Christmas 2015 Recap

Christmas 2015 is officially in the books!  What a Christmas it was!

This was Isaiah's third Christmas.  This was the first year Isaiah could independently make his way out to the presents.  Last year, Santa left the presents in the family room and we opened them downstairs, but Santa knew leaving the gifts upstairs, like Isaiah's First Christmas, meant Isaiah could discover them on his own. <3

Watching his face light up when he rounded the corner from his room to see the tree surrounded by presents was such a joy.

Isaiah was very excited to see his kitchen table. We love that it's accessible!

Isaiah emptied his stocking and opened his gifts, all while yelling "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!"

Once Isaiah was done opening his gifts, we had some breakfast and were on our way to see family!

First stop was Baba's house:

Yep, Isaiah got some iPad time.  He was a bit grumpy because he was so warm....the weather was very unseasonably warm. He eventually did get to his gifts though...

After breakfast and time at Baba's house, we were on our way to Nan Nan and Pop Pop's house.

Thankfully I never ago through the clothes in the diaper bag as I had left a summer outfit in there! The clothing switch helped Isaiah's attitude quite a bit!

This snack tray put together just for him by his Aunt Tricia helped too. ;-)

A Lenox tray. LOL!

We had dinner pretty soon after we arrived, and then it was time for Isaiah's last pile of presents! (spoiled boy!)

By now Isaiah understood the drill of opening presents and did a good job opening most of them.

His last present was/is by far his favorite- a piano just his size!

Seriously, the cutest piano player I ever did see 😍

A video posted by Vicky (@oibelieveinisaiah) on Dec 26, 2015 at 11:01am PST

Isaiah had a wonderful Christmas day surrounded by family and filling his belly (he even ate eggs and ham! If you know the toddler-eating struggles I've had with him lately, you know the win that this is!)

We hope your Christmas was wonderful as well! I'm hoping to have a end of the year recap before the new year, but we'll see, we're making lots of memories this week. <3

Merry Christmas!

May your days be happy,

your heart be light,

your christmas

merry

and the new year

bright

Merry Christmas friends, family, followers, and readers. <3

Share a Night at RMH

During our stay at the McDonald House in September, we attended a "House meeting" where they mentioned that they needed a family to be the feature family for their Share a Night event.  "Share a Night" is an event where they have a lighting ceremony of their Christmas light display.  It's a fundraising event where, for every $15 donated, they added a light to the display.

 The Ronald McDonald House has been our home away from home for over two years now.  They've done so much for us from giving us a bed to sleep in to a warm dinner to fill out bellies when we are exhausted after a long day over at the hospital, from gifts for Isaiah in the Treasure Chest room to giving us the ability to spend time with other families, families just like ours...so I asked if we'd be able to help and be the feature family....we are there quite often after all, and will be for quite a few years.  

The night got here before we knew it and we headed to Delaware for a night of fun....and not a night at the hospital. ;-)  

Why yes, we did hang out with Ronald himself!

Do you see that crowd?  That's not even half of the people.  It was so jam packed, full of so many supporters of the House.  Pam Cornforth, the President/CEO of the RMH of DE,  led a great presentation, including a short speech given by yours truly, and then LIGHTS!

We were really grateful to be a part of such a wonderful event.

The picture above is of "Sponsor Island". It was so cool reading the signs and seeing all the names of the companies who support the House.

It was a great night to enjoy the lights and it was wonderful seeing Isaiah push himself around to see everything. :)

It was an honor to be the feature family; I hope we were able to help the House as they have helped us in our journey with Isaiah.

Meeting Santa

Earlier this week, we took our annual trip to the mall to visit Santa.  Before we hit the mall, Isaiah and I had spent a lot of time doing a lot of talking, prepping for our visit, about Santa and sitting on his lap.  I'd show him last year's picture of him losing his mind sitting on Santa's lap and we'd talk about how he's a big boy now and he can sit in Santa's lap, talk with him, and know we're right there if he needs us.

We were shocked to see no one in line to visit Santa so we made our way right up to him.  I'll be honest, I was expecting a lot of tears and yelling....but Isaiah is a big boy...

And he visited Santa like one!  He got upset at first when I stepped away and some of the bloopers show him with a scowl on his face and pointing (at me), but once I started acting like a goof he was good to go!

He's made so much progress...

His first visit at just 4 months old included his mattress pad and plenty of tubes, wires, machine, etc.  His second visit at 1 year he was free of all of that, but was dealing with undiagnosed hydrocephalus and he wasn't strong enough to sit up.  But this year he was able to sit with Santa like typical kids do!  He didn't say too much to Santa this year but we're pretty sure next year he'll be chatting up a storm with him.

Thank you Santa for continuing to make our Christmases amazing. :)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We've been busy decking the halls at our house....and this year, Isaiah is SO very into it all!

He helped us decorate the Christmas tree (we are so grateful for his wheelchair, allowing him to help independently) and ever since then he points to it daily "Kissma Tree, Kissma Tree".  

He's learned how to say "Merry Christmas!", though it sounds something like "Mera Kissma!" and has learned quite a few Christmas Carols...his favorites being Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, Joy to the World, and Up on the Rooftop.

We've taken him to a few events, including Dinner with Mrs Claus and Yummie over at Kitchen Kettle Village for a second year in a row. 

We took advantage of the nicer weather and our membership and checked out the amazing displays at Longwood Gardens...

(We had gotten there right at sundown.  Holy beautiful sunset Batman.)

and we met Santa at our local library at a special closed event!

Isaiah tested his coal-limits that night by yanking at Santa's beard and pulling his glasses and tossing them on the floor.  #thatkid  We've since had many talks about that and I can tell you that when we visited Santa at the mall, Isaiah's behavior was much better....(picture to come!)

Toddler behavior aside, it's been a pretty fantastic holiday season so far.  Only 9 days left until Christmas!