Happy Xmas

Felix had a wonderful day today celebrating xmas with his mom and mama and the Pine family clan.  Last night on xmas eve, Felix had a total lack of interest in opening gifts (when asked if he wanted to open a present, his response from the phone in his play kitchen was, "Shh, I'm busy making an important phone call"); but today, he was totally into it (but at the same time, not crazed - which was great).  He distributed gifts to family members and was really excited about opening presents that were for him.  Of course, most of the gifts will have to be explored and enjoyed later when there is not so much excitement.  But one gift really caught Felix's eye and he couldn't stop playing with it: a hat!  His Pine grandparents got him a winter hat similar to his grandpa's, and he LOVED it.  It was pretty cute to see him so psyched.  He did a lot of imaginary play while wearing the hat, pretending to ride a motorcycle.  By the way, the striped thing on top of Felix's head in some of the pictures is the other hat the Felix received, that got 2nd best recognition by being included at all in these photos.

This year Felix was also, for some reason, really into the Xmas stockings!  He called them "boots" and tried on all of them.  The boots also figured in some imaginary play involving walking in puddles of water.  Fortunately, Felix was willing to put on his real boots before we went outside to play in the snow.

Minneapolis got a huge wet snowfall on Xmas eve, and the snow was wet...wetter than I remember in a long time.  It was so warm (32 degrees) that the snow was melting, and there were huge puddles of water on the sidewalk and slush in the street.  We walked across the street (well, the adults walked, and Felix was carried over the huge drifts) to see the neighbors snowperson.  Felix's mom and mama attempted to make a snowperson for Felix in front of our house, but were unsuccessful - the snow was too wet and sticky to work with!  The picture below is of the snowpeople across the street.

Felix also got to enjoy some quieter moments during the day with his relatives.  Playing Winter and Xmas songs on the piano with Nana, racing matchbox cars down the slide with Caitlin, and of course, plenty of grandpa time.

I couldn't help but think back at how different Felix is this year than his previous two Xmas'.  He is so much more cognizant of what is going on, and independent.  For old time's sake, here's a triptych contrasting the past three years.