Christmas Dinner @ Austin's!

We visited our friends' Sherry & Oliver for Christmas Dinner this year since they were so kind enough to host! They not only invited us but two other couples plus their babies also! It was a semi-potluck but each couple brought a different course to it. They provided the main entrees, which were absolutely delicious, Grilled Salmon, Prime Rib, and Ham, plus some side entrees too, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, Rice! We signed up for appetizers (Homemade crabcakes) and salad! Other couples brought other yummy dishes such as Garlic Mash Potatoes and Tiramisu!! Absolutely delicious!

It was an actual sit-down dinner, including the babies! It was so great!! All the kiddies lasted about 20 minutes of the meal. Erik actually sampled adult food including the Salmon, Garlic Mash Potato, AND Sweet Potato Casserole! (I hope he's going to be okay with all those rich flavors!) Plus he also had a couple spoons of his own baby food and some baby puffs! We're so proud of him that he could last that long sitting down to a dinner. Quite well-behaved!

Afterwards, it was back to the baby fun time! Babies crawling all over the place and exploring their new environments! We see how they all interact with each other! Erik somehow was able to make all 3 boys cry (mind you, they were all older than Erik by about 4+ months!). Erik took away one of the plastic balls from Jason (just turned 1) and he cried! Erik then also tried to push Austin aside from his own Christmas present while cruising and that hurt Austin's feelings and made him cried! Erik also made Jeremy cried by wanting to play with Auntie Joannie (Jeremy's mom) and Jeremey got jealous! SIGH! Our son is a little rascal here...causing ruckus! ;o) hahaha

In short, Christmas 2006 was a blast for all three of us! We got to spend time with our families (okay, Mommy's family), spend time by ourselves (Xmas Morning), and also spend time with friends! We wish all of you had a fabulous holiday and may you all have a wonderful New Year!

Baby's First Christmas

We woke up bright and early this morning....well, it was not really early but still somewhat of a morning, actually at 10:30am! We had a very rough night since Erik is currently teething, still having his cough, and now a bad runny nose plus fever from the teething. So Daddy and Mummy didn't really get a lot of sleep or rest and neither did our poor little Erik!

However, Erik still woke up with a nice big smile on his face! He's such a content little baby! Daddy rushed down to get the video camera ready and his digital camera ready to "capture" the moment! Daddy even put away all of Erik's old toys and cleaned up the living room so that its not so cluttered for his new toys! Mummy and Erik descended down the stairs with all the Christmas lights lit and and ready to open presents!!

We plopped down near the tree and at first Erik didn't know what to do with those funky wrapped "containers". Mummy had to show him how to tear the wrapping papers and then show him what's the REAL gift! Erik, of course, preferred the wrapping papers instead but after the mummy opened up his gift, he totally loved it! It was just a small toy of 12 stacking plastic cups! At the day care center, they had lots of cups lying around and we saw Erik like playing with those plus he can also play it during bathtime! :o) hee hee

After the next couple of gifts, Erik got the hang of it and knew exactly what to do when we put a present in front of him. He'd reach for the "seams" and try to tear it away!! He's such a fast learner! Our gift opening event took us 1.5 hours worth! No, we didn't get him a million toys, we only got him 10 toys total, big and small, and a few are from our very dear friends and family! It took so long because we wanted Erik to be able to open his own gifts and get a chance to play with each of them for a little bit.

So what did he like best?! He loved the Tigger Airplane that he can sit and ride on. Erik also loved the Parents' walker blocks because he can cruise and semi-walk with it! Of course, he also liked the Leap Frog learning table!! (Thanks Anne!) He also liked his first mobile phone with voice recording capability (Thanks Carol!!)

By the time all the presents were opened, Erik was absolutely exhuasted! He didn't even eat his lunch, he just wanted to take a nap instead!! So all in all, it was a fabulous Christmas! It made Chhimi and I feel like we were kids again! Daddy absolutely loved one of the Parents' building kits (Lego like) and built a "SLR camera" with it, including flash! Mummy loves the fact that Daddy has so much creativity and imagination in him. Mummy also loved playing with the V. Smile Learning system (aka Erik's first video game! LOL!) It's definitely a memorable holiday for us this year! We've been good all these years and we are now blessed with a wonderful son!! How great is life?!

Not Skipping Christmas This Year! No Bah Humbug Either!

Okay, for those who knows us, we are really not into the whole Christmas celebration. Not because we're not religious (well, we're not Christian or Catholic but that's totally for a different blog) nor its because we don't have the Christmas spirit in us. It's because Christmas in the States are highly over-rated and have become way to materialistic and commercialized to our liking. We see mobs of people rushing out the door for early-weekend shopping sprees to only spend money that they may not have and put lots of unnecessary materialistic stuff on their credit cards only to be in debt at the start of the year. Why would anybody in their right minds do that?!

So prior to having Erik, we didn't do the Christmas celebration. We'd usually opt for the whole "skipping" Christmas scene and travel away on our vacation instead since Daddy's family is in Bhutan and Mummy's family doesn't celebrate Christmas either.

However, for some odd reason, this year, with Erik, we are not "skipping" Christmas, maybe its because of "Baby's First Christmas" or its because maybe we can hope for something different and teach our son that Christmas is about getting together with family, loved ones, and friends.

Visiting Santa Claus at the North Pole

Daddy - This was daddy's and Erik's first visit to Santa. Later that night Tabitha asked me if I was scared sitting by Santa. Isn't that the scarriest Snowman you have ever seen - that didn't seem to phase Erik one bit.

On Saturday, we took Erik to see Santa Claus. It was his first time and it was also Daddy's first time "sitting" with Santa too! :o) hahahaha Mummy's work organized a Santa Claus event for all the families and it was great. The babies and kids got cookies and juice and lots of craft ideas. The event was free which is even better :o) hahaha. Way better than visiting the mall santas!

We organized the visit with 4 of Erik's buddies: Austin, Gabriel, Jason, and Jeremy. The babies all go to the same "school", aka day care. Daddy was planning to do the whole studio shot with strobe lights, flash, etc but Mummy's company denied the request due to the overwhelming participation from families. We had to wait for a good 1 - 2 hour because of the crowd! Thank goodness our friends were there and the babies were playing and napping!

Afterwards, we decided to go out for a very late lunch to the local mongolian grill. There, it was a mad dash to the food line and then take turns holding each others' babies while the others finish eating. It justs shows us that raising a child doesn't take only two parents, it takes a village. For Daddy and Mummy, we are lucky enough to know some good friends that all just had babies too so we all get to take care of each others. Even though the parents were tired and babies were cranky, and we basically filled 1/3 of the dining room with our party, we had a great time! We just chatted and caught up with each other's lives.

Daddy Decorated The House!

As if a full-day of babies and kids was not exhuasting enough, Daddy found his Christmas spirit from within and initiated "Project Decorate House". He pulled all the boxes he could find that had our Christmas decorations in it and assembled our fake tree. Yes, we opted for the fake tree because of two reasons. 1. It helps the environment by not taking down a perfectly good healthy tree for the sake of decoration. 2. It was way cheaper! :o) hahahaha

Daddy then hung all the lights and beads on the tree. He also wrapped lit garlands around our staircase and hung our snowman wreath outside the doorway. Daddy also cleaned up all the living room mess with the numerous toys that Erik goes through with his discovery on a daily basis and vacuumed up everything.

As if this was not enough, Daddy had the foresight of not using glass ornaments this year, because ...well, one of them broke and cut Mummy's finger! Yikes! So he made a late night dash to get some safer wooden ornaments instead! So by the time Daddy stepped into bed, it was well into the "am". Sigh!

By the time Sunday morning rolled around, it was a great surprise for Erik and Mummy! The house was filled with Christmas spirit!! Yay!! Erik loved the lights and wanted to touch and feel the Christmas tree. :o) hee hee. Daddy you're the best!!