It's Christmas Time in the City (and the Country, too!)

Things overheard in our home:

"What's that?" "What happened?" "What's his name?" "What's that song?" Put these questions on a continual loop and you have our cozy home. Would we change this? NOPE. We like his curiosity - even if it requires answering the same question over and over and over and...

What has our monkey been up to? Well, since you asked...

Besides hanging out in the "jungle" in our backyard?
One stop: The zoo...this time with his buddies Truitt and Kellen.
If only he could ride this at the minimum five times in a row...then he would be a) satisfied, b) burned out, or c) cranked up to do it again. Something we will never search for the answer.

Black Friday was spent walking off some Thanksgiving food. We enjoyed the weather at one of our favorite neighborhood parks: Proctor Plaza.
It's nice to look back over the years and feel nostalgic about Benjamin's life at this park. Obviously, this time of year is the best in Houston to really enjoy the outdoors and we are very lucky to have this jewel so close to home. When our move to Brazil officially happens, Proctor park will be one of many hobbies we will miss.

Little B. likes to eat lots of snacks before he burns off his energy.

Random run-ins with friends is always the icing on the cake when going to the park: Little Benja and Kai searching...

We took our firecracker for his Santa photos early this year. We love the tradition of taking photos with Benjamin's cousin Lillian, who as most of you loyal blog followers know, is 6-months older than our monkey.

We snuck in a few photos of our own before and during the Santa time.

Benjamin waiting for the big Santa moment with Lillian.

Hanging out with his Papi..."thumbs up".

Benjamin telling Santa that he wants "Sally and Tow Mater" for Christmas.
He is still in his Cars phase. He was a bit apprehensive at first (hence the fingers in the mouth) but had no fear once he "warmed up" to this "Santa" person.

We had a stellar Sunday discovering a whole new "world" Dewberry Farm and just may have to consider this a new "family tradition".

We not only rode on a trailer full of hay pulled by a tractor,
but we cut our first very own tree from a tree farm.Okay, so we picked a "Tim Burton-esque" tree (it's a bit crooked) but we love it because we chose it. Benjamin had a whole new level of playtime on the farm. There was so much for him to do - tearing him away was surprisingly easy considering he was E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D. What a fun time! These people who run this farm know what they are doing. They seriously have cut a piece of magic for the little ones and mushed it together to make it dreamy. We highly recommend this "nook" in the "country" for some serious fun playtime.

Running through the trees (insert toddler giggles here)

Riding on a horse swing made from old recycled tires.

"Wow, did I really just slide down that thing?"

He can ring his bell...ring his bell...

Poking his head through a school bus.

Sitting on a dream - a real, live tractor.

Digging for gold.

Another "Santa" - hmmm...this "old man" is everywhere...

He wanted to take one of these chairs home.

Benjamin tells our Christmas tree, "good night" and this is the start of an amazing Christmas season. But what makes this year better than ever is that is going to be through the eyes of a 2-year old. One who is just getting to really "experience" this "new" holiday (the last two really didn't "click"). He thought he loved Halloween...

As always - a successful end to a VERY successful day.

Till next time.