Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Eli had himself a very merry Christmas, but there was nothing little about it. It included a ton of new toys, lots of playing, even more visiting with family, and very little napping.

The festivities started on Christmas Eve. We gave Eli several of his gifts so that he would have time to play with them since we were traveling on Christmas.

Then Christmas Morning came with his "big" gifts.... These photos don't really capture how much he loved his car and work bench. There truly was a sense of wonder in his face.
Then by mid-morning we were braving the wind and rain (and freezing rain) to have dinner with our cousins. Here's Eli with Mallie and Cooper.
Then back to Grandma and Grandpa's for, you guessed it, more presents!
We hope that Eli will roll around on this bean bag instead of us!
The whirlwind tour through northwestern North Carolina ended on Sunday with a fabulous dinner at Aunt Melissa and Uncle Randy's house.

The whole clan was present....Vicki and Eli enjoyed some books.Eli enjoyed hugs from Papaw and ....

....from Nana

And Eli enjoyed spending time with all his first cousins: Jordon, Jared, and Jada

snow, Snow, SnoW, SNOW!!!

The first really big snowstorm Eli has seen proved to be very exciting. First, Chris had a lovely adventure coming home (in the car) in the middle of the mess Friday. He eventually had to ditch the car and walk four blocks home, but contends he could have made it if everybody else would have just gotten out of the way.

What happened out here?

Then we sat at home and watched it snow and snow and snow (about 16 inches worth). Eli for the first time really seemed to notice that something weird was going on outside. On Saturday afternoon, we took him out to see the wonders and he was so engrossed by the oddity that none of these picture have any smiles in them. We think he had a good time though, and he certainly wore himself out.

Yeah, I'm going to need a little help here.

Chris stomped down a baby path and Eli walked around and around.

We all had a good time in the snow if truth be told.

The snow was too dry to make a snowman, but after a little melting, our dear neighbor Gary was able to build a snowman for Eli in the driveway on Sunday. He said he had to do something with all that snow! Eli was not at all sure what to make of it.

What is this?

In other news, Eli had his 15-month check-up on Friday (morning) and is continuing to be tall and not very chubby (33.25 inches and 25lb 4oz).

We were finally able to get the Christmas shopping done yesterday and now Chris and I are really looking forward to the day!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Getting the Christmas Tree up last weekend was a lot of fun for Eli.

Oooo! Something new!

Chris had LOTS of help getting the tree into the stand.

Just whack it!

Wow! That's pretty and look at all that stuff you can take on and off!

So far, the bottom third of the tree has been re-decorated "only" about ten times, the tree is wired to the picture rail so its topple-free, and Eli has yet to discover that there is a pan of water under there. So all is well.

No really, I'm not going to eat this pine cone.

A Handyman in our Midst

After more than a week of bad cold and teeth cutting (3 big ole molars), Eli is finally feeling better and was more than ready to help assemble our new kitchen cart last night.

Hurry up and let's get started!

Screwdriver - check! For the record, yes, he does know how the screwdriver works, generally speaking.

Whew! This is hard work. All this fun ended too soon when Eli tripped and whacked his head on one of the cart legs. I think we were more upset than he was and he was certainly more interested in looking at the bag of frozen peas I tried to use to sooth the swelling than he was in being soothed. Today he has a bruise on his head that looks like somebody drew a line with a purple marker. Hope he doesn't call OSHA on us.