25th Day: Merry Christmas

 On Christmas morning Brad and I woke up extra early, we watched the lights twinkle on the tree as it was still dark outside and set up the yule log on the tv.  Baby Jesus appeared in the manger over night and we had skype ready to dial in my dad, sister, and brother-in-law.  

  We woke Marshall up to find the Christmas pickle.  It is a new tradition we decided to incorporate (because you can never have enough traditions, right?) that involves a pickle ornament that is hidden for Christmas morning.  The first one to find the pickle gets one of two things: 1) gets to open the first present -or- 2) gets an extra present.  Since we are only a one child family neither way necessarily matters, but we've decided to go the extra present route and have it always be a movie that the entire family can enjoy. 

   After a very groggy Mads found the pickle, we called my sister and brother-in-law.  My dad was called into work so we didn't want Marshall to open up all his presents while Grandpa was away and have Grandpa missout on Marsh's excitement, so we told Marshall he could open one present from Santa and his stocking. 

A small item in his stocking every year hints to what
Santa got him.  Santa likes themes at our house.

  He went through his stocking first, enjoying a new wooden train for his train table and an adorable chocolate tool set, along with some other little presents.  Next it was time to pick out which Santa gift he would open, naturally, Mads went for the biggest present- a Black & Decker tool bench.  Once he unwrapped that tool bench, his eyes twinkled brighter than the star of Bethlehem.  He forgot all about the abundance of presents behind him and couldn't be peeled away from this magical bench.

  For roughly three hours he played with the tool bench while we visited with our Minnesota family.  But once Grandpa got back from work, the present bonanza was on.  Marshall fell in love with each present as he opened them. 

   I spent the day bouncing back and forth between the kitchen (which I truly love) and watching Mads discover new things about his freshly unwrapped gifts.  Brad was just as much a little kid, playing happily with Marsh and the toys.  The boys did take a brief time out to skype with Brad's side of the family.  Marshall always has a blast seeing all of his cousins.

   The past few months have had some pretty rough points, but today I was reminded of what we do have.  Even if it is only ever just the three of us, that is more than I could ask for.  I am fortunate to have the loving, loyal husband and the smartest, most charming little boy.  This was a Christmas of healing and forgiving. 

   We would like to thank everyone for the lovely gifts and taking the time to skype with us!  Now, for the part everyone loves- the picture madness:

Thinking what a lucky boy he is

So excited over his new police car.
Like father, like son.

Stop the present opening!  We need to read the new book!
I love how he spends time with each gift before moving to the next.

Elf M.D.

Opening his new art desk!

So excited for all of his new art supplies

Is there anything better than creating art
in the shadow of a Christmas tree?

All this excitement calls for an impromptu nap

     Thank you to everyone who took time to enjoy our journey this past 25 days.  We hope you were entertained and maybe decided to use some of our ideas in your own home.  Until next time, stay on the nice list!  -The Dingmans

24th Day: Christmas Eve

    On the twenty-fourth day we partook in some of our family Christmas Eve traditions.  We made fresh cookies for Santa, had our Chrismas Eve fish dinner (Italian tradition), went to mass, drove around looking at Christmas lights, and ended our night with our special Santa postal box.

    We started off the morning with dad's special breakfast.  Brad is the breakfast cook in our house, so he was more than happy to fire up the griddle to make a breakfast feast.  Marshall and I were playing in the living room as Brad cooked; that's when something caught my eye outside.  What was out there?  Ten little 'reindeer'!  I quickly called Marshall and Brad over and we watched as a group of six to the right of our house, and four to the left, made their way across the street ever so slowly before disappearing into the woods.  Santa must have sent them as a practice run.

Brad & Marshall watching all the reindeer

    After our surprise reindeer sighting we ate our delicious breakfast and cleaned up quickly to start our batch of cookies for Santa.  We let Marshall pick out his cookies this year and he picked out a ninja bread cookie kit from Toys R' Us for five bucks.  That's what you get when you let a two year old boy pick out Santa's cookies.

Carefully making Santa a special fighting treat

    Last year Marshall's favorite part of baking was stirring up the ingredients; this year he was all over the rolling it out and cutting out the ninjas.  It is so fun to see him grow and how much more he can do from year to year.  Once we were done cutting out all of our ninjas and put them in the oven to bake, we had to change Marshall's clothes as he was pretty covered in flour after all the rolling pin fun.

Pro tip: when putting icing in a bag, drape
it in a glass for less mess

Marshall creating his ninja

Brad bringing ninjas to life

    We had so much fun bringing our ninjas to life.  Marshall absolutely loved the little fighters and sticking the candies on them.  After they were all decorated he even tried one!  Now, Marshall is a cookie monster but he has never had a gingerbread cookie- he's partial to chocolate chip.  Well, he was a trooper and tried it unprompted.  He started chewing and then quickly started gagging, I started grabbing our little ninjas as Brad picked Mads up and brought him to the trash can.  Marshall was fine, just very dramatic about his disdain for gingerbread.  Good thing these were meant for Santa and not Marsh!

Trying his first gingerbread, a photo moments
later wouldn't be quite as cute.

   After our fun cookie creations we read 'The Gingerbread Boy' that Marshall was given from his Grandma & Grandpa G over Thanksgiving.  We read the story and then made up another story- one where after the gingerbread boy was able to get out of all those close calls he went and learned martial arts, becoming the ninja bread boy that we made today.  It was fun to make up our own little family story with cookie visuals.

Some of the ninjas showing off their moves

    We read some more books and took a short nap before it was time for us to make our early Christmas Eve dinner.  Now, I like to keep the Italian tradition of having fish on Christmas Eve as to keep vigil for the birth of Jesus Christ.  As I said last year, this is typically a feast of seven different fish dishes but we are a small family so we like to keep it simple.  In the future, as our family grows and as we have extended family over, I will expand to have the full meal- but for now I keep it easy to make and easy to clean up before the craziness that is my cooking on Christmas.  We made tuna baked in a creamy sauce and cheesy pasta with vegetables.  Both are steamed in bags so there is literally no clean up outside of the dinner plates and silverware and it is ready in twenty-five minutes.  Marshall doesn't like tuna so he had shrimp with veggie sticks.

Awesome fish dinner

    With full bellies we started getting ready for mass, Marshall even got to wear his beloved sweater vest that he wore back on the third day, he was pretty happy about that.

In his Christmas best

    After mass we always drive around to look at Christmas lights as the radio plays classic holiday tunes.  Marshall and I even found out that papa knows all the words to "All I want is a Hippopotamus", Mads was not enthused by this revelation and kept vigorously shaking his head 'no' and yelling at Brad while Brad gleefully kept belting it out with the radio.  It was quite the car ride.

    We returned home to Santa's special elvish postal box!  Every year an elf comes and drops off a special post box while we are at mass.  This is because Brad grew up being allowed to open one Christmas present on Christmas Eve, I grew up with the tradition Christmas presents are for Christmas morning- no exceptions.  This was the happy median, so we signed up for Santa's special Christmas Eve deliveries.  The box includes: a fresh baked treat from Mrs. Claus, new pajamas, new book, cocoa, and Christmas mugs for the entire family.  In the past Santa has given a Christmas themed book & pajamas, but since Marshall already has so many of both, Santa gave him a truck book and ninja turtle pajamas- some of Mads' favorite things!

Opening his box, excited for all the goodies

Unveiling Mrs. Claus's cookie-brownies, a Dingman
family favorite (chocolate chip cookie dough baked in chocolate brownies)

Our edible goods

Papa & Marshall showing off their snowman mugs

Marshall's night-night presents

    We made our special Christmas cocoa, enjoyed our cookie-brownies, and Papa read a number of Christmas books to Marshall.  Marshall really seemed to enjoy "The Night Before Christmas" and "One Tiny Baby" (Nativity story).  It was such a nice, peaceful night.

Our snow family cocoa set

Reading some of our Christmas books

    Once Brad went through the books, Marshall started on his Christmas picture for Santa.  When he gets older he will tell Santa why he has been a good boy all year (since Mads leaves out a list on St. Nick Day), but for now he colors nice pictures as a gift to Santa.  After he put on the finishing touches, we set out some milk and cookies (one decorated by each family member) and some carrots for the reindeer.

Mads vigorously coloring Santa's picture

Santa's set up- ninja bread decorated by each of us, milk, reindeer
carrots, and Marshall's picture

    Marshall didn't like being told it was time for the fun to end and for him to go to bed, so he tried to close himself up in a box!  Don't get me wrong, he is my favorite gift of all time, but this was just ridiculous.  He, as well as Brad and myself, got a good chuckle out of it though.

Elf in a box- that's one way to see Santa come to the tree

    Christmas Eve was perfect for us in more ways than we can imagine.  Reindeer sightings, ninja bread cookies, delicious fish, and so much more.  It was nice to celebrate traditions of our heritage, religion, and uniquely our family.  Today really highlighted how blessed we are in our lives and in having each other.  It showed how much Marshall has grown and how much he is starting to understand about this holiday, however young he may be.  Now we must bid everyone goodnight as we excitedly await Santa's arrival in the form of presents under our tree, and Jesus' arrival in the form of the baby in our Nativity manger.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

23rd Day: Elf's Day Out Swim Party

    On the twenty-third day we went to Elf's Day Out.  Elf's Day Out is an activity day put on by Roeland Park's community center.  It is a three hour event comprised of 'gingerbread' house decorating (using graham cracker), lunch, and swimming!

    Marshall was very excited when he saw all the stuff to make his gingerbread house.  We handed him his graham cracker to stick onto the milk carton and he started eating it instead.  Graham crackers are one of his favorite snacks after all.  Once we were able to get him to understand the concept of using the graham crackers as siding/ roofing he was all about decorating.

Carefully making his holiday house

The finished product

    After decorating the house and eating lunch we rushed over to the 'igloo' to go swimming.  It was snowing outside as we walked from the main center to the pool, so it was definitely an experience of varieties!  The pool is normally an outdoor pool, but for the winter they blow up a dome to go around the pool area.

    Marshall absolutely loves to swim so he had so much fun swimming and playing with his papa.  He would occasionally look around at the odd white dome, curious as to why it was so different from other pools.  I told him it was like an igloo at the north pole- hey Santa may like hot tubbing it, right?

A fun break from winter

Igloo swimming fun

    As you can imagine, after all the excitement of running around with other kids, decorating, and swimming; Marshall was very tired and fell asleep instantly in the car.  When we returned home we found our package from Mads' Grandma & Grandpa G.  We were pleasantly surprised with some Christmas presents as well as some Christmas goodies- in particular Marshall's first 'real' snowglobe.  It contained a lovely nativity scene that lights up; Marshall kept opening and closing the box- with every opening he got a big smile and would say "Wooooooow!".  It was a lovely ending to the day (thanks Grandma & Grandpa G)!

    The twenty-third day was a day of elvish fun before we begin the rituals of our religion and heritage in preparation of Christmas.  We had so much fun igloo swimming and being together, all three of us, for this magical time.  We feel so blessed.  Now, we put Marshall down for the night and Brad & I will be enjoying some holiday beverages and movies- a parent date at it's finest.  From our family to yours, we hope everyone has a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas.

22nd Day: Sledding & Skating

    On the twenty-second day we had our first accumulative snowfall in the KC metro region!  We ditched our original plans for the day to play in the winter wonderland.  Brad and I were unsure how Mads would react, since he is a little freeze baby, but he embraced the snow like a true Minnesotan.

    We started by grabbing Marshall's snow tube that his nano gifted him last year.  He was never able to use it so this was a real treat.  Brad had a lot of fun getting it ready- can't you see his excitement?

This is what dads are for when you can't
find any of the various air pumps/ mini compressors you have.

    Once Brad had the tube blown up and Marshall was bundled up like Randy (Ralphie's brother from 'A Christmas Story') we were ready to set out to the yard.  I waited at the base of our hill to take pictures and catch the little snow racer and Brad walked him to the top of our modest slope to set Mads all up.  He absolutely loved it and would giggle the whole way down.

First time tubing! (Thanks Nano V!)

    A couple times up and down the slope and Marsh decided he wanted to just trying playing in this fluffy stuff for awhile.  He absolutely loves snowball fights and has quite an arm on him- he also figured out that he can chase me down pretty fast and that made him squeal in delight.

So excited for snow

Making and throwing snowballs- complete with sound effects

    After awhile I had to retreat inside, Marshall was having too much fun, so the boys stayed outside to live it up a little bit longer.  As I was sitting on the couch, I heard something coming from outside- it was singing.  I went to the window and I saw Brad singing "Frosty the Snowman" to Marshall as they put together three little snowman- one for each of us.  My heart just melted, it was so adorable to see my boys out there like that.  I am so blessed to have such a great husband and father to our son.

Making his little snow family with dad

    After making their snowmen & snowwoman, counting the snowpeople several times, and singing; Marshall just up and walked away.  He walked a few feet and then just fell backwards to make a snow angel.  It was so fun to watch him enjoy himself so much, and it was also curious as he has never seen anyone make a snow angel before.  He did it totally intuitively, as if he just wanted to soak up every inch of winter bliss.

Falling into the snow to make snow angels 

    Finally, Brad decided it was time to come in, much to Marshall's dismay.  I made the us some chicken alfredo to warm our tummies and we all took a little nap to get ready for round two outside.

    When we all awoke, we bundled up yet again to journey over to our local ice rink.  They were still clearing snow off of the ice so we decided to pick up some caribou while we wait.  The boys got their coolers (Mads caffeine/ coffee free of course) and a cookie and we were back and ready to skate in no time.

We have created a Caribou fiend

    It was starting to get dark by the time we got all laced up and ready, but it was actually better this way.  The Christmas lights twinkled above and around the arena with holiday carols going over the speaker- it was very picturesque and a perfect first time skate for Marshall.

All ready to lace up and go

    Marshall did amazing, he took to the ice fearlessly as he tried to run across it on his new hockey skates.  He giggled and smiled as he skated his dad around the rink, and the minute Brad would stop to readjust Mads would let him know he wasn't ready to be done yet.  I can definitely see him being the little hockey player his grandparents and dad hope he will be.  I was hoping that if he would play hockey, he would be a goalie like his dad- less chance of injury that way.  But with his need for speed I could definitely see him wanting to be out from the net and in the middle of the action.

Skating so fast the camera blurred 

    Soon it was time to say goodbye to the ice and head back home so we could wash up and get ready for bed.  Marshall went to sleep pretty easily, he had a long day of fresh air and activity after all.  Once he fell asleep Brad started putting together some of Mads' 'bigger' presents that require assembly.  We always try to do it a few days before so that if there are pieces missing, or any damage, we are able to return it to the store so everything is ready Christmas morning.  We are getting so excited for the big day!

    The twenty-second day was a day of taking in the treat that is KC snowfall.  Marshall was able to do some of his 'firsts' (tubing, skating, etc) and we were able to experience all that excitement with him.  I was able to reflect on how blessed I am to have the family I do as I watched the boys from inside and Brad was able to beam with pride over his son's blossoming skating skills.  This was a truly special day for us and we are in awe over the fact that we only have one more 'activity' day left before we start the Christmas rituals on Christmas eve.