The Zorio Family Christmas

The Zorio Family has been very busy celebrating Christmas this entire month!
December 10th we attended our Sunday School Christmas party which was a lot of fun! We had childcare at one house and the adults had their party at another house nearby. Dawson got to have some fun playing with all of his friends while we had fun at the adult party.
The following day, December 11th, Dawson's Nana and Grandad (John's parents) came in town. It was great to have them at our house for a visit, and Dawson loved getting to spend time with them. That afternoon was Dawson's friend, Jude's 2nd Birthday Party. Nana, Dawson, and I went to the party. Dawson had a blast! The party was themed after Jude's favorite toy-lawn mowers, and there were several mowers there for children to play with. Dawson loved pushing all of the mowers, playing with the other children, and exploring all of Jude's toys!
Then that evening Nana and Grandad took care of Dawson for us so we could participate in our Small Group Christmas Party. Each year we have done a progressive dinner which we call our "tour de Christmas." This was our 4th annual Tour de Christmas with our small group. We had a great time, and got to eat a lot of tasty food. This year our house was first which means appetizers! We served ham roll ups (ham rolled with cream cheese with an olive on top), shaved fillet with bearnaise sauce, bruschetta, hot crab dip, and spinach stuffed mushrooms.
We got to spend a little more time with John's parents on Sunday before they had to head back to Tennessee. Not long after they left, it started snowing! This was our first snow of the year but not our last!
The next weekend, December 18th, I baked Christmas cookies and attended the annual Christmas Cookie Exchange at the Kokan's house. I love baking and decorating cookies, so preparing for the party was fun. Then I got to come home with three dozen or so cookies to share and some new recipes.
Since we stayed in Huntsville for Thanksgiving we decided to spend this Christmas in Tennessee unlike last year. This meant that we got to celebrate Christmas at our house early!! Santa even visited Dawson early...how convenient! :)
John took off work the entire week before Christmas was was wonderful! He has been so busy at work recently that it was nice to have some down time. We celebrated our Christmas Eve on Monday evening the 20th. This meant that opened our Christmas Eve gift of pjs! After opening our pjs and eating a yummy roast for dinner we make hot chocolate (Dawson got milk), and loaded in the car to go to the Botanical Gardens. This was our 2nd year driving through the Huntsville Botanical Garden's Galaxy of Lights, and we had a great time again! With tradition we rode in our pjs with our hot chocolate, and even Bentley got to come with us again. This year, unlike last year, Dawson stayed awake the entire time.
The following day, Tuesday the 21st we celebrated our Christmas. We had a great time exchanging gifts and watching Dawson enjoy his new toys! Bentley saw her new doggie bed from Santa under the tree and ran right in and laid on it. When Dawson saw his Power Wheels from Santa, he too knew just what to do (at first, that is!). He ran in and swung his leg over the seat to ride. Then he pushed the red GO button and was terrified when it jerked into motion! Now, a week later he has finally warmed up to the Power Wheels and enjoys riding it. It goes 2mph! He looks like a big kid riding it too! We had a wonderful Christmas at our house.
Wednesday morning we loaded the Jeep and drove to Tennessee to visit and celebrate Christmas with our families. On Thursday Dawson got to ride the train at Foothills Mall with his Nana. He was a little afraid at first, but I think he had fun after he got used to it! While we were there John managed to squeeze in a Tennessee Basketball Game with is Dad. They had a great time at the game. While they were at the game, Dawson got to do some special activities his Lolly had planned for him. They decorated a sweet little tree. It was really cute, and I will try to describe it since I didn't get a picture. It was like a stuffed animal that is a Christmas tree and about 2 feet tall. It had big buttons that you hung the ornaments from. The ornaments were also stuffed and were of angels, wise men, animals, etc. The other activity she had for Dawson was to decorate a magnetic Christmas tree on the fridge. Dawson had fun at Lolly and Pop's house with the activities, but his favorite thing turned out to be exploring their stairs! (Thank goodness our house is all on one level!)
We spent the first two nights in Tennessee with John's parents. They had set up a great area for us upstairs where Dawson even had his own room. It was wonderful!
On Christmas Eve for lunch we got together with John's Mom's side of the family. We ate a delicious meal and then exchanged gifts since we had drawn names earlier in the year. Dawson got up from his nap just in time to open a few gifts and play with Jared and Zachary, his 1st cousins once removed.
On Christmas Eve night, we celebrated with my Dad's side of the family in Knoxville. We played Dirty Santa which was a lot of fun, as always! Part of the fun is that usually all of the gifts are really good, everyone steals-no one is off limits, and there are about 20 people who participate. John and I were very pleased as we came away from the game with an AmEx gift card and an 8-cup food processor! I was excited to see everyone, but I was especially excited for Dawson to see Corbin, his 2nd cousin. They are exactly 2 months and 1 day apart, and Corbin is older. Since he lives in Knoxville, they rarely get to see each other. They got to see each other once when Dawson was 2 weeks old and Corbin was 2 months and then again when Dawson was 6 months and Corbin 8 months. They interacted some, and it was funny to watch them together.
We spent the last two nights at my parents house, so we woke up there Christmas morning to a blanket of beautiful snow! What a wonderful way to wake up on Christmas! Dawson, John, my brother Logan, Mom, Dad, and I exchanged gifts on Christmas morning. Dawson got a train table from his Lolly and Pop which he LOVES! After exchanging gifts and eating a yummy breakfast we headed next door to exchange gifts with Jeannie and have some wassel.
Then we drove in the snow over to John's parents house where we exchanged gifts with Dawson's Nana, Grandad, Aunt Em, and Cousin Drew. Dawson loved all of his gifts! John, Grandad, and Drew had a snowball fight which Dawson cautiously watched out the window.
After this we still had one more Christmas celebration (that's right and it wasn't even 1pm on Christmas day yet!). We headed back over to my parents house where we celebrated with my Mom's side of the family. I think we counted and there were 23 people there. Unfortunately, Dawson was worn out and slept almost the entire time! It was great to get to see everyone, especially Mamaw.
We relaxed the rest of Christmas afternoon, and then Lolly and Pop watched Dawson so that John and I could have a Christmas date! We went to the movies to see the new Meet the Parents movie (that's right, I'm not typing the name of it on our blog! hah). It was hilarious and just as good as the first two! It was nice to have a little time out to ourselves.
Sunday was our planned travel day, but when we woke up we saw that it was still snowing and had been for over 24 hours. We thought we were going to end up extending our stay (our families were very excited about this!), but it started warming up around noon. Around 1pm we got on the road and had a safe trip back to Alabama. We were surprised that we even had a couple of inches of snow on the ground here at our house and a few major roads were still closed when we got back in town. Although Huntsville didn't get as much snow as Maryville, I think we lack equipment to take care of the roads when we do have winter weather which is why it's more treacherous here. We were packed in the car coming home, but thankful there were a lot of new toys in the car that kept Dawson entertained almost the whole trip.
We are settled back in at home now and we're back to reality after a wonderful Christmas and trip to Tennessee visiting family. It was so wonderful to see everyone. Enjoy the pictures below. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and we wish you a very Happy New Year!

Above: Christmas morning at Lolly and Pop's house.


Above: Dawson playing with a toy at Jude's
birthday party.

Above: Dawson and his friend Caleb at Jude's party.

Above: Our table of appetizers for Tour de Christmas.

Above: John and I before our Christmas Party.

Above: One more picture before the guests arrive.

Above: John and Dawson in early December

when the snowflakes started falling for the

first time this year.

Above: A few of the Christmas cookies I baked and decorated

to take to the Cookie Exchange.

Above: Dawson being silly at the table during

morning snack.

Above: Dawson in front of our Christmas tree

before Church.

Above: My two guys before church.

Above: Our Christmas tree.

Above: Dawson with the Christmas Eve gift.

Above: John showing Dawson how to open his gift.

Above: Dawson modeling his Christmas Eve

PJ's. I continued the tradition of getting him

pjs with a matching hat...I couldn't resist!

Above: Mommy and Dawson in the car in our PJs going

through the Botanical Garden Galaxy of Lights.

Above: Bentley checking out the lights at

the Botanical Garden.

Above: She was very interested.

Above: John driving us through the Galaxy of Lights.

Above: Christmas morning-Dawson running

in the living room to check out his gifts.

Above: Santa had Dawson's power wheels

all charged up and ready to ride. Dawson knew just

what to do. He ran in and hopped right on it!

Above: The tower of blocks waiting for Dawson beside the tree!

Above: Santa brought Bentley a new bed.

She ran right in and jumped on it!

Above: John reading Dawson one of the books

we got him for Christmas.

Above: Even thought it was really cold,

we let Dawson ride his Power Wheels

outside for a few minutes!

Above: John teaching Dawson.

Above: Dawson decorating the magnetic tree

with Lolly.

Above: Dawson and Corbin ringing the bells on Christmas Eve.

Above: Josie (Dawson's 1st cousin once removed)

got this very life-like cat as a gift on Christmas Eve.

Dawson loved it and kept sneaking it away from her!

Above: Dawson and Corbin eating a snack.

Above: Dawson checking out his train table

from Lolly and Pop on Christmas morning.

Above: My dad and brother on Christmas morning.

Above: Dawson and Grandad on Christmas morning.

Above: Dawson riding Cousin Drew's snow sled in the house

while eating a snack on Christmas morning.

Above: I love this picture of Dawson. He is

watching his Daddy, Cousin Drew, and Grandad

have a snowball fight on Christmas morning.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Zorio house! The inside and outside are completely decorated, and Dawson is loving every bit of the decorations! His favorite things are the outside Christmas lights, our Christmas tree, and our nutcrackers. He tries to say "nutcracker" and it comes out sounding like "cra...ker." I'm sure this is somewhat confusing to him when we hand him a Ritz and call it a cracker, so hopefully he will start saying all of the word "Nutcracker" before long!

Last weekend we got to go see Santa. Dawson was not afraid at all; in fact, he enjoyed seeing Santa and talking to him. Santa was great, and he even got down on the floor to play with Dawson for a minute. This is the same Santa that John and I had our picture taken with when I was pregnant with Dawson in 2008 and last year when Dawson was 6.5 months old.

This week Dawson had Jude (2 years) and his brother Jasper (4 months) over for a playdate. Dawson had fun playing with his friend, Jude, while Jude's mom, Blakeley and I chatted. Dawson's favorite thing about playing with Jude (other than trying to eat all of Jude's animal crackers) was when they played in the tent together. Dawson's tent that connects his two tunnels has recently become a new favorite toy, again. John started the game of chasing Dawson around the tent, which Dawson loves. Today though, Dawson and Jude just had fun going in and out of the tent together.

Last week Dawson's friend Connor (26 months) came over to play. Their favorite thing to do together was push the vacuum around and play with the Cozy Coupe. Dawson also enjoyed trying to eat all of Connor's goldfish snacks. You would think we never fed him! :) We even had both goldfish and animal crackers at our house, but I guess they are more appetizing when another kid is snacking on them.

A new very special treat Dawson got to try this week was a sucker. We had a couple of the Dum-Dum kind left over from Halloween, and we allowed Dawson to sit in his highchair and have one. He LOVED it. He did very well not to get too sticky. When his hands did get sticky, he would reach them out to me to wipe off! :) This was a special treat we used to try to make him a little happier two times this week. He is cutting his upper canine teeth, and he was a little fussy from this a couple of days this week.

We have been continuing our Christmas Crafts some of which aren't so much actual crafts as activities, but Dawson still LOVES it. Today's activity was making red and green cup cakes. Dawson has never helped me cook before, so today was the first time. He loved everything about it. I folded up one of my aprons and let him wear it. He was so upset when I had to make him take it off at bathtime that he cried...poor guy! I let him help me pour in the ingredients and then use a whisk to mix everything together. He loved stirring the batter. After they were finished he (somewhat) helped me frost them. For this part I held his hand and moved it where it needed to go to frost the cupcakes. He didn't care though, he thought this was SO fun! I regret that I haven't let him cook any sooner, but I think he's just now getting to the age where this is fun for him. We had a few messes, but it was totally worth the clean up time after he went to bed just to see how happy he was. Another one of his favorite parts of cooking was the timer. I think I've mentioned before that Dawson has an obsession with clocks and he has since June. He points them out EVERYWHERE! Our timer looks like a little clock, and I let him hold it. He loved listening to it tick and talking about the clock for the entire 18 minutes the cupcakes were in the oven. :)

Another Christmas activity we did this week was in the bathtub. We've talked about how Santa has a big white beard and Dawson will point to his beard in pictures. During bathtime, I filled the tub with bubbles, and we used the bubbles to make a white, fluffy beard. Dawson had more fun playing in the bubbles than when I put them on his face...he did get a kick out of the beard I made for myself though! :)

It seems like Dawson's vocabulary and thought process have suddenly advanced again. A few days ago we were all in the kitchen finishing dinner when John got up to go to the bedroom to get Bentley. Dawson was very upset that John left the room, and he started yelling for John. First he just said, "DAD! DAD! .....DAD!....DAD??" Then he strung together the most words I've heard him use together when he said, "DAD, DAD, COME BACK!! DAD BACK!" Of course, John came quickly after hearing Dawson say all of this! :)

Last weekend John was trying to share a few bites of breakfast with Dawson, and Dawson was having none of that. Dawson looked at the food and said a new word: "gross." It sounded more like "Grssss." I know he meant gross because after he said that he pointed to the food again and said, "shooooo" which is what he says about used diapers, socks, and trash. I didn't realize that I do say gross quiet frequently, and so I guess he picked this up from me! hah!

Well, that's about it for the Zorio Family Update for the past couple of weeks. Enjoy the pictures below...they should be even better resolution than before because we have a new camera! As part of our Christmas gifts for each other John and I decided it was time to get rid of our 5megapixel camera and upgrade. It was hard to get rid of the old camera because we bought it when we were dating, and it was our first joint purchase! That camera went everywhere-tons of football games(home and away), John's graduation, my graduation, Dawson's birth, our honeymoon, wedding showers, baby showers, etc. It was time for an upgrade though, and we're happy with our new camera! Enjoy the clearer-than-before pictures below! :)

Above: Our Family with Santa. December 2010

Dawson 18.5 months.

Above: Our family with the same Santa last year.

Christmas 2009.

Dawson 6.5 months.

Above: Our family

with Santa. Christmas 2008.

4 months pregnant with Dawson.

Above: Dawson and Connor playing with

all of the toys they got out!

Above: Dawson and Connor playing with the

Cozy Coupe.

Above: Dawson reading in his diaper!

Above: Dawson with Santa.

Above: I love this picture because it looks like

Santa is telling Dawson that he's on the naughty

list or something serious! :) Dawson is of course

on the "nice" list!

Above: Dawson playing with Santa.

Above: Singing Christmas Carols in the car on the

way to see Santa.

Above: Our tree. Since most people won't be able to come

visit Christmas I thought I would share some pictures

of our home at Christmas.

Above: The stocking hanging on the fire place

because I am afraid to hang them on the mantle

in case Dawson pulls them down I wouldn't want

the stocking holder/weight to fall on him. Dawson

likes having the stockings at his level so he can touch

and look at them.

Above: A view from the kitchen table looking

under the kissing ball in the doorway and toward

our tree. The kissing ball we bought in Miami in 2009,

and it is like mistletoe but a kissing ball. When we tried

to fly the kissing ball back to Alabama after our vacation

it almost didn't make it through security, apparently it showed

up as suspicious in our carry-on when they inspected it!

Above: Our Nutcrackers on top of the armoire with

trimmings from our evergreen trees outside. Our

nativity scene on the table that Dawson loves to look at.

Above: More Nutcrackers in the entryway.

There are also nutcrackers in the bathrooms and

the master bedroom that Dawson loves to find and

point out to me!

Above: This is hanging outside our front door.

The stocking is filled with clippings from our

evergreens and from our holly bush.

Above: Our outside lights and wreaths.

Above: Dawson playing in the tent with his

friend Jude.

Above: More fun in the tent!

Above: Dawson eating a sucker!

Above: Dawson looking like Rock-a-doodle

after getting some sticky sucker in his hair!

Above: Dawson's very first time helping me cook!

Above: Dawson kept doing this to listen to the timer

ticking! Silly boy!

Above: He was SO excited to be helping.

Above: He couldn't quit watching the cupcakes

in the oven. He loved every bit of cooking!

Above: My proud baker!

Above: Playing with the bubbles we used to make Santa Beards!

(P.S. AT, If you look at this blog update, the toy in his hand are the bath squirters

that you and Jeff gave him. Dawson LOVES these! His favorite thing

to do with them is squirt me!) :)

Above: Dawson showing me the bubbles in his hand we

are going to use to make a Santa beard.

Above: Dawson was not too happy when I made him

Santa hair. Poor boy. He got over it quickly after

I put a bubble, Santa beard on my face!

Above: This picture is totally random. John has been asking me to

make a Pot Pie FOREVER! I haven't had a pot pie in a long, long time.

The last time I had one though I remembered not liking it, so I finally gave

in a made one...guess what, I liked it. Anyways, I felt like it turned out

pretty well so I took a picture. John was happy, and who knows, I might

make another sometime soon.

Time for Turkey and Birthday Cake!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This year John's job required that he work Thanksgiving so we stayed in Alabama for the holiday. Since John did not have to be at work until the afternoon though, we had a little Thanksgiving dinner of our own for lunch. I knew it would just be myself, John, and Dawson eating, I decided to make a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey. This was great because we still had days of leftovers, but we didn't have so many that we got sick of turkey! I also made broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy (for John), and stuffing. We set the table with our china to make it a special lunch! This was Dawson's first time eating on china so I'll have to remember that one for the baby book (haha!). We relaxed in the morning and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while playing with Dawson, and then we ate our meal before John went to work.
That evening for dinner some of our wonderful friends, the Perez family, invited Dawson and me over to eat Thanksgiving dinner with their family since they knew John was working. They had a feast which was delicious, but Dawson decided he was only interested in eating the yummy homemade rolls (silly boy!). They have a cat named Polly that Dawson was obsessed with while we were there. Luckily, Polly was very patient with Dawson! We had fun visiting and celebrating Thanksgiving when our friends!
John took a vacation day from work on Friday because it was my 25th birthday! We celebrated by doing some shopping. Even though it was Black Friday, we didn't get up and do any early shopping. I'm not getting up early on my birthday, especially when Dawson gave me a super-rare and wonderful birthday gift--he slept until around 8:30!!! (This NEVER happens!!!!) We waited until around 9:30 before venturing out into the crowds. John got a Caramel Cheese Cake for my birthday cake this year and, of course, it had pink candles! It was so tasty! We spent the rest of the day playing with Dawson which was my very favorite thing to do on my birthday. :) After Dawson went to bed our (again) wonderful friends the Perezs offered to listen for Dawson so that John and I could see a late movie. It was great to have a date on my birthday, since our last date had been when we were in Florida about two months ago. John said the movie was my choice, so we saw "Love and Other Drugs" which is a chick flick, but was good...John even said so. I had a wonderful 25th birthday spending it with my two favorite guys!
We spent the rest of the weekend Christmas shopping (we're almost completely finished! yay!), relaxing, playing with Dawson, of course, and decorating our house. We now have the entire inside of our house decorated (pictures to come in the next blog update), and we have about half of our lights up outside. Dawson LOVES LOVES LOVES all of the Christmas decorations. He loves the tree. We ended up putting all of our breakable (aka all of the pretty) ornaments on the top half of the tree out of Dawson's reach, and he's doing fair with staying out of the tree...it's just SO tempting. Our nativity scene is also of great interest to Dawson. If asked he can point to the wise men, Mary, Baby Jesus, Joseph, the sheep (he points to it and says BAAAA), and most of the time the donkey (which John keeps confusing him on by calling it a "burro" which is Spanish for donkey...I don't know why...haha). We also do the Elf on the Shelf tradition, and Dawson loves pointing out his elf, Charlie. I will have more about Charlie the Elf on the Shelf in another blog after I take a picture of the elf. I think Dawson thinks all of the decorations are just for him. He gets so excited every time he sees our tree. I think it's so sweet!
Last week Dawson started LOVING to give kisses which is wonderful! On Wednesday night he also looked at me as I was putting him in his crib and said very clearly, "good night!" Then he burst in giggles. This was the first time he had said "good night," and I was thrilled.
Dawson really loves coloring these days, so I decided we would do a craft each day December 1-25 and have 25 Days of Christmas Crafts. A lot of the ones I have come up with are super simple, just coloring sheets, but some are a little more involved. Today was our first craft and we colored and glued cotton balls on a snowman. I have posted a picture below. He was more interested in putting glue all over the page than he was coloring or putting cotton on the glue. He now knows the word "glue" as he was saying it over and over "glue, glue, glue, GLUE, GLUE, GLUE!" because he wanted to only put glue on the page. Silly boy!
Enjoy the pictures below, and look for another update soon because we are going to see Santa this weekend and I am going to take pictures of Dawson with his Elf on the Shelf and our decorations hopefully!

Above: Dawson & Mommy before eating our Thanksgiving

meal at our house!
Above: Preparing our meal.

Above: Our Thanksgiving Table.

Above: My birthday cheesecake...so yummy!

Good job, John!

Above: Presents and cake with candles lit....and my favorite

part of this picture: the lower left corner...you can see Dawson's

sweet little hand. He was peering up at the candles.

Above: One of the many silly faces of Dawson.

Above: Dawson has a renewed interest in his

tunnels and play hut. John and Dawson play

in the hut connecting the two tunnels.

Above: It was so nice and warm on Thanksgiving, but

by Sunday it was FREEZING cold. This is Dawson on our

way to church. The way he was packed in his carseat with

his fluffy church coat on it made him look like an Eskimo.

Eskimo Dawson decided to point at me while I took a picture.

Above: Dawson now has a good amount of

hair...enough to make stand up with static!

He thought this was hilarious!

Static hair Dawson!

Above: Dawson loves to share with Bentley!

Above: John, Dawson, and Bentley playing in the living room.

(Bentley looks funny because her ears are laying back.)

Above: Since Bentley looked funny in the last picture,

I tried to take one more. Then Dawson got silly!

Above: The Thanksgiving coloring sheet I

printed for Dawson. He was only slightly interested in coloring

with the parade on tv.

Above: Our first of the 25 Days of Christmas

Crafts is hanging on the fridge!