On New Year’s Day we got together with Kate’s side of the family. This year Kate’s cousin Ed and his family joined us. Ed’s daughter Vienna dressed Declan as Santa.

Nana T. and her fancy, flashing, flamingo necklace.

Lisa and Santa.

Ed’s youngest daughter Raisse with Noah.

Noah’s new tent!

Superwoman®

Cousin Michelle helping Noah get ready for the ride home.

Especially on Christmas Day!

Noah opening everything in his path.

Including a stuffed falcon…

…and his first snowboard!!

…and a horse cake that he asked Aunt Mindy for over Thanksgiving.

Friendly dogs.

Gear testing.

Later, at Uncle Wayne and Aunt Patty’s.

Back at Nana and Grampa’s house, two little monkeys jumping on the bed.

Jaycee!

Celebrating Nana Holts birthday.

Winding down.

A stop for lunch on our way up to NH the day before Christmas.

Made it.

Noah dj’s our trip to see Nina and Jasper.

Leaving cookies out for Santa back at my parents house.

“We said for Santa!” (fake cries)

(HAPPY NEW YEAR!)

In real-life, this cool horse ornament is in focus.

Noah showing off his new spelling app.

Xmas photos coming soon!

(note – Not my best photos, I took the seat of a proud parent for this)

First up, the lil’, lil’ ones.

Proud parents everywhere.

The second group (the 2 year olds) kind of fell apart.

Intermission. Twin violinist, the daughter’s of Ms. Shameka who works in the office.

Next up, Noah’s class.

Group song.

The girls were snowflakes.

The boys were elves.

Noah cheesing at us.

His well practiced bow.

A quick vid of the elves performance.

They closed it out with the big kids (4 year olds).

Noah was proud of himself, or maybe he was proud of the red turtleneck he had to wear. Either way, he was happy to see us.

Eric and Laura came over to help too (i.e. show us what to do).

Decorate one, eat three… surprised?

Derbs after a fight with some pasta.

Drunk snowmen.

Tis’ the season.

Then we met up with this girl…

…and Nana and Opa for a trip into the city to see Santa.

The sun was bright and the line was long..

But we made it inside right before Santa took a break.

Derbs!

This was Noah’s 4th year visiting Santa at ABC, the excitement showed on his face.

Faker.

Then, a little something for me.

This might be the year…

My own tradition is to take a photo of the lightbulbs against a blue sky.

Noah pointing out that I don’t have to carry the tree home, they will deliver.

What’s with kids and crust?

Detangled.

The tree isn’t photo ready yet. Maybe soon, hopefully before we take it down.

Lil’ dude didn’t want to be left behind.

After lunch, roaming the empty hospital.

Noah as comic relief.

Zoo!

Sea lion feeding brings em’ out.

Cold walk home.

Tseday and Sienna started things off.

Alex and Logan.

“Big Old Tree”

Making a leaf mess.

Making a game of picking up the leaf mess.

Kate and Ms. Aransas wanted in on the action.

Audience Participation.

Interpretive dancing.

Logan went for it and almost did a flip but ended up landing on his noggin. Excitement is dangerous.

Hard to really appreciate without a video though right? Well, thank Kate.

Savannah was so excited to see us that she ran around the corner and fell.

In Savannah’s building people just left buckets of candy outside their door. Some people poke their heads out when they hear us outside, but mostly it was a free for all.

Of course, some people smartly left instructions.

Derbs when as Gwyneth Paltrow’s kid… Apple (I got bad jokes for days).

Maxine went as Supergirl.

Amelia

Tragedy struck when Noah’s bag busted.

Then Savannah wrecked again.

Seamus kept it together, even if he took off his costume.

Them girls…

The last raid before we went back to our building.

As we walked up to our apartment, Alexa on the first floor came out eager to give Noah a treat, and as we thanked her Honey came out of her apartment asking us to knock on her door.

Honey had an entire basket just for Noah.

Filled with amazing things like whoopee cushions.

And 3-d Glasses.

Honey even had tricks for Kate and I.

So sweet. Thanks Honey! And thanks to Andy and Aransas for inviting us to trick or treat with them.

Noah’s costume of choice for this “occupation”: a parrot to represent the colorful lies of the 1%.

Send in the dragons first, to intimidate.

Then show ‘em our strength in numbers!

See how nervous the “suits” are?

The “fall” of big business (I’m guessing).

Logan

Laila and her mom

Dr. Noah C.

Can’t let the man keep us down with crowded elevators.

Admit it, you don’t read my captions.

Back to the class to celebrate our success.

Nooria

Back in our apartment, taking stock of our loot.

…until… (to be continued)

The siren is still a hit.

Once Noah said “hi”, the costume came off and he ran to play in the sand.

Mr. T pitied the fool that put Noah in a costume.

A spider (Miles) and Chris.

Ed Grimley.

Chris’ back up/backwards costume.

Tim and Ladonna had all these games for the kids to play. Like this eating a donut on a string with no hands game.

I witnessed cheating.

Then a game where everyone became mummies.

Even Chris and his friend got into it.

Then there was a witches broom race.

Refreshments.

“Trick or treating”.

Cake time.

Cupcake decorating.

Face stuffing.

Noah’s cupcake.

Saying “bye” through a sugar coma.

Thanks for inviting us Tim and Ladonna!