Christmas morning pictures.

  Here are the kids last night eagerly awaiting their traditional one Christmas Eve present from Sara and I, pajamas. 

The kids had a great Christmas.  Our festivities began last weekend with my family's gathering in Indy, continued yesterday with our annual pilgrimage to Kokomo to visit with Sara's family on Christmas Eve, and concluded today with a fun filled day here at home.  This year we were happy to be joined on Christmas morning by Grandma Susie and Papa Don.  The kids always get so excited to have them around.

Parker made sure that we didn't forget to put our cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.

He was also quick to remind us to put the tray of flour outside of the front door so that we could track where Santa walked through the house.  He could hardly contain his excitement this morning when he woke up and peeked downstairs and saw these footprints.

Here are the very excited boys making their way downstairs to see what Santa had brought for them.

No Smarties necessary to get Addy to smile for this one...

...or this one.

Exuberance exemplified.

Santa never forgets Max.

Addy and one of her new babies.

Molly either wanted to be considered a Christmas present or simply couldn't find a way out from behind all of the packages.  Maybe a little of both.

Our little cowgirl. 

What boy wouldn't love a Buzz Lightyear Snuggie?

Can you remember being this excited?

Santa Claus visited our house overnight and by the looks of this video Parker as pretty happy with what jolly old St. Nick brought with him.



In case you didn't know, one of Parker's favorite daycare teachers moonlights as one of Santa's elves during the holidays, so he wants to be sure to include her in his thank you note to Santa.

We have had a busy, yet very enjoyable last couple of days and plenty of pictures were taken, it may take me a bit to get them uploaded and onto the blog. 

We hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas.

Family Christmas Gathering

With the weekend before Christmas also comes our Ritzmann family get together.  All of my siblings and nieces and nephews, along with my parents, gather either in Indianapolis or Lawrenceburg.  This year the extravaganza took place in Indy. 

It's always fun to have everyone together, hanging out, having fun, eating and drinking like kings and queens, and watching the kids enjoying spending time together. 

This year's gathering lived up to the hype.  The first stop was Saturday morning at my sister Emily's house.  She put together quite a brunch while  Lleyton served as the morning entertainment for his cousins.

The afternoon activity planned was for the whole family to be in attendance as the Stanford Cardinal faced off with the Butler Bulldogs at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.  What better way to excited for the big game than by watching Hoosiers.

After Jimmy Chitwood knocked down the game winner, we jumped in the cars and made our way down to Hinkle.  Everyone had a great time, but we certainly missed Addy and Sara who made the trip up to Kokomo on Saturday afternoon to visit with her mom and grandma. 

Lleyton enjoyed leading the cheers, unless those cheers became a bit too loud of course.  He also enjoyed posing for a few pictures outside of the house Sara lived in during her time at Butler.  Parker was on the edge of his seat while he watched the end of Hoosiers with Uncle Andy.

Thank goodness for family friendly venues like Hinkle, where they allow kids onto the floor after the game.  As you can probably tell, the kids had a blast running around the court, posing with the mascot and heaving up a couple of shots. 

Following the game we all made our way to my sister Megan's house for a delicious dinner and a evening full of good times, including the first annual Ritzmann Family Christmas White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Jason was more than willing to take charge of making sure the White Elephant rules were crystal clear.

Halloween 2010

Growing up, Halloween was not one of my favorite days of the year.  For one reason or another I just didn't get into it.  That has changed now that I have little ones that get so excited every October 31st.  Parker woke up this morning with quite a spring in his step and instead of greeting me with his usual "Good morning Daddy" it was a very enthusiastic "Happy Halloween Daddy!".

This year we had a ladybug, a Clone Trooper, and Superman.  Can you guess who was what?

Walking from house to house just wasn't cutting it for our superhero, so he could be seen streaking from door to door on his scooter. 



Addy got to ride in style as Grammy and Pop pushed her along on our journey.

After we made the rounds, there was still time to sit on the front porch and pass out delicious treats to other trick-or-treaters.



Sweet talking Santa Claus.

Sara came across this note in Parker's bag today after school...

For those of you at home who are not used to deciphering the writing of a first grader, allow me to help:

You are awesome Santa Clause

Baseball stuff

Toy gun

Cheetos bag

Basketball stuff

Nintendo DS

Parker undoubtedly wrote this because one of his teachers at daycare moonlights working as an elf at the North Pole, or at least that is what she has Parker believing.  He mentioned this morning that she was starting work this Friday evening so he wanted to write a note to Santa that she could personally deliver. 

The kid knows what he is doing.  Not only is he trying to be one of the first to get a letter to Santa, he also knew that rather than just list the things he would like to get for Christmas, maybe he should try to stroke Santa's ego a bit by telling him he is awesome.  Even Kris Kringle enjoys a little flattery every now and again.  Nice work son.

It's no secret how Parker has nearly doubled his body weight since coming home with us last summer...the boy loves food.  Hence a bag of Cheetos made his Christmas list. 

Since I know Santa pretty well, I like his chances when it comes to the baseball and basketball stuff.  No so much when it comes to a toy guy or a DS.  Cheetos bag?  I feel like one of those is likely to at least find its way into a stocking.

I'll be sure to report back once Lleyton makes it known what he might like to get for Christmas.  I am sure it will be just as entertaining. 

Santa paid us a visit, and we have proof.

What's the proof, you might ask..

A very strategically placed tray of flour that allowed us to trace Santa's steps through our house.

Last night as we were preparing for Santa's arrival, along with baking cookies for the man himself and his reindeer, we also placed that tray of flour right outside of our front door, as Santa's boots would most definitely be a little wet from the evening rain and the flour would stick perfectly to those size 13's.

The look of disbelief this morning on Parker's face when he saw the footprints was priceless.



Not only did Santa leave quite a few footprints, he also left presents for the boys, and by the looks of the tree, Santa must have decided that both boys were quite good this year.

This picture captured how excited Parker was, as he had been up since 5:45. We decided at 6:30 that we would wake Lleyton up to head downstairs, he is still a bit groggy here, but that wore off pretty quickly.



Here are a few highlights from the morning.

The excitement was building, as it was almost time to unwrap the presents from Santa.



Officer Lleyton



No offense to Max and Wendell, but Lleyton has a new favorite dog.



Wendell wasn't feeling very well today, as he is getting a little older, so the boys elected to take his present from Santa upstairs to him so that he could enjoy it.



We weren't sure if Santa was going to visit Baby Sister in Ethiopia or if he was going to bring her present to America. He elected to bring it here.



After all of the presents had been unwrapped, we were cleaning up a bit when Sara noticed that Santa Claus had left a letter for the boys.



Parker's excitement was palpable as I read the letter from Santa to he and Lleyton. He couldn't believe that Santa had written them.



Heads up on the roadways around Union, KY.



We had a very enjoyable first Christmas together as a family of 4. That's not to say it wasn't a very tiring day, but enjoyable nonetheless. No Christmas would be complete without a trip to Kokomo, so we spent all day on Christmas Eve visiting with Sara's family, and the boys handled themselves quite well.

At Grandma Susie and Poppa Don's house, the boys got to get in the Christmas spirit by giving Winnie the Pig the gift of apples.





Lleyton is a big fan of anything having to do with a kitchen and play food and drinks. Thus, Grandma Susie saw this apron and knew Lleyton had to have it.



And at Grandpa Paul and Grandma Monica's house, the boys got to help Grandma decorate a very festive Rice Crispie Treat.



Grandpa Paul has single handedly helped me accumulate quite the tool collection of the years, so in keeping with the tradition and passing it down a generation, the boys got a nice start on a tool collection of their own.





Hopefully this time next year I will be writing about our first Christmas as a family of 5. Our Christmas this year was great, but there was certainly a feeling that something was missing, as we can't ignore the fact that there is a beautiful baby girl a half a world away and in need of the love, attention, and care that we are so eager to provide.

Merry Christmas to all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We packed up the boys and headed over to Grammy and Pop's house this afternoon to spend some quality time with the family. All of my siblings and their children were in attendance, so there was non-stop action. Mother, once again, put together a wonderful meal. She tried out a new stuffing recipe, and in my opinion, it was a huge success (she makes a mean batch of stuffing, no matter what recipe). We spent a good portion of the afternoon outside staging our first family Turkey Bowl. I am glad to report no one came away injured. Here were the participants (Claire is not pictured, but she represented the girls very well).



After we wrapped up our game, we headed inside to prepare for our feast. I wish I could report that Parker tried a bunch of new foods and loved every one of them, but I can't. He remains pretty picky. He did enjoy the rolls, which I think he had six of, and he loved the pumpkin pie and ice cream. Lleyton picked his way through some ham, turkey, mac and cheese, and stuffing. He is fairly picky as well. They will grow out of that.

Here are Lleyton and Avery enjoying each other's company at the little people table.



As all of the festivities were slowing down and the adults were growing tired, the kids had a great idea about how to keep the fun going...a spontaneous dance party!



Lleyton and Parker both have great moves, as do their cousins. I just love the way in the next video that Lleyton can switch from a Patrick Swayze like slide move into an Elaine Benes like kick move in a matter of seconds.



We are very thankful to have such intelligent, funny, talented, adaptive, caring, affectionate, resilient, and strikingly handsome little guys.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 will always be the most memorable for us because it was our first Christmas together as a family. Last year, we were officially a family, it just happened that Lleyton lived in Russia and we lived in Kentucky.

With this being our first Christmas together, we made sure that we enjoyed each moment. It was a bit of a whirlwind for a few days, as we did the Ritzmann Family Christmas in Indianapolis on December 19th and 20th, and we did the McMain Family Christmas on Sunday, December 21st and Christmas Eve, both in Kokomo. Lleyton had a blast during each celebration. He loves playing with of his cousins anyway, but if you mix in showering him with gifts he seems to love that even more.

After the festivities in Kokomo on Christmas Eve, we hurried home so that we could begin our newest family traditions of decorating cookies for Santa, Lleyton opening up brand new Christmas pajamas, and setting our cookies and milk for Santa and his reindeer. Although our little man didn't really grasp this concept, Sara and I really enjoyed starting up our own traditions.

Upon waking up on Christmas morning, we informed Lleyton that from the looks of the living room, Santa was pretty happy with his behavior over the past year. We spent almost 3 hours opening up gifts, playing with our new toys, and eating our Christmas breakfast (overnight french toast casserole - delicious).

After laying his head down for a nap, Lleyton awoke to find that Grammy and Pop and Emily and Andy had come over to enjoy the feast that Sara and I (mostly Sara) had made for our first Christmas with our little man. Although he didn't eat much of the feast, I am sure he thought it was quite delicious. His mother is quite the cook.

Here are some pictures of the big festivities...