Christmas Part II: The Tropical Edition

Eric claims that by mentioning our Tampa Christmas in our posts that I somehow promised a blog post on our tropical Christmas. I don't believe him. But, since we did spend a lovely 5 days avoiding the cold-even-for-winter weather, I suppose a post isn't such a bad idea. We started things out with our 2.5 hour plane ride which only involved about 15 minutes of unhappy baby time. Not bad. Upon arrival at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Ryan discovered what would become the most exciting toy of the weekend, a slide! His cousin Meredith (two months older) had already mastered the fine skill of sliding, so was happy to show Ryan how to do it. Ryan was delighted as there aren't too many toys that are better than slides, and being the little scientist that he is, he had to experiment with the slide. This led to the discovery that that toys going down the slide are even more entertaining than Ryan going down the slide (pictures and video will be coming soonish on our pictures page)! I was impressed over the whole weekend with how well Ryan and Meredith played together. They were quite happy to take turns on the slide and with the toys - the only moment of contempt followed the opening of the stockings when the chapstick tubes (which neither of them got in their own stockings) were the hot ticket item. Now we know for next year :). Most of the weekend was spent hanging out with our family(who is all very cool), so that was pretty fun. We also got to meet Cynthia's boyfriend Brian for the first time. It turns out that he is pretty good at putting together the annual Christmas puzzle and knows how to relax in a hot tub, so I deem him a keeper for whatever that's worth. The trip ended with a pretty quick plane trip home, and Ryan slept almost the entire way (hooray!). We came home with our suitcases stuffed with all sorts of new toys and goodies, but the best part was the big container of homemade Christmas cookies...mmmm...Merry end to Christmas!