Christmas at Home

This Christmas was our most fun yet. Matthew is now to the age where he is excited to open presents and we, like all parents I'm sure, find it fun to see him light up. On Christmas Eve we each get to open one present - pajamas! And then it's time for photos by the tree. (Notice Matthew is still holding his two new trains from family Christmas the day before)

Matthew wanted to be sure to include Beau in the photos.

We put Matthew to bed and then it was time for watching "It's a Wonderful Life" while building a surprise...

My goodness! Perhaps we should've started assembling before now; this might take a while.

Tim worked from about 10pm until 2am assembling. Then I helped him put on finishing touches until almost 3am.

On Christmas morning, Matthew was excited to see presents under the tree. We, of course, took our time enjoying french toast casserole while he kept asking if it was time for "Preh-hent!" (presents) yet.

I had to include a close-up of this photo - I just love his precious smile and his draggy pj's.

Santa stuffed Matthew's stocking with a set of magnetic letters and numbers. (still holding his "choo-choo" trains)

Matthew was very excited to open his presents and help us with ours. Every time we asked, "What do you think it is?" he replied, "Choo, choo." He enjoyed the presents he received (some musical instruments and a city mat for hot wheels cars) but kept going back under the tree saying, "Choo-choo?" I guess he knows what he wants, and fortunately we did too... the last box he opened contained 3 engines and 5 freight cars. He was so excited to line them all up - including the 4 he already had and make a very long train. He likes to get on the floor and lay eye to eye with them while he pushes them along - cracks me up! After opening all the presents in the family room, we led Matthew off to the living room for one last present. What could it be?

You guessed it... a train table! He got one corner of it unwrapped just enough to see inside. With mouth open and eyes round (in shock, I think), he pulled the rest of the paper off in one effort and then ran to get his trains from the other room.
And that was the last we saw of him... :) We visit him in "train heaven" every now and then.
For anyone out there who has a train-minded little one, I would highly recommend this table made by Imaginarium. Compared to all the Thomas stuff, it is a fraction of the price while still being entirely compatible. It comes with everything you could possibly want, parts of the track make sounds, and if you clear the table you can flip the top over for a plain green finish making the table useful for other activities. I'll stop there lest this start to sound like a commercial.

Hmm... not sure who likes this thing more.