Actually it was a pretty calm and low-key Christmas, and Ian was not in a frenzy as it might appear. It was just us for Christmas, so we let things go at Ian's pace. He came into my room without even noticing the presents under the tree, and when I pointed them out he was only moderately interested. He warmed up to it, though, and this year he definitely understood that the point was the thing inside the box/paper, not the box itself. He opened a couple things, then we ate breakfast, then he opened a few more things, we played with them, then opened some more, and by that point he was pretty enthusiastic about opening the rest. We were happy to keep the focus on using the toys and on who gave him the gift rather than just the excitement of opening stuff. He got quite a few new things, but his gifts were well designed and well suited to him and we think he'll be getting a lot of good out of them this year.
First, some new train stuff from Grammie and Pa to extend what he can do with his current set. Here he's playing with the Sir Topham Hatt car (this will only make sense if you're familiar with Thomas). This is fun because he likes to have Topham Hatt come talk to the trains when they get in trouble and help them out:
Here Ian is opening the signal house while Daddy is still trying to get the motorized Thomas engine out of the packaging. The motorized Thomas is his favorite of the train gifts so far, as it allows him to set up a track and them set the trains going on it by themselves:
He also got a Quarry mine piece, which is a hill the trains go up, that then goes into a mine and through a door:
Also from Grammie and Pa, Ian got a kids camera. He likes using it, but disagrees with us about which way it should face. It's generally facing him while he's saying, "Cheese!", so most photos are almost black, but this doesn't seem to make it less fun for him. He'll get the idea as the year goes on. He did manage to take a few real photos, and his best one is of Daddy:
Thanks Grammie and Pa!
Here Ian is inspecting a set of Matchbox cars from Doug's Aunt Maureen (Ian's great aunt):
He's been having fun with these. He brought them to the table with him and got annoyed that they kept rolling off, so we built them (and a few trains) a Lego garage:
This was a good choice for Ian, and they will be good toys to take out places with us since they're small -- thanks Aunt Maureen!
Mommy and Daddy got Ian some art stuff. We got him the official 64 Crayola crayon set (with the sharpener on the back, classic), and a set of colored pencils (used to be his Uncle's favorite as a boy). Also a set of stickers and a coloring book. He's too young to do any colored related to the underlying picture in the book yet, but he loves writing names on the line provided in the corner of each page. He's been writing the names of everyone he can think of (not recognizable to anyone else, of course), and the name lines are almost full now. Here he is concentrating on writing a name carefully:
There it is! (This was a zigzag, but they all have a unique form):
(For those of you with kids, I highly recommend the Melissa and Doug coloring pad and sticker collections - really nicely done and good value given their size.)
There could not, of course, be a Christmas that ignored the ubiquitous Legos. We've been thinking that Ian could use something that would let him use his Duplos in a new way, since he plays with them so frequently and seems to have a particular interest in building things. So, Grandma and Grandpa got him the Lego Duplo Tech Machines set. It's a big set that has special connectors (Doug tells me they are called captive screws), and there are screwdrivers that lock them down. This allows you to connect things more securely than with regular Lego connections, so you can build things that reach far out, etc -- essentially Duplo Technics. Ian likes this set almost as much as Daddy (unfortunately its mechanics are a bit beyond Mommy). Here they are making their first creation:
Some of the types of connections in the new set are things Ian can do, some will take more time for him to master, but in the meantime Daddy has produced a digger, dump truck, and helicopter that Ian plays with happily in his room at night.
The last present we got to was from Uncle Greg. To find it we had to go outside (if you know Uncle Greg, this makes perfect sense). Here Ian is on our front porch contemplating the beginning of the string that will lead him to Greggy's present:
And here it is, a playhouse for Ian, who has loved visiting the shed that Greg recently build on his land around the corner.
If you have a few minutes, you can see the discovery process here:
Doug and I spent a while inside the house while Ian gathered mulch in his dump truck outside. He was happy to bring several loads of mulch into the playhouse (which he will probably refer to as "Ian's shed"). Not what we would do with a small house, but for some reason it's very appealing to Ian!
You can barely hear Ian in this video saying his misses Greggy. Greg is in Guatemala for a few weeks, and his nephew definitely misses him. When he returns he will finish Ian's playhouse, which involved building a ladder to the "loft", painting the siding, and staining the trim. Here is the whole family last week saying goodbye to Greg at the bus station:
And, it's a little backwards, but to recap Ian's activities on Christmas Eve . . . We went to the evening service at church, where Doug sang and Ian came to the service. Doug sang O Holy Night very nicely. Ian had a hard time sitting quietly for much of the service (no surprise). He called out several appropriate (coincidentally?) things like, "Jesus is Coming!", "Happy birthday", "Jesus loves me!", and also had a tantrum when Daddy went up into the balcony to sing without him. So, Ian and I spent much of the service in the hallway with other exiled toddlers and their parents, but we made it back in time for the candles. Ian definitely has some understanding of what Christmas is about (partly thanks to the manger scene in said hallway, which we've had plenty of time to discuss). He was explaining very nicely to Lilo this morning that Jesus had no house and so he was at the farm with the animals.
After the service, we walked home to join the neighborhood caroling crew. This was perhaps the favorite Christmas activity for Doug and myself (as Christmas itself was rather exhausting). It was really cool to meet some elderly neighbors that aren't out and about and get to sing to them, and doing it after dark on Christmas Eve made it most appropriate. You can see a video summary of our experience here. You will notice Ian featured saying "Merry Christmas", "Come here, Mommy!!", and see him up on the porches meeting the people. His friend Madeline went too, and he spent much of our walking time running after her trying to insist that she hold his hand (only once causing her to crash to the pavement in the process).
And so, as Grandpa McVey loves to say (usually after the stockings), "That's it for another year!"
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