The Jones Family: Happy Holidays!

We had such a nice Christmas! It started snowing around 10:30am on Christmas Eve & continued through that night. It was snowing harder than I've ever seen...very windy, low visibility & cold!! Waking up to snow everywhere on a clear Christmas morning couldn't have been more perfect! We opened a few surprises from Santa then took Landon out in his wagon so he could investigate the snow while staying dry. He was pretty much in awe over seeing our whole neighborhood covered in white. After letting him play in the wagon for a little bit (He loves sitting in his wagon...even when it's in the house), we let him get the full experience. I don't think he knew what to make of it when his feet sunk in several inches. We moved him to a shallow spot where he promptly wanted to sit down & dig in the snow. When he stood back up & realized his pants were all wet he'd had enough of the snow. It was still really cold outside, so we came back in, got dry clothes on & headed over to my in-laws. The roads were still a little icy so we (Darren) had to drive very carefully. There were cars stranded all over the place in ditches & facing the wrong direction from earlier that morning or the night before.
This was the first time we've had the family together with all three of the little kids walking, so it was a lot of fun watching them play, steal toys from each other, etc. Landon knew he was supposed to tear paper off the presents this year & got really excited about it. Of course after a couple of gifts he was more interested in playing than unwrapping. During dessert our niece Mia lost her very first tooth to add to the day's excitement! That evening we drove up to Muenster for a Klement family get together. Darren has a pretty large extended family, so we always have a lot of fun going up there.
Landon has two new teeth coming in, so he's been cranky at times the past couple of weeks. He's walking like a champ which is great & bad at the same time. With his new found independence he no longer wants to ride in the stroller. I found this out on what I'll affectionately call my last stroller shopping trip with Landon anytime soon. We made what I thought would be a quick, stress free trip into a kids clothing store. They don't have carts, so I took him in the stroller. After about 5 minutes he started grunting & pointing to get out of the stroller. It quickly escalated into him arching his back & crying. (I was in a crunch to pick up a few things, otherwise I would've left the store at this first sign of trouble.) He was content to be carried for about another 5 minutes while I grabbed what I needed before squirming to be put down. The second his feet touched the floor he was like a freed chimpanzee...running all over the store, grabbing things off the shelf, laughing & enjoying the new game of avoiding mommy. I immediately headed for the check out, but trying to pay & keep him in my sights was anything but smooth. I kept having to chase him down, pull him out of the clothing racks & bring him back to the counter, but each time I picked him up he'd immediately start flinging himself around & screaming. I was suddenly that mom with the screaming, tantrum throwing toddler in a store. I'd set him back down by the checkout where of course he'd take off again smiling & looking back to see if I was chasing him. As I finished the longest checkout ever, I knew the worst was still ahead of me....leaving the store. I tried to judge the distance to the door...why did the checkout have to be so far from the exit?! There was no avoiding it, so I took a deep breath, put the fort of toys he'd built back on the shelf & picked him up. I'm sure I was quite a sight juggling my purse, my purchases & the stroller while trying to maintain my grip on Landon (who had transformed into the tazmanian devil) as I headed for the door. Needless to say I avoided eye contact with the other shoppers. Once we got to the car he was my laid back, sweet son again. As I drove home I couldn't help but reminisce about the good old days when he slept quietly in the infant carrier through carefree shopping trips.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas weekend: