Over too soon

Christmas break has come to a close here in the Dougherty household. Joseph goes back to school tomorrow, which means Jake and I are going to brave this bitter cold (we're talking highs of -5) by keeping ourselves nice and warm inside and breaking in all the new Christmas toys!

We had a wonderful Christmas break, filled with everything that Christmas should be filled with: family, good friends, fun memories, and lots and lots of holiday treats!

This year we decided to stay in Iowa and spend Christmas with Joseph's parents, his sister Elizabeth and her girls, and sister Becca, all who came into town for the holidays. Joseph had to study for his boards that he took over the break, so we weren't able to spend as much time with them as we would have liked, but the time that we had together was perfect. Jake had so much fun with his cousins, especially Bridget (who is affectionately called Birdie). When we left he kept asking for "Rie-rie."

Christmas day was full of excitement. This year Jake started to get the idea of unwrapping gifts, and once he realized that we weren't going to scold him for ripping paper, he really went to town. At first I think he was a little confused at why we would wrap paper around pajamas. He really wasn't too thrilled about this one...The next gift he opened was a different story. Cars...now that's better. You can tell that he loves them because he won't even look up for a picture. His cousin Birdie is blocking most of the cars, but he got a whole case of them! He's been playing with cars nonstop all week.

Joseph spent most of his free time over break studying for his boards. He took some time off for Christmas festivities, but we were pretty anxious for him to be done. A few days after Christmas he took the boards, and Jake and I stayed home and made him a giant cookie to surprise him with when he got back. Well...mostly I made the cookie and Jake helped clean up the utensils.

Sorry, no pic of the cookie. Although, I must say, it was a masterpiece. Complete with frosting scrubs and teeth. Not bad for a novice, eh?

The day after Joseph's boards, we went to Moline, IL with some friends to the John Deere pavillion! Moline is the corporate headquaters for John Deere, and this place was tractor heaven for Jake. The pavillion was filled with all kinds of different tractors that the kids can play on and "drive" and see everything up close. It's a sort of interactive John Deere museum. The best part was that it's totally free!

Here are Joseph and Jake in a giant tractor. They had price tags on each of the tractors, so if any of you are in the market for a new John Deere, you can purchase this one for a mere 1/2 million!!

Jake was pretty much too enthralled to stop and look for any pictures. Driving the tractor.Checking out the monstrous wheels.We had a great time! A new era of tractor obsession has officially begun.We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday break. Or, for those of you who are lucky enough to still be off of school or work, live it up a little bit more for us who are back to the grindstone. :)