West Coast Frisbees: Santa Came Again! (Thuerbach Christmas)

After opening our presents at home and playing for a bit, we all got dressed and headed up to my parent's house to spend Christmas Day and the rest of the weekend with them. Shortly after we arrived, it was time for Ben's nap. With Ben asleep, my Dad out shopping (last minute of course!), and Jim outside on a jog, I took the opportunity to go visit my friend Devin and her family. She had a baby girl in September who I had yet to meet, so I went over to their house for about 2 hours (didn't take any pictures of course). It was great to visit with them. When I got back, we all headed out to a great park up with street and played there with Ben for quite a while. He had a blast! Then it was time to make plans for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner out at a restaurant. This goes back many years with lots of hilarious stories of horrendous service, but it seems like it's becoming more and more common for families to eat out on this night now. We have gone to a wonderful Italian place called Tutto Fresco for the past couple of years, but when we called they were completely booked for the night. Instead we headed to another Italian restaurant my parent's really like. The food was great, but unfortunately it took a really long time for it to come out and by then Ben was super tired and cranky (not to mention still fighting his cold). We took turns walking around with him while the others ate. :) It was still a nice meal and we had a good time getting out of the house. We all went to bed early that night eagerly awaiting Santa's arrival....

On our way to Grandma and Papa's!

Kicking around the sand at the playground

Determined to make it UP the slide

Now back down

He's finally almost mastered going down stairs!

Playing with Papa at the playground

On the swings with Dad - "foot five"

Out to dinner - Ben entertaining the couple next to us!

Fun at dinner with Dad

On Christmas morning, we all got up as Ben was starting to stir to be ready for the big "reveal" of the presents. Of course this time he was bound and determined to have his milk before anything else, so we waited with a crying toddler as his milk was heating up, hoping he would get excited about opening gifts again. He drank his milk, and we asked if he wanted to see what Santa brought him and he yelled, "NO!" and didn't want to do anything but sit on my lap. Hahaha - that's how life goes these days! :) We all just waited about 20 minutes, then all of a sudden Ben just sprinted into the living room - guess he was ready! We all ran in after him and my Dad took the sheet and bow off of his new leather chair. He was so excited about it - sitting in it right away. We took our time opening up all of our gifts and watching as Ben immediately began playing with each and every new toy he opened. It was great. We spent the rest of the day lounging around. We enjoyed the wonderful meal my Mom made for us and then watched "Four Christmases" that night. The next morning was spent doing more of the same - lounging around, playing with Ben and all of his new toys, eating delicious food, and taking in all that is wonderful about this time of the year. Poor Ben was not feeling good at all - he actually passed out sitting in my lap and then took a little nap on the couch in the late morning. We decided it was time to get back home and recharge before returning to work the next day. We definitely missed our families this year - Lori, Craig and Chase in Colorado and Jim's family on the East Coast. We were thinking about all of them. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas morning at my parent's (took this about 1/2 way through the day)