Sunday Morning

It is winter. When we are not at school and/or work, we wear our jammies and eat and wait for snow.

Ice Skating

On Mr. Z's last day of Christmas break (January 2) we decided a little family winter fun was in order. We went out to lunch and then to the ice skating rink! Monkey was super excited about ice skating and could hardly stand the excitement. We all had a great time going very slowly around the rink, although by the time our hour was over Monkey was doing a much better job of staying on top of his feet and we actually were able to skate away from the wall at a decent speed. The rink offers a 'Snowplow Sam' class for little people to learn how to fall, how to stand on the ice, etc. etc. and we'll be taking a trial class in the next week or two to see if Monkey really likes it. If it teaches him to stand up and move independently on the ice, Mr. and Mrs. Z's backs are guaranteed to love it. ;)

Polar Express

A week before Christmas we took a big trip with Grandma and Grandpa T to take a very special train ride... we rode to the North Pole on the Polar Express!

Our journey began with golden tickets, hot chocolate and cookies while they played Liam Neeson's recording of the book on the overhead speakers and waiters displayed the pictures in the book to everyone. This is admittedly a very bad picture, but let's all just agree that nighttime photography behind foggy train windows is quite difficult. The point is that there was a HUGE North Pole light display that went on for hundreds of feet. This was just the central building of an entire village. When we got to the North Pole, Santa came out from the village and got on the train!Monkey waited very patiently to see Santa, as we were seated at the very end of the car. He told Santa that he wanted a train for Christmas (of course) and Santa gave him a bell from his sleigh. We all had a really good time and Monkey had a really magical holiday experience. It may become an annual tradition. ;)