Another Christmas

God, it was a beautiful Christmas. The child is just starting to grasp the concept of Santa and gifts and the manipulation of the former in order to secure as many as possible of the latter. He just kinda walks around all day announcing, "I'm a good boy!" to anyone who'll listen. No behavior modification, though. As a matter of fact, it's all been much worse than usual. At one point I pointed out to him that only a crazy person throws MORE tantrums when Santa is watching, but in Dash's mind if he can't see Santa then Santa can't see him.

And I guess he's kinda right. Despite the behavior, there were so many amazing, wonderful things under the tree this year that we've still got a Razor scooter from my Dad & his wife tucked away. I feel like one more gift and his head will literally explode off his shoulders.

A few days before Christmas we took our 2nd annual Engel stroll around the neighborhood. The street just around the corner goes totally batshit for Christmas and it never ceases to amaze.

I made these for goody bags for Dash's teachers & our neighbors. They're meant to be peanut butter kiss cookies, but I replaced the kiss with a little bell-shaped Reeses peanut butter cup. Once the chocolate melted a little they started to look exactly like nipples. I packed them up & gave them out anyway. I think they're hilarious.

Aunty & Baba came over on Christmas Eve and we ate chili and opened a few gifts. We baked gingerbread cookies for Santa & left out a bowl of oats for the reindeer.

Messy reindeer!

Christmas morning

Lightning McQeen & The King. I actually bought these as stocking stuffers on a lark. A couple of days later Dash declared that they, along with an Iron Man toy, were all he wanted from Santa. I am fucking great at Christmas.

We all wore Christmas headgear courtesy of Aunty. Mostly Dash wore this tree around his waist.

The neighbors sent over a gift & this cookie. The gingerbread man had little candy buttons & Dash nearly broke a tooth trying to chip them off with his mouth.

They're listening to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and doing rock horns because we are totally awesome parents.

The cape. Which Dash refuses to believe I made & insists was a gift from Aunty. Seriously, he threw a tantrum when I tried to convince him otherwise.

Regaining his super-strength.

More gifts. Ever more gifts.

Oh. And there were roller skates. Which Dash insists are ice skates. But either way, he has spent nearly every waking minute since Christmas morning wearing them.

I love watching him skate. It looks like a deer learning to walk.

Merry, merry Christmas, sweet baby.

And now it is 1pm on December 27th. The tree is gone (except for a small disc Josh cut from the trunk. I'll turn it into an ornament for next year's tree.) All evidence of Christmas is gone and we finally have our regular old house back for the first time since early October. Although I'm a little sad to say goodbye to tinsel and snowflakes for another year, I'm happy to reclaim the house and a little more time to breathe. I think we all are.