Mega Giant Photo Overloaded Holiday Post

Let's start at the very beginning ... a very good place to start.

We had three family Christmas celebrations this year. The first one was the weekend before Christmas with Mark's family at his parent's house. This is Simon's first Christmas with us and having him with us brought a new level of joy. It also was a little bit stressful, trying to keep him from being over-stimulated, making sure that he got a nap, ate decent meals, etc. I think that we came through the holidays ok, though I'm sure I have a few new gray hairs! : )

Here's a photo of Simon and his cousins Lily and Braylee who are both three years old. They play pretty well together and were certainly patient as they waited to open gifts.

After all of the craziness and playing with new toys, Simon took a few minutes to relax and read with his Mamaw.

Later that night, we set-up Simon's new Thomas train from Aunt Lorie, Uncle Scott and Cousin Caitlyn. This was the first inkling that I had that our house could be taken over by toys. Look at the size of that train!

Because we were traveling to Pennsylvania to visit with my family for Christmas this year, the three of us celebrated as a family on the Wednesday morning before Christmas. Simon left cookies and milk for Santa.

And he was quite surprised the next morning to find that the milk and cookies were gone! He kept saying over and over, "Santa drank the milk" -- like he couldn't quite believe it.

Then it was time to check out his stocking. The Mickey Mouse peaking out of the top of the stocking got Simon's curiosity. He was very polite as he opened gifts and said "thank you" after each one.

Mark made a piano bench for me! He and Simon found the piano in our neighborhood back in October -- a neighbor had set it by the curb for the trash or whoever found it first! It's not in great shape but it's not terrible, either. Mark is going to fix the few keys that are broken and then we'll get it tuned. He is so talented! I love that he makes me something each year for Christmas.

When Simon had trouble opening a gift because his Mommy used too much tape, he wanted to get a knife to open it -- he actually started running towards the kitchen to get a knife! But we convinced him that his play saw could also do the job.

Next came the most special gift this year ... Mark wrote another book for Simon. It's titled "Swingin' Simon Loves to Dance" and shows Simon doing a different kind of dance on each page. Simon has loved to dance since the first day we met him in Ethiopia and he put his little hands in the air in a 'raise the roof' move. The book is so sweet and I know that he will treasure more and more as he gets older.

Later that day, we left for PA. Our plan was to drive half-way and stop for the night. I was so glad that we took some time to visit our friends Kelly and Chris in Richmond. So fun to see where Chris works and to catch-up with Kelly for a bit. And a shout out to them because a few days later, they decided to get married! Congratulations, Kelly and Chris!

We arrived at my parent's house in PA on Thursday afternoon. It was great to see them and get settled in for the week. Simon made himself right at home, playing with many of his Mimi's holiday decorations. He also quickly learned where the button was to make their Christmas tree spin! On Christmas Eve day, we met our friends Rod, Faith, Seth and Ethan Bare at Oregon Dairy for breakfast. It has been a tradition with Faith and me for many, many years and one that we're now glad to include our boys on! : ) Always fun to see them and Simon just loves Seth and Ethan. After that, we headed to the town of Intercourse to Kitchen Kettle Village to go for a horse and buggy ride. It was a beautiful day -- sunny but cold. This was something Mark and I had wanted to do for awhile and we knew that Simon would love it.

Our guide and driver was a 24 year old Amish woman, Elsie. I asked her if it was ok to take her photo and she said yes! She was really funny and surprising! She told us all about her family and friends and life in the Amish culture. She seemed to really like Simon and invited him to sit up front with her and to help drive the buggy. The horses names were Swoop and Westbrook. Elsie told us that her best friend lived about 25 miles away in Lebanon County and that she would often rollerblade to visit her -- 3.5 hours on rollerblades! She is a spunky young woman and we really enjoyed our time with her on the buggy ride.

Later that day, we had a family gathering with my Dad's side of the family -- the Hutchinson's. It was great to see everyone! They get together every Christmas Eve; been doing that for as long as I can remember. My sister and her family arrived that day, too. Simon loved seeing 'the boys!' Unfortunately, Simon fell asleep in the car on the way home from the Hutchinson's gathering so he didn't get to help his cousins leave cookies and milk for Santa. From left to right, Andrew, Mason and Brandon.

And finally Christmas morning arrived. All four boys had to go to the fireplace and see if Santa had paid them a visit. The cookies and milk were gone so off they went in search of their presents.

Mason loves to play dress-up and I love this photo of him in just one of the several outfits he received. Such a cutie!

I have lots of photos but this post is getting long so I'll keep things moving. On the Monday after Christmas, we had a get together with my high school friends and their kids. Shelly is a saint for having us all over! Thank you for letting us crash (trash?) your house, Shelly! It was a whirlwind of activity as we ate brunch together and watched the kids play. Here's a photo of the whole gang plus two of Shelly's nieces. A good-looking group!

And a photo of the Moms. : ) From left to right: Shelly, Tonya, me, Michele and Kimberly. I've actually known Shelly and Kimberly since kindergarten! And we can all pick-up where we last left off ... I love these women!

Here's a photo of Simon with his Papa and Mimi. He's such a busy two year old that it was hard to get him to sit still with them!

We also made time to visit with my Aunt Barbie at the Pancake Farm -- that's our favorite place to meet Barb. And then we made a trip to Pleasant View to visit my Grandma. She made Simon the beautiful hat and sweater he's wearing. Simon gets a lot of attention when we visit Grandma. He even helped her to walk down the hall to visit one of her friends who wanted to meet Simon. So sweet!

Simon received many fun gifts and toys, many with buttons and gadgets. But this is what he played with our first day back home -- a wooden birthday cake. He carried it around the house the entire day and sang Happy Birthday. It was rather cute.

He's also fond of his ViewMaster. This toy brings back many memories for me and Mark! It took Simon a little while to get the hang of it but he loves looking at the photos.

And on New Year's Day, we ended our long holiday/vacation by babysitting for our friend's two little boys, Harrison and Gabriel. Simon and Harrison had a blast together! I think that he missed his day care friends and truly enjoyed having Harrison to play with. And Gabriel was my buddy for the day.

So there you go! A mega giant photo overloaded holiday post. Whew! I am exhausted from reviewing the holidays! We had been hoping to get back into a routine this past week but then Simon had a fever and cold. We're thankful that he's on the mend. We're looking forward to 2011 and hopefully, we'll have an adoption update soon.

Happy New Year!