Christmas in Colorado

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Landon opening Auntie Em's present
We flew into Colorado in the nick of time for Christmas! We tried our best to get into the Christmas spirit in Indonesia, but we were elated to be able to be in the United States with family for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Landon with his Christmas jammies!
Christmas Eve, Austin's family has a traditional holiday dinner with his grandparents, and aunt. We had ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, etc. I made sugar cookies with Landon for dessert. I love baking and was happy to be back in a real kitchen. Familiar food was wonderful as well. Landon has changed quite a bit since our last visit so it was fun to see him interacting with all of his great-grandparents. Landon opened his Christmas jammies from Auntie Em. By the end of our time in CO, Landon was calling her "E Bim" and I think that might be her name now. We will see. 


Landon in his Christmas PJs and Grandma Ev helping open

Christmas morning was wonderful. Landon looked at the presents and noted that the stockings were full and his cookies for Santa were missing. It was very odd that he left everything alone as we ate some yummy breakfast and got everyone together to open presents. 

Grandpa Jim with his batik shirt
We gave everyone a little something from Indonesia. The big gift for Austin's parents was a record player to play vinyl records. In an interesting twist, Emily had also decided to give a record player to Grandpa Jim. So there were two very heavy boxes under the tree, that contained slightly different versions of basically the same piece of equipment. After some talks about what to do with two record players, it was decided that one that was a 5 in 1 player would go upstairs for radio as well as CDs and records, and the pure record player would go downstairs where the bulk of the vinyl collection resides. It was a funny coincidence. 

Landon's new car carrying truck!
Landon got lots of candy, toys, books, and of course, cars, trucks and trains. It was funny that after he opened presents, he went right back over to Austin's old train sets, leaving all of his brand new toys to play with later. We appreciated that all of the gifts were smaller so that we can pack them and take them on our adventures! Landon especially enjoys his new dry-erase style number writing book. At this point, he just scribbles all over everything, but I'm sure he will appreciate it more later when he can start writing numbers. Austin and I also were grateful for our gifts that included gift cards, clothes, and camera equipment! We also got a goody basket to take up on our anniversary ski getaway. It was amazingly yummy especially after skiing! 

Right after presents, playing Lincoln logs with Grandpa Jim!
After presents, we got ready to go up to Loveland to the Lish family Christmas. This is Austin's mother's side of the family gathering and this year, almost everyone made it! We missed those that didn't, but it was fun to see everyone in one place, and especially get all the kids together. Austin's cousins have blond boys that are very close in age to Landon. So this year, there were three little 2-year-olds running around the house. They didn't quite play together yet, although they were great at sharing toys with each other and playing piano together. Grandma Lish surveyed the scene from a big recliner and we had a great time catching up with everyone and playing games after our Mexican fiesta. Although Mexican food on Christmas is usually a little weird for me, this year is was welcome as we had not had Mexican food for a long time!
Some of the group and all of the boys
Beautiful E-Bim and Landon
It was so fun to have the "cousins" together. Landon stole their toys, they stole Landon's and all admired the breakable nativity and played piano. It was adorable when all of the boys decided to play piano and "change the song" at the same time. All of the piano books ended up on the floor.
Playing piano with the cousins
Best family picture we ended up with... The Browns
Other post-Christmas festivities included making a gingerbread house with Auntie Em! She was very patient as he ate lots of candy and slapped a few candies on the house. It still ended up being cute!
I know this is not the most flattering picture, but I love Landon's face as he
interacts with E Bim

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