The Gift of McWane

Uncles Sean & Batman gifted us with a year's membership to the McWane Center. {insert a very grateful hurrah!}

He took off in the oversized playarea like a little mouse...
And we made it before the end of the year so we got to enjoy the snow exhibit too...

After a long wait, he put on his special Snow Shoes...

And got to stomp around in the Snow Room!

We missed out on the White Christmas in Alabama but at least we had some last year in Oklahoma.

And it was also special because we made the special Train Exhibit. Our old neighbors are part of the Magic City Train group and I introduced Mason by saying, "these are Mr. Bob's trains". He loved them!

Jungle gym, snow, train, and of course my little engineer found the blocks.

I loved the look of awe on his face when he was trying to figure out the ball contraption.

This will definitely be a well-used and well-appreciated gift for our entire family. Thanks boys!

Merry Christmas!

Well we arrived in Oklahoma on the 23rd and as usual, Gigi did a lovely job with making the house a Christmas-y treat.

Mace was excited to check everything out...

And of course he was spoiled the entire time. G even let him lick the mashed potatoes from the spatula!

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve at the Smith's always includes a buffet-style party spread. Ahhhhmazing foods and a huge variety to choose from!

Mason and Daddy were bouncing off the walls from all the sugar.

And then we all settled down for a long winter's...game of Catch Phrase!

And Mason showed Grandadder and Gigi the new tricks he learned from Aunt BeeBee's iPad.

We were pretty stoked that Christmas was the next morning!

CHRISTMAS DAY

Gigi was excited when Mason woke up...that meant Christmas morning could really begin.
On the way to the tree and stockings... Still waking up, but excited about his stocking goodies.

Uncle Batman

Aunt BeeBee

Grandadder

Daddy

And then Gigi showed Mason his Santa gift- a mailbox and letters!

I love the creativity of this kid- Super Mason!

This was our first Christmas as a new family too!

And in the spirit of tradition, we ate another huge feast of turkey and dressing for lunch and went to the movie theater and watch the new Narnia movie.What a wonderful Christmas! Hope yours was filled with the wonder and joy of celebrating Christ's birth!

Our 1st Family Christmas

We decided to do our family Christmas Eve and Christmas celebration before we left for Oklahoma. Since it's our very first Christmas together, we wanted to start traditions of our own. This year was particularly fun as memories were made and Mason was very aware it was PARTY-time!

Of course the night prior, we had to read the classic, "The Night Before Christmas"

And then Mason wrote his letter to Santa and we improvised for the cookies {iced graham crackers anyone?}
He was pretty proud of his creation:

We even let him have a special bedtime and he stayed up until midnight {this was also to help us with the 13-hr drive the next evening!}. But when he awoke, we started with the stockings.
One of his favorite stocking toys was the floating xylophone {yea for the baby boutique Swaddle-I found it and his PJs the day prior!}

Daddy had a stocking with goodies as well, and Ripley even got some treats and a pretty pink collar.

Mason's "Santa gifts" were a new play tent, some cool new froggie wellies, and a new doggie backpack.

And since I forgot to post this earlier, he also received an early gift- the Little People Nativity Set. I told him about baby Jesus, but maybe next year we'll be a little more intersted...he mostly just wanted the Angel to play "Away in a Manger". Super cute set though!

Now off to Oklahoma...