Christmas 1.0

This past Sunday, we did our (little) family Christmas.  We ate homemade donuts, looked for our Elf on the Shelf, Stickers (he was in Jackson's potty which he thought was hilarious), watched a video that Santa had sent to Jackson, opened presents, went to the pre-opening at Noodles and got a free lunch, took a nap and then opened stockings.  

Jackson got way too many presents from Santa, but his two favorites were.....a cash register and karaoke machine!  He's took to it right away - the first video below is his first time at the mic and the second one shows him saying "here we go" but then being a true musician and getting all of his hits confused.  

Was a great, rainy Christmas in Delaware!

Thanksgiving in VA

This year we headed down to VA to see Uncle Jason, Aunt Milly, and cousins Jocelyn, Bella and Ruby for Thanksgiving.  It's been about a year and a half since we've seen them and Ruby could not believe that Jackson wasn't a baby anymore!

Before we left, we went to Jackson's Thanksgiving lunch at his school.

 Jackson's welcome message from the girls

Ruby reading Jackson her monster book

And then she colored on his face.

Jackson loved feeding the puppies

And relaxing with the girls in the movie room

Aunt Milly setting the table

Time to open some early Christmas presents

Cheese

The gang with Uncle Adam

The girls 

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb (from left to right)

Jackson Pollack

Just a normal day at the Porter house

A Surprise Visit to Milwaukee

In mid-October, Jackson and Daddy made a surprise visit back to Milwaukee for the weekend to meet Jackson's new cousin Lorelei.  By all accounts, it was a great weekend!

This is the best kind of traveler

Pop and Jackson at the pond

The Cousins Tree

Uncle Adam and Lorelei

Jackson giving Lorelei his dee dee when she was crying

He has the essentials - dee dee, ya ya and water.

A 60th Birthday visit

The day after Honey left, Grandma and Grandpa Porter arrived for a 10 day visit.  The first order of business was to do Friday Night Pizza night (sans mommy who was still traveling).  Our second order of business was to celebrate Grandpa's 60th birthday on Saturday.  We had burritos, birthday cake and then went to bet on the ponies (Jackson stayed home for the last part).  Grandpa even got his own "ya ya" (i.e., a Kindle Fire).

Grandma and Grandpa hung out with Jackson during the week while we worked and while we went to NYC on Saturday/Sunday for a belated anniversary trip.  Many thanks to them for helping us out with Jackson and around the house.

More pictures here.

Halloween, Honey and Hunkering Down

Let's pretend it's still October, shall we?  

HONEY

Grandma Honey arrived on Saturday, October 27.  We picked her up at the airport and told her that we were taking her on a surprise day trip.  About an hour later we arrived at.......Sesame Place! We had so much fun there seeing all the Halloween decorations and going on all the rides.  

HUNKERING DOWN
Superstorm Sandy was coming in.  On Sunday, the rain started.  After stocking up on some essentials, we went to a movie and dinner knowing that we might not get out of the house for a couple of days.  On Monday and Tuesday, work and daycare were closed.  We were extremely lucky because we never lost power and only had some minor water in the basement.  It turned out to be a couple of extra vacation days.

 HALLOWEEN
On Wednesday, it was Halloween and time to do some trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.  Jackson had three costumes - Thomas, a fire fighter and baseball player.  We figured he would be either Thomas or a fire fighter and save the baseball player for his school party.  As it turns out, he fell asleep on the couch after dinner and before trick-or-treating and then didn't want anything to do with costumes.  We loaded him in the stroller (sans costume) while Daddy walked around as Thomas.  I suspect he was willing to do this for his own love of candy.......

Then on Friday, after Honey had left and mommy was on a business trip, Jackson had his Halloween party at school where he was an awesome baseball player!

More pictures here.

G-mommy Kate & Matt's wedding

Here are some photos from G-Mommy Kate and Matt's wedding in July in Chicago where Jackson was the ringer bearer.  The flower girl did everything she could to get Jackson to hold her hand, but if was a futile effort.  Was such a fun day though, tantrums over wearing a little suit, and all!