Christmas!

Christmas Eve was spent at my grandma's house, as per usual. Everyone was there. It was a jolly good time, like always. Jude got a bunch of presents from everybody. He also got to run around with all the kids again. There was one minor downer though... my grandma accidentally got Jude a pair of baseball pj's that say "Daddy's All-Star" on them. The "Daddy's" part was quite unnoticeable at first glance, so I let it slide. I think I might make a Detroit patch or something to cover that awful word. I wish I didn't have negative feelings towards it, but alas, Jude doesn't actually have a "Daddy" who cares or is around or anything of that sort. Enough of the bitterness, and on the the pictures!

A goofy picture of my cousins.

The bigger boys were helping Jude open his presents.

Posing with his dump truck.

Christmas morning Jude woke up at his normal time, and everyone else was up shortly after we rolled out of bed. They all commented on how it was the latest we've all woken up on Christmas morning (I used to have a weird tendency to wake everyone up at 5 or 6 for Christmas morning). Jude walked past the living room without paying attention to the tree or presents under it. I redirected his attention, he saw his kitchen and got excited. He's a pro at unwrapping gifts too, but it took him like 3 hours to open all his presents because eventually he got to the point where he just wanted to play with them instead of unwrapping more. My mum's father and wife came over at 10 and my grandma & grandpa came over shortly after and we had our traditional brunch. After a little rest and a nap for Jude we headed over to my Aunt Kathy's for dinner and some Just Dance. I'll bore you with the list of gifts we all received another time. But now, more pictures!

Jude's stocking hung by the chimney with care.

Opening his stocking, he kept trying to put everything back into it.

I found my camera!

Now I can tell you all about my week leading up to Christmas!

Firstly, there was Sunday. The Annual Glod Family Christmas shindig. It's this big party with my paternal grandma's whole side of the family gets together at the community house across the street from my grandparents old house. We eat, we talk, we have a pinata and a Santa. It's pretty crazy. This year it was a super-small turn out unfortunately, but Jude still had fun running around with all my cousins.

I have a pretty cute family, no?

Santa gave my dad a tricycle and Jude stole it!

He's such a big boy, hitting the pinata!

Then, there was the Solstice, which is a pretty big deal in our house. Sure, the holidays are great for getting together with the whole extended families and all, but on the Solstice it has always been just my parents, my sister, and I (and now Jude, of course!) We light a fire and usually exchange a small, generally handmade, gift.  This year we decided to change the tradition a little and gave ornaments, since we always get an ornament from my parents and I try to get or make them one every year too. We also spend the whole night sitting by the fire and playing games. This years culprits were Dirty Minds and Scrabble. I was pushing for ghetto fab scrabble, but no one was having it when I tried to replace 's's with 'z's or adding new spaces around the border of the game. It was pretty hilarious and fun, nonetheless.

He got a copy of the Grinch and a Grinch doll from his gran. 

Opening the ornaments. He loved the gift bags most of all, he was carrying them around and putting the ornaments and wrapping paper back in them. So cute.

Happy Solstice!

I got Jude the Sea Lion because of our trip to CA, and my mum got me the Polar Bear because this is mamapolarbear.blogspot.com afterall. I've been thinking of ditching the "Kayleigh's Adventures Through Motherhood" bit and just doing Mama Polar Bear, opinions, yes, no?

Gran got him a Jude Man ornament because of his Halloween costume at the 5k for craniosynostosis. It's actually a dollhouse doll that she got custom made from an Etsy seller and rigged to hang on the tree. She hand-embroidered the Jude Man onto the cape though.

Expect to see more posts from me. Hopefully soon. Mostly a reminder for me: I still need to write about the sweet breakfast recipe from leftovers I "created", the cupcakes I baked for Sunday's party, Christmas Eve, and Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Ferndale Holiday Ice Festival, Winter Fun, and a Christmas Tree!

Last Saturday, my mum and I took Jude to Downtown Ferndale for their Holiday Ice Festival. They had ice sculptures outside of the shops and there were Reindeer, ice carving demonstrations, a craft fair, and Santa was there!

I asked Jude, "Do you want to sit on Santa's lap?" He had such a serious face and replied with "no." 

The next day, we had a big snow storm, so naturally, I took Jude outside to play in the snow! We also bought our Christmas tree, but we didn't put it up and decorate it until Tuesday.

He loved riding around the yard in the sled! He kept yelling "more!"

He's such a good helper!

It's missing something...