Merry Martin(ish) Christmas

While we celebrated our Martin Christmas traditions with Daniel just after Thanksgiving,

we still made the most of the day itself!

On Christmas Eve, a police officer who was driving down my street stopped and asked if Xander would like to get in the car.

Hopefully the only cop car seat he'll ever sit in!

The officer let Xander turn on the lights.  Xander was so excited.  He did point out that the lights were shining off the top of the officer's head...whoops!

After thanking the officer (first name Ryan, but I didn't catch his last name) profusely, I told him that our plan for Christmas was to bake cookies for the police and firefighters that had to work on Christmas day.  He said they get overwhelmed with sweets.  He immediately tried to back track, clearly embarrassed by possibly sounding ungrateful, but I was so glad he was honest!

We quickly made a new plan and made spicy pretzels like I used to receive from my principal when I was a teacher in Texas.  Yum!

 It was clear when we arrived that both the police officers and firefighters were excited to have something other than sweets.  Firefighter Scott met us at the door and immediately invited us back for a tour!

Xander was mesmerized by the original firetruck of the city.

Firefighter Scott started the engine and let Potatoes turn on the siren!

While he loved the ladders and stairs of the modern firetruck, he was intimidated by the cab.

He asked to get out of the backseat almost immediately, and turned own the offer of getting in the driver's seat.

I was interested to learn that the fire truck is the one with the ladders, while a fire engine does not have the ladders.

We are so grateful for all of those who are away from home and their loved ones to work at keeping us safe on Christmas.  Especially those we know and love personally!

Our intention was to show gratitude to the first responders in our town, and instead, they gave us an experience to remember!

In the spirit of thankfulness, we also participated in the Adopt a Veteran program.

We took presents to an Air Force spouse ho lives in a nearby nursing home, and seldom has visitors.  I tried to adopt multiple veterans, but the response was so great, all veterans were adopted and they had to turn away volunteers!

No problem!  We ended up socializing with a lot of the residents of the nursing home, as Alexander's charm drew them all into our conversation.

The activities director was so sweet, she brought Xander a sparkly rubik's cube.  We had endless entertainment passing, rolling, and throwing this with the residents.

We had such a good time, I plan to return on a weekly basis to visit.

Though Santa came a few weeks ago, we still had some presents under the tree and enjoyed some Christmas traditions.

It was cold enough to bundle up in hats and mittens, but not without our Clifford and Emily Elizabeth from Papa and Grandma Jay!

Jan had presents sent from Michigan!  I was so glad that her friend Edie and my wonderful friend Alyssa thought of Jan, as we decided years ago not to exchange presents.

Xander loves his emergency vehicle mat (very fitting) from Alyssa and Kiera.  He took the vehicles to nap time, won't let any other cars on the mat, and used the mat to lay down for classic Christmas movie watching.

After presents and pretzels, movies and walks, we settled in making Martin family chili and bringing the day to a close.

While I had planned to attend the children's Christmas Eve service at our church, Alexander is going through a massive growth spurt and has been waking up between three and six times a night.  Yes. Really.  So, when his nap took us out for the service, I did not force him up.

In the wish to not paint a picture of perfection, I must say this Christmas break has been tough.  We have had wonderful times and made beautiful memories, but without sleep, Xander and I are both less than our best.  There has been more whining, hitting, and begging to be held than I am accustomed to out of my independent little guy.  And, I admit, without sleep my patience has not been at its peak.  I think we are both ready for school to start tomorrow!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Candles and Cake- Potatoes is Two!

Rather than attempting to host a party by myself, I chose to head to Atlanta for Alexander's second birthday.

The Birthday Throne

After a week of activity and fun, including snow, we wrapped up our trip with the grand event-

A Bouncing into Two

Birthday Party

To keep it simple, I threw it at Monkey Joe's, which is around the corner from Gammie's house.

I was thrilled that nearly all of my girlfriends from college were able to come with their kids as well as my cousins and family!

 

Of the seven of us from our college crew, there are now twelve kids with the 13th on the way.  We lined up the nine that were there by age.

Beautiful babies!

Monkey Joe's was super fun for all.

I arrived early, as usual, and they were sweet enough to open the doors to let us in out of the cold.  

  

We entertained ourselves until they officially opened and were ready for us!

We had our own party host who was great, but were also well taken of by the manager and visited by Monkey Joe himself.  Alexander was afraid of Monkey Joe at first, but the purple monkey did a great job of hanging back and allowing the kiddos to warm up to him, so they were all wanting hugs by the end.

  

Though many of the kids spent more time at the arcade than the bounce houses, everyone had a blast.

Porter was the big ticket winner!

My cousins all teamed up and won Xander a lot of tickets!

  

He liked the race cars and the whack a shark the best, but his favorite part was blowing out the candles on his cake!  He still talks about this every day.

The day was filled with smiles, laughter, and playtime, but not without tears.

My cousins Craig and Charlie came in at the same time as Weston's husband, Bruce.  Seeing the three young, tall men come in, Potatoes looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, saying, 

"Where's my daddy?"

Though it broke my heart a little, after seeing him jump back into play mode after a mere seconds, I cherished the fact that our little guy still thinks of his beloved daddy when surrounded by fun and attention.

After leaving Monkey Joe's, we headed out for lunch, where Erin and Joey were able to meet us.

 

Xander sat the whole time, mesmerized by the cupcake shape sorter Petty had given him.

 

Our waitress was named Zan!

Zan, Zanna, & Xander

We had so much fun celebrating our big boy.  That night as he laid down to sleep, he sang his way through ten rounds of Happy Birthday to You, ending with a round of Happy Birthday Dear Me, before drifting into sweet dreams of friends, cake, and candles.

Happy Birthday, Potatoes!

And now to the next Milestone (or Mayhem, more likely...)

Potatoes has asked to begin potty training!

Here's to the long Christmas weekend!

Welcome to Atlanta!

We have had so much fun during our time in Atlanta!

I usually only come for a long weekend, but have been blessed with TEN DAYS at home.  It has been great getting to see most of my favorites more than once.

 Xander got to see his first snow!!

He loved building the snowman and is still talking about it, building snowmen with his birthday play doh from Erin and Joey.  He also loved sprinkling a "snow Zoey."

Papa took us to a horse farm where we got to see a ton of horses AND a HUGE mule named Butch.

We sat in for a bit of How the Grinch Stole Christmas for Xander's first movie theater experience, but the live action version was a bit overwhelming.  We settled for a mini cupcake, hot chocolate and meeting a special someone.

 

As expected, Xander was more into the reindeer than the guy in red

Petty and I took advantage of gift cards to the Aquarium that my dad and Jay gave me years ago!

Everyone there loved Alexander's whale hat from Gammie.  He fit right in!

Xander and Zoey have struggled a bit with being in a new environment, but Gammie has helped with her constant fun and attention.  Xander is also slightly obsessed with my mom's dog, Tanner, who has been fairly tolerant of his toddler antics.

 

Papa and Grandma Jay's cat, Tabitha is also tolerating the extra attention

On Monday night, we got together with my cousin, Erin.  Xander was a bit slow to warm up to her, but soon was running through the sushi restaurant into her arms!  He recognized her immediately when he saw her again after his birthday party.

It's a blessing that one of my best friends, Shorna, nannies for another of my best friends, Weston, so I got combined time with both of them (plus Aunt Jan) and Weston's beautiful kids, with a quick visit from her husband Bruce, too!

For the first time in four years, all the Watkins cousins of 1983 got together!

For once, Zoey was out photographed.  Theo is quite the Regal Beagle!

Xander loves jousting at the trampoline park so much, he directed Papa in making a jousting beam from puppy agility boards

 We joined Papa on his trip to the goat farm to get manure for his garden

We spent one night away from Zoey at Papa and Grandma Jay's house.  The stress was a bit too much for her...  separation anxiety is a real thing

So much has happened in our trip and we have loved nearly every moment (aside from a few tddler tantrums and sleepless hours).  Today was Xander's second birthday party, but that deserves a post of its own!