Merry Christmas 2009!

I was very excited for Christmas this year because Brady is starting to understand the holiday. The Littlest Luhring woke me up earlier than everyone else (sleeping is pretty uncomfortable these days). Brady slept in until almost 8 AM. (Brett says that's probably the last time we'll have that happen on Christmas!) He was interested in the lit tree and the presents and knew that Santa had been to our house because Brett had been telling him about it for a while now. Here's one of his first glimpses downstairs.

While we waited for Daddy, Grandma, and Papa to get up, Mimi and I just let Brady do whatever he wanted. Interestingly, the gift bags were more fascinating to him than wrapped presents were. He enjoyed pulling the tissue paper out of the bags and sitting among the packages so that they "made a house."

He re-purposed the gift tags- pulling them off the presents and putting them on doorknobs (like some of the decorations we have). haha!

The presents were also re-purposed and made for some awesome blocks for building towers.

The fireplace provided some entertainment for our observant toddler this morning. We usually have the gas turned off and never use it. But Papa likes the fireplace, so I turned it on this morning. Fascinating to the two-year-old. :)

Brady and I stayed in our jammies until after nap. ;p I had intended to get a picture of all three of us in front of the tree, but didn't. Doh!

After he opened the portable tool chest from Mimi, he used the saw that was included to open up other presents. Pretty smart! :)

Since Brady's been learning his letters these past few months, I made big letters for each of us and put them in front of the gifts to assist our little elf in figuring out who it belonged to. We'd ask him what letter and then who that letter was for. He'd say, "B for Brady! P for Papa!" It was fun...while it lasted (which was not throughout the extended gift opening session we had).

Papa gets us puzzle boxes every year and we have to figure out how to open them to get the gifts inside. They can be frustrating...(see left picture) haha! But this year, they weren't too bad. This is only the second time in eight years that I've been able to open mine before Brett- and that worked out well! Inside my box it said, "We'll buy three trees for your yard this year." Inside Brett's it said, "We'll plant the trees for you." lol! Totally awesome and just what we both want!

The boy does Love him his stuffed animals pals! Grandma and Papa got him the animals that go along with his favorite books- the mouse, moose, and pig from the "If you give a..." books. Later on, we were testing Papa's new laptop with the webcam. So moose (who was in the kitchen) got to Skype with mouse and pig (who were in the office). That made for some giggles. :)

I found this cute mini leather jacket at a consignment sale earlier this year and then an equally cute hat to go with it. What a handsome little man!