Decorating Cookies

We've been making Christmas cookies all week, but last night it was time to make the gingerbread and sugar cookies. We usually set these aside because we make royal icing and it takes a long time to decorate them all. Since royal icing contains raw egg whites, my mom suggested that we have Brady decorate his own cookies with something else. I bought a tube of green icing and let him have some fun with the sprinkles. The icing tube was a little hard for him to squeeze, so we had to help out a little. The sprinkles were funny because at first when I handed the container to him and told him to shake it, he shook it straight up and down and got a shower of sprinkles. He got the hang of it and managed to decorate quite a few cookies that are just for him.

All of Brady's decorated cookies.

Earlier in the week we made our gingerbread house. Every year since Andy and I have been together, we've made a gingerbread structure at Christmas. It varies from year to year and we've made some better than others. I think the worst was a gingerbread train that broke apart and fell down. Andy was so displeased that he threw it out immediately. A week later, a little boy we babysat in New Jersey had pictures on Facebook of him and his cousins putting together the same train kit and it looked amazing. He was only 3 and had no parental help. Made us feel really good about ourselves.

This is as close as Brady made it to the cookie action last year. He was in his high chair in the kitchen while we baked. He has flour on his nose, so we named this picture "Baker Brady."

Georgia Aquarium

This past weekend was our second to last weekend down South and we decided to make a final trip down to Atlanta to visit the Georgia Aquarium. It is located in the same complex as the World of Coca-Cola, so we noticed it when we visited that back in April. We wanted to wait until Brady was a little older so he could enjoy it.

We watched Finding Nemo on the drive down, so Brady was primed to check out the fish and the first ones he saw, he ran to.

Reaching down to "pet" the stingrays. Unlike when we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo, he didn't almost end up swimming with them ;)

Time to try petting the horseshoe crabs.

Two horseshoe crabs came right up to me. Notice the jumbo shrimp on top of the one on the left. It actually jumped up at me and scared me half to death. Andy said I'll get my revenge when I'm eating its cousins on Christmas Eve.

Coming down from the awesome whale slide. You had to enter it from the level above. Brady loved it. He was too short to play in the main play structure and once he saw the area to play, he didn't want to do anything else. We didn't realize this area house the play area, so we should have saved it for last.

Look! The elusive Brady fish!

Brady checking out the albino alligator.

Piranhas. They're a lot larger than they're portrayed on television.

Japanese spider crabs. They can have up to a 13 foot leg-span. My mom would just love to sink her teeth into these babies.

Beluga whales. They kept charging at the glass and stopping short. It was really cool to see.

Manta Ray.

A little over a month ago, we were watching 19 Kids & Counting, and they actually were in Atlanta and made a trip to the Georgia Aquarium. This is when we learned that they actually have whale sharks there. They are the largest sharks and and is a filter eater. Growing up, my brother, Alex, LOVED sharks. His favorite was probably the whale shark and my mom even made him a whale shark costume for Halloween one year. So when we found out we were going to get to see some, I immediately thought of him.

We learned that in the wild the eat completely vertical, but since they can grow up to 40ft long, they would scrape the bottom of the tank if they ate this way. They have to be trained to eat horizontally.

The coolest part was that they didn't have just one whale shark, but three! I never thought in my lifetime I'd get to see one in person. I've seen them a million times on Shark Week and thought that was the closest I'd ever get to one. It was surreal to see them overhead and realize how truly large they are. Truly amazing creatures.

We wanted to commemorate our trip and the once in a lifetime opportunity to see whale sharks. We pulled this guy out and showed him to Brady, who instantly fell in love. The sticker price on this guy was $40 and there was no way I was going to spend that, no matter how cool our day was. Luckily, there was a smaller, much cheaper one, so we ended up with that one.

Santa Comes Early

Since there are lots of kids who aren't in their own homes on Christmas morning, Santa brings their presents the weekend before Christmas. It is nice because the kids don't have to worry if Santa will find them at a relative's house, etc., and it lightens Santa's load on Christmas Eve, since he's already delivered some presents. That meant, since we head to Pittsburgh for the holidays, Santa came last night and we had to prepare for him to visit our house.

Brady hung his own stocking. I was pretty impressed that he actually got the loop onto the hook.

Hanging the magic key on the door for Santa. He gave it to us last year on Brady's first Christmas. It's magic, so you can leave it on the inside of the door and he can still get in. Even though we have a fireplace, letting Santa come in through the door allows him to carry more presents. I think that's a win/win situation.

Brady helped put out the milk and cookies for Santa, but being the cookie monster that he is, he couldn't resist having one himself. He was acting as quality control.

Climbing into bed so Santa can come.

All tucked in and ready for bed.

Merry Christmas!!! Ready to get out of bed and head for the presents.

First present. Brady chose it from the many under the tree. What could it be?

It's books!!!

Dance Star Mickey. Can you tell he's really excited? It was a big hit.

Testing out his new step stool.

Scribble Me a Song from Aunt Dunny.

A to Z alphabet zoo.

Another book

Foam alphabet for the bath.

Probably his favorite gift. A $3 plastic drum. Go figure.

A bead maze.

Pictured above, as Andy would say, is Brady's "loot." I had wrapped a few gifts each night, so when Andy went into the spare bedroom to get them all to put under the tree, he kept saying, "OMG there's more?!?" I start buying a few things in September and spread out my purchases, and usually I get a great deal. By December, things start to add up and I don't realize how much I've bought. I told Andy, he'll get half as much when he gets a sibling, so he should be able to enjoy being an only child.

Andy and I decided our present to each other was the Mickey Christmas Party in Disney, so we decided only to get each other a small "stocking stuffer." Neither of the things we got for each other fit in our stockings, but the sentiment was the same. I got Andy boxers like I do every year (he never buys clothes for himself), and he got me a Pitt snuggie. It was a good gift because I'm always cold and wrapped up in a blanket on the couch. All three stockings were "stuffed" with candy. YAY!!