It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving is the start of Christmas-time in the Tyler house!  Jake has been counting down the days until it was time to put up the Christmas tree, he loves it as much as I do!  Stephen kept Cody entertained while Jake helped me decorate the house.  We put up the tree, but waited to decorate it until Cody went to bed that night, that way everyone got to help.

 

One of Jake's favorite parts of Christmas is his Polar Express train set.  We got it set up and Jake camped out under the tree for almost an hour with it.

 

I figure we only have a few more years where Jake 'believes' in the magic of Christmas so I wanted to make it a special day; that and I have been pregnant the previous two holiday seasons and haven't been able to do all that I wanted to with him.  We made some sugar cookies shaped like Christmas trees and decorated them to have after we were done trimming the tree.

Every Saturday is homemade pizza night at our house.  To make it special for the night, I made one of them in the shape of a Christmas tree.

After Cody went to sleep, we put on the Polar Express and got to work.  I unpacked the ornaments and Jake and Stephen put them on the tree.  This year we tried to keep all of the breakable ones off  the bottom half so that Cody couldn't get to them.  So far, he hasn't tried to pull any off.

And our mantle

 

After all that hard work, it was time for some hot chocolate and cookies while we finished watching the Polar Express.  We also started a new tradition this year; Jake got to have a sleepover with Daddy next to the Christmas tree.  He wanted Cody to join them, but we had to explain that Cody wasn't old enough for a sleepover yet.

Classic "baby in a box" pictures.  Cody thinks it is awesome to 'eat' the Little People nativity set.

 

Christmastime also means that Cody got to meet a very special toy, Rudolph.  This was a special toy in our house growing up, his nose lights up and he plays carols when you squeeze his feet.  We may have played it over and over a few thousand times each Christmas, which my mom just loved.  It got passed down to the boys at Jake's first Christmas and he is a well loved little guy here too.  Cody sure thought he was pretty cool.

Cody's favorite Christmas decoration, hands down, is this light up snowman cutout.  He knows exactly where it is and looks for it anytime he is in the living room.  He will sit in front of it for the longest time and just smile....and try to eat the lights. 

 

playing peek-a-boo with the curtains and snowmen

Cody is also a big fan of the Polar Express train track that is under the tree.  He loves to act like baby Godzilla and tear it all apart.  Poor, Jake!  He just isn't sure what to think about a mobile baby brother who likes to explore/destroy everything!