Santa Claus or the Big Balloon Bear?

Bradyn got to enjoy his first hockey game with Oomba and Oompa Lee...well, he enjoyed the "hockey" part of the game, but not the opening of the show. When we arrived at the game, he was SO excited (as most of you know...he's obsessed with ALL sports), he could hardly contain his excitement. They started preparing for the opening of the game by inflating this large bear that the hockey players would skate through. We sat and watched them inflate this thing and Bradyn was so excited and then...he started screaming and crying uncontrollably when the bear was about half of the way inflated. We had to take him out of the arena to try and settle him down. Once the bear was deflated and off the ice, we were able to return and he loved watching the rest of the game. This all happened around Thanksgiving...still to this day he continues to talk about "The Big Balloon Bear" with concern! So, we were very concerned when we found out that Santa was coming to visit Bradyn at his daycare...we figured if a Big Balloon Bear got that kind of a reaction, Santa may bring on the same fears. When I picked him up from daycare, I asked him if he saw Santa and he said, "Yeah...big guy." Oohh boy, I thought I knew where this was headed and then his teacher said, "He LOVED Santa! He RAN to him and jumped on his lap, and grabbed his santa hat and wore it!" Yes, I was floored, he loves the "big guy". So, this weekend we headed out to see Santa again and get his picture taken with him, something we never imagined we'd be doing this year! When we got there, he was so excited to see Santa again, but even more excited to see the 3'x3' bag of candy canes next to him! Santa really made Bradyn's day when he asked Bradyn about Mater...one of his favorite "Cars" characters! Ho Ho Ho!

A Little Behind on Posts...

Wow! So much has happened since my last post, so get ready for updates:

Gotcha Day!
We celebrated our "Gotcha Day" with Bradyn on October 28th. Hard to believe that it has been 1 year since we have been blessed with his presence. We decided we would go out to dinner for our celebration especially since Bradyn does so well in restaurants. Well, that didn't work so well, he showed his true 2 year old colors and made for a very fast dining experience. We had cake when we got home and he opened a gift that we got for him in Russia. We also put together a package to send to the baby home.

Our 5 Year Wedding Anniversary!
We spent the weekend in Park City with great plans to play in the snow with Bradyn. Well, it didn't snow and the ground was completely bare! Plan B...we enjoyed ourselves in the swimming pool and did some window shopping.
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Thanksgiving!
Oompa and Oomba Lee joined us for Thanksgiving this year! Bradyn got his usual "A Present A Day" gifts from them. We had lots of fun with them and even took Bradyn to his first Hockey game. He LOVED the hockey but didn't care for the large inflatable Bear that the hockey players skated through at the beginning of the game. We also went to the zoo and Bradyn showed Oomba and Oompa around.

My Dad's 75th Birthday Celebration!
Our whole family surprised my Dad with a birthday party for his 3/4 of a century celebration! Everyone in the family wrote letters to him on their memories with him, then compiled it into a book. We succeeded in surprising him and spent the time reminiscing about good times.

Now here we are in the midst of the holiday season and counting down the days until Santa comes. Bradyn has become obsessed with the characters from Toy Story and says that Santa is bringing him a Buzz Lightyear. He has enjoyed getting ready for Santa with our daily advent calendar countdown. We've also made cookies and gingerbread houses. And Bradyn has even helped wrap the presents...well, he has added about 5 or 6 gift tags to every gift. We are so excited for Santa to get here...he comes to Bradyn's daycare on the 18th and he says he's going to sit on his lap...we'll see.