has named Peter. Peter is a baby corn snake and he loves us very much. I regret I don't have a picture of him yet.
The next day, we had a wonderful time at another Christmas celebration, this time with Clay's family. Afterward, we got to spend a couple days with Clay's parents. The boys loved playing with Grandma's new toys,

and walking around the harbor,

and spotting some seals,

and poking at sea anemones with sticks to try to get them to close up,

and Cole insisted on walking to the very very very end of the jetty. We had such a great, relaxing time! Thanks for having us Suzanne!

Once we were back home again, Clay still had several days off work. It was so much fun to have him around all day! We enjoyed so many outings with him like going to see Tangled (which was fantastic)

going out to the yogurt shop--one of those where you serve yourself and pay by the ounce. This place has only been open for about a year but I don't know what this town did before it existed. We love coming here!


Took the boys to the indoor playgound. Luke was the perfect age for this, Cole not so much but he was a good sport.


For Christmas we got year passes to Magic Mountain, so we had to go try it out. Here's Cole and Luke doing some driving.

Luke loves this room where you can shoot balls and vacuum them up.

Cole enjoyed being on stage during this looney toons show.

It was so cold outside! But the boys didn't mind at all. We had so much fun. And I think these magic mountain passes are gonna make 2011 pretty sweet!
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!