The Vakakes Family: Christmas/New Years Recap

Christmas break was so much fun. It flew by but I enjoyed every minute. I spent my time playing with Will, napping, planning Will's first birthday party, etc so there was not much time for blogging! I will try to quickly recap all of the happenings around here.
My brother and his family always come in and spend a few days with us before Christmas because they like to be home for Santa. The first night we were here we went to the Galleria for the kids to ride the carousel (Kiki is the coolest grandma-she rode ON the horse with Will) and spontaneously decided to go to the movies. My parents kept all of the grandchildren. It was SO NICE to go to dinner and a movie, especially since we hadn't planned on it.

At the movie theater, my sister in law was going to take a picture of Alvin and the Chipmunks to show my niece and nephew. We decided it would be a much cooler shot if their daddy and Uncle John posed with them! It was hilarious. Of course a ton of people started walking by when they went to stand over there. Tessa and I were giggling so hard because they looked so funny-we were acting like we were in middle school :)

We celebrated Christmas Monday night. We went to church and then had dinner and exchanged gifts. I can't believe I didn't get one picture of Will with his cousins. This is what Will did during the entire church service...

After church, during dinner, Will got his first taste of a pickle. He LOVED it!

He received 2 of his favorite presents that night. EE gave him a Dirt Devil that actually works. He LOVES my vacuum so we figured he would love one of his own. He is hysterical with it. It has a hose and he drags it all over the house with the hose. My brother and his family gave him a talking Sid the Science Kid. If you don't know about Sid, you are missing out. It is a show on Alabma Public Television. It comes on here every morning at 7:30. My mom found it once she started keeping him and it kind of became a part of their routine. The songs are so cute.

Wentzel the Webb family Elf came and filled our stockings at Kiki and Pops house on Tuesday morning. There are now 12 stockings (so many that she had to hang them down the stairwell instead of on the mantle). Needless to say, we keep Wentzel very busy this time of year. Will enjoyed all of his fun things Wentzel left him, especially the keys and the Handy Manny Band-aids!

Christmas Eve was spent at John's parents house where Will was given even more fun toys to play with. Among his favorites were the Ride on Lion and the Music Table. Yia Yia and Papou gave him a Cozy Coupe, which I know he will love once it is a little warmer and we can take it outside for a ride.

We came home from Yia Yia and Papou's to prepare for Santa to come...and come he did. I think Mommy and Daddy were more excited than Will! Santa did not disappoint! John and I were of course looking forward to Christmas with Will but it far exceeded our expectations. We never imagined how fun Christmas would be with a child. We could have cared less about our presents-it was far more entertaining to watch Will!

The day after Christmas the Vakakes cousins got together. Will had so much fun playing with James (17 months).

New Years Eve we headed to Troy to spend some time with my college roomie and her family. She has 2 boys, Cole (3) and Owen (17 months), so there was never a dull moment with 3 boys around!

This was the best picture I could get of the 3 of them...they never stayed still very long. Cole's 3rd birthday party was on Saturday. He had a bounce house. Will has never been in one of these so this was a new experience for him. He loved it! We got there early so he could have it to himself before all of the big kids arrived. He smiled the entire time he was in there. He loved for someone to jump beside him so he would bounce. He also really liked the slide. Check out these faces!