Holiday

Last weekend was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I had the day off and Chris decided to take a day off as well so we could have a family day. The weatherman was forecasting rain for the whole week (and he was correct, STORM WATCH 2010). So knowing that Ethan would be inside all week long we wanted to do go somewhere were he could walk around and explore. We had planned on heading to the zoo, but the rain started Monday morning, so instead we went to Birch Aquarium in La Jolla (it is mostly indoors). It was so cool to see Ethan get so excited over all the fish and other sea life. It was such a fun day, just the three of us goofing around. Ethan loved the aquarium!


We tried to get Ethan to touch one of the sea urchins...he was having none of that action!
The view from the overlook area at Birch Aquarium. The stormy sea was beautiful! It is so nice to get a bit a weather here in San Diego.

Christmas...FINALLY

We had a busy Christmas season this year. It was nice, fun, tiring and a bit overwhelming. We have been dragging our feet posting photos because we forgot our camera for half of the Christmas festivities. Thank you to Amanda's sisters and parents for passing along some good ones.

Christmas Eve Chris's Parents came down to celebrate Christmas. Amanda got to make a nice dinner, Pesto Chicken. Yum! Ethan was so excited to open up his "bike" that Grandma and Avoo (Portuguese for Grandpa) got him. We have a family tradition of giving and opening a new Christmas ornament on Christmas Eve. Usually we each get one, but this year we decided to just do one for Ethan. He loves vehicles so we got him a cute little fire engine Christmas ornament. We had planned to go to Christmas Eve services as well, and we did, but we thought it started at 7pm and apparently it started at 6. So we got there just as it was ending. Sounded like it was a good sermon. We were bummed we missed it.

Christmas morning was spent with just the three of us, this is something we cherish. Christmas was so different this year than it was last year. Ethan is so much more aware and got so excited about everything. We can't wait till next year, we have some plans of how we will be teaching him the real meaning of Christmas. Every year with kids gets better.
Christmas morning we got up and had a breakfast of pumpkin pancakes. Ethan LOVED them. Then we opened our stockings, even Chatzski got something. Ethan got an activity center from Santa. It turns into a kitchen and a tool bench. He had to help us open all our gifts as well.
Christmas afternoon we spent at Amanda's parents house with everyone. It was great to see everybody, uncle, his girlfriend, parents, grandma, sisters, brother-in-law and our niece. The kids had a blast opening presents. Ethan had to use one of his toy tools to help him open his gifts. Grandma and Grandpa got Ethan a hot wheels track. He was so excited (who are we kidding ALL the guys loved it).


On our way back home to San Diego (a few days after Christmas) we, along with Amanda's family, stopped at the cousins house and hung out a bit and took some fun family photos.

We love the holidays. We had a wonderful time seeing everyone and can't wait to see everyone again. We are so greatful for the love and support of all of our family. If we did not get to see you this holiday season, we missed you and hope to see you soon. We hope everyone had a safe and fun Christmas!

Someday...

Someday in the very near future we will get around to uploading photos about our Christmas break. But first we have to borrow some photos from some people...seeing as we left our cameras (yes we usually travel with a couple, at least) at home for a good portion of our holiday excursions. Coming soon! :)