Christmas Fun

We had a super-duper Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas with Mark which made it very special and also I was off work for almost 10 days straght! We are so fortunate to have almost all of our family living right here in town so although we have a lot of people to see for the holidays, we are all here together(minus a special few who are far far away =)). We were able to space out our Christmas celebrations and had one a day for 4 days so we weren't even tired. And everyone was gracious enough to plan the activities for after nap time so the star of the show would be well rested for all of the presents he needed to open! And boy howdy did he rack in the gifts! I'm still not sure who got him what..I was just continuously opening gifts! But no complaining here, I love that Mark is so loved by all of the family. Speaking of all of Mark's gifts...we're moving. There is absolutely NO room in our house. As John likes to say, each of Mark's toys takes up at least a two foot by two foot square! (And in a 1700 square foot house there just isn't enough room) Well we aren't actually moving yet, but our house is on the market. I think that John and I have some sort of neurotic, insomniac split personalities that got wind of the idea that we might have a little free time with me being off work and the holidays and all and NOOOOO....we couldn't have that! I mean the world might stop spinning on its axis if we didn't have anything to do. So somehow we decided that now would be a great time to try to clean out and pack up our completely overflowing home of 7 years while entertaining an increasingly mobile and inquisitive 11 month old!! Whew...I'm tired just typing it! But it was actually worth it! My closet and under my bathroom sink has never been more organized. We actually kind of like our house again! (But its still too small!) Anyway, if your looking for a house, look no further! The Rosemont (thats the model home name of our house) is waiting for you!
Anyway enough about that! Mark had a great time at MiMi and HoHo's on Christmas Eve. He loved playing with the bows, but he hated his first gift from Aunt Ninny and Uncle CaCa(they requested these names). They got him an African American Barbie named Nikki. Mark really surprised us when we got home because he has never uttered a word before but he just blurted out, "Throw that doll thing in the trash Mommy." OMG! But I told him I'm sure Aunt Ninny and Uncle CaCa will have a sweet little girl someday who will love to play with Nikki so we might just keep her around. Here is Mark in the midst of all of the wrapping paper and boxes on Christmas Eve. I'll have to add a picture of Nikki later.

Well you know how much Rocky loves Mark and likes to do everything he does. Here's Star with a bow on his head too! Actually the dogs LOVE christmas because they enjoy the tissue paper too. So they are in almost every shot we tried to take on Christmas morning of Mark and his gifts.
Also on Christmas morning Mark got this monkey jungle thing he requested from Grammy and PaPa. He LOVED it. He had played with it at a friends 1st birthday party several months ago and we knew he would love it. The look on his face was pure excitement!

So the little guy won't walk because he doesn't realize how stable he is on his feet. But he can do stuff like this without a problem. I also had to share this pic because I love his little red christmas outift.
Last but not least for this post - introducing the pointer finger! Mark is all about pointing to things and saying, "Da!" or "Ba!" We being the completely smitten parents just think it is the cutest thing ever!
I got a new camera/video camera for Christmas and when I learn how to upload those pics and movies I will add some from our other christmas celebrations at Opa and Anns and my grandparents!