Lobster, Lounge Pants, No Pants, and Swapping Pants

It gets more delicious and fun each year, and I love it! Our New Year's Eve lobster dinner is five years strong, and Henry's presence enhances the celebration. He is sound asleep after feasting on turkey, blueberries, strawberries, cheddar cheese, and water crackers. We are lounging after stuffing ourselves with delicious lobster.
Henry had quite a good celebration before his bedtime, and it got pretty wild when he and Snowman swapped pants. Keep in mind that Snowman didn't have any pants to swap.
Every year with Henry is a good one. I can't wait to see what the new year brings us.  Happy 2010 to our family and friends, and Happy Birthday to Aunt Allison!

McCasland Munch and Meet

Henry and I caught up with the McCasland family for a pizza lunch today. Henry made a couple of new friends, and I am grateful to Kayley who played with Henry while I caught up with Kelley and Chris.

Here's Kensey playing with the complimentary pizza dough... such concentration!
She was so sweet to offer it to Henry who promptly took it over, and Kayley took over the entertainment. They eventually played catch with a ball of dough.
Kelley and her youngest--beautiful!
Thanks for the pizza and the built in babysitting! It was a perfect treat.

Believe it or not...

Henry had a great time in Ripley's Aquarium on Monday.  Did he grow gills?  Was his skin suddenly covered in scales?
Thank you, Nana, for a very good time. We had lots to talk about on our trip home, and I got just a few photos.

"Oo funny, Josh! Oo funny, Caweb!"

Henry really focused his attention on his uncles Josh and Caleb during our time in Surfside. They were cool with it, albeit a little unsure at first, especially when Henry specifically allowed only Josh to comfort him after some minor-made-major-due-to-grogginess dissapointment.

Henry gave Josh a bedtime reading assignment on Monday night.
Being an equal opportunity kind of guy, he also assigned a book to Caleb.And, as Josh and Caleb noticed, Henry can easily discern Caleb from Josh and Josh from Caleb. He started playing around with their names, though, and got a little confused at the breakfast table on Tuesday morning. However, he gets it right when he points them out on the Hughes family Christmas card on our fridge.

Christmas Day, Day After, and The Next Day

Henry's going to always love Christmas. First of all, there's Christmas morning...
Then Christmas mid-morning...
Then off to Dacusville for Christmas evening with the Farry family...
The next day, an enjoyable ride to Florence for a Johnson family Christmas...

Then on to Surfside to continue to the merry-making with Nana and her clan...
Then opening gifts two days after Christmas...
And hanging out with Jo'Caleb, and making Josh hold him.Christmas can be both exhausting and refueling at once, and I think it will be quite a while before we get Henry back on any sort of schedule. Actually, even though Henry is lacking in a responsible bedtime, he continues to be be his sweet, chatty self--making me swoon with each, "Merry Christmas, Mama!" and "I love 'oo, Mama."

Merry Christmas to our family and friends! We had a delightful extended celebration of God's sending his son to this earth we inhabit together.

December 28, 2009

Henry ate one and a half steamed oyster at dinner.

Then he peed in the potty! What a big boy!

Now, is there something magical about Nana's potty, or will his new found enthusiasm travel back with us to Greenville?

Dear Santa...

We made some Top of the Stove cookies (my idea) and put a couple out for Santa this evening before Henry went to sleep.
He sweetly dictated his letter for Santa to read, too.
Of course, sticker embellishments were also required.
Dear Santa Clause,
These are ornaments on that reindeer. Oh. There's Cookies. Merry Christmas, Santa Clause! Thank you for coming to town.
Love, Henry

Trains

Henry has an obsession... trains and trains going under tunnels. He's making a tunnel for our North Pole Express train in the above photo. He also shouts out, "We're going under a tunnel!" every time we get close to going under a bridge on I-385, and then, "We made it!" once we are out from under the bridge.

He also loves Thomas the Tank Engine and today would not let us watch anything but the Thomas Christmas DVD we rented. Here is his "Thomas is in the snow, so I won't pay anyone any attention" stance.

Santa didn't have to think too hard about what Christmas gift Henry might enjoy.

Tender and Mild

Elizabeth once told us that "Silent Night" made her think of chicken wings, thus, we began a Christmas Eve Farry family tradition of eating wings along with other random foods such as imitation crab meat, homemade pizza, and crudité platters. Tonight, we had Moretti's cheese pizza, buffalo and plain wings, along with a rainbow roll and spicy tuna roll from Sushi Asa. No Farrys, other than myself, were in attendance. We all agreed to just relax this year, especially since Grandjoe is on call.
I love Christmas Eve--the silly food, relaxed family, and preparation for a special day. We marked the eve of celebrating Jesus' birth by starting the day with a bagel from a local Jewish bakery. Like Cory says, nothing makes Henry happier than a bagel. Nothing makes Penny more envious. Henry also helped Daddy with the grinding of the beans. Ahhhhh... if only we had time for french pressed coffee every morning.
Then, after a nap, Henry took some ornaments off the tree. We had time for a couple of pictures before going to Advent for the family Christmas Eve service. Henry loved the music and the nativity scene photos, and I get the feeling he thinks that Baby Jesus was as oft photographed as himself.

Henry mad

Henry might not have control over his emotions, but he can apparently name them now. Cory and I were going through our usual ritual bedtime routine with him on Saturday night, and Henry suddenly got pouty and said, "Henry mad at Mama."

I couldn't really be hearing him correctly, could I?

He repeated, "Henry mad at Mama."

Why would he possibly be mad at me?

"'Cause I don' wan'go night night."

Why me? Daddy and I had the same intentions. Hmmmm...

Gilmore's visit

Henry calls Gilmore, "Anna," which is her name, but I have a hard time making myself say it. I suspect Gilmore told him a few times that her name is Anna when she stayed with us last night. He actually yelled that he wanted Anna!!!! to brush his teeth last night.
Here they are reading. Anna reads blank pages, and Henry reads upside down pages. Good grief, you two.

Strange, but so fun

We recently began kicking off our weekends with a movie night--blankets spread on the den floor, eating take out udon noddles galore. It's a nice, relaxing way to end the work week during the cold weather that prevents us from grilling and hanging out in the yard.

Friday night got a little weird. Henry grew another head.
A sock monkey head... and arms!He loved it.
Daddy has good ideas for being silly.

On the heels of our "What's in excess in your Christmas celebration?" lesson...

We are so thankful for our friends the Walkers, who, after just having a baby boy, brother to big sister Helen, offered to host our Sunday School Christmas party.  We're not just thankful for their hosting prowess.  We're also grateful for their imparting of a Christmas tradition--touring the best residential Christmas light... no.  Wait.  The best Christmas light display in Greenville County.  The lights are, quite simply, astounding.  They cover everything in this yard.  Everything and more.  If there is a photo that looks like something isn't covered in lights, it's only because a portion of the display is also synchronized to music and the shutter caught it on an off beat. 

It was our second tour, and here we were last year:

There wasn't really time for Henry to stop and pose with both of us this year.  He.  loved.  it.  

We got some good shots of most of the kids, although we're missing a couple either due to a more captivating light display/ inflatable motorcycle Santa or the real (driveway) Santa who dared to offer candy canes to the little kids.

Thanks, again, Walkers!  This tradition is one we hope never ends.  (Let us know if you get tired of hosting, though.)