The Christmas Edition

We were on the road for Christmas, a first for us I believe. We, with Ben's mom, headed to Ben's sister's house, just outside of Rochester, NY. Sam is at the perfect age for Santa and all the excitement that brings; his enthusiasm is contagious.

Sam was so excited about the trip that he wanted to sleep in his clothes so he'd be ready faster. Unfortunately for him, he still had a day of school before we left. I think he asked if when we'd be there every five minutes for the full seven hours of our drive.

Christmas Eve was a whirlwind of ping pong, the Strong Museum, excited Sam, and lots and lots of food. The Strong Museum of Play was tremendous!

There were funky rooms.

A grocery store.

Sam shopped.

Elise and Nick practiced for their summer jobs.

We checked out the Lego art.

Made ourselves into super heros.

Sam wrote another letter to Santa at the post office.

Sam and Elise road the train.

Then we checked out the butterfly garden. We were told that at any one time there were about 800 butterflies in the room. We were also instructed to check ourselves in the mirrors on the way out to make sure we hadn't picked up any hitch hikers.






They had some friends there too.





And an impressive collection of future butterflies.

That night we had the traditional-for-us fondue that Ben made. It was a real man meal with not a veggie to be found but it was oh so tasty.

Then it was time for an over tired and over excited boy to go to be! Cookies and hot chocolate were left for Santa, carrots for the reindeer. Sweet dreams until morning.

There is a family tradition that everyone has to stay upstairs so we could all come down together. That was very difficult for Sam since his teen aged cousins are in the sleep-until-noon phase but Sam was ready for the challenge. He headed in and snapped on the light. There was a moan "Oh Sam!", and eventually everyone made their way downstairs.



Santa listened via Gram and Grandpa.

And he loved Ben's contribution to Christmas -- fancy slot cars! Now, were they really for Sam or for Ben?

But the best part of Christmas was being with wonderful people.





And friendly pets.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was just lovely, especially if I leave out what happened Christmas night...it was after midnight so it doesn't really count, right? Let's just say that showers and laundry were needed and leave it at that. Oh, and that there really IS such a thing as too much candy.