Christmas in Arizona

As promised, the Christmas pictures! Benjamin figured out pretty quickly that the point of Christmas was tearing paper off packages. He loved to rip and stick it in his mouth. Of course, no interest in what was inside! He just wanted to eat the pretty paper. So our present-opening routine looked like this. Benjamin tears off some paper and starts eating it:

Mama takes the paper away so he has to pull another piece off. This is repeated until the present is unwrapped, at which point he gets to play with the paper until it looks like he will actually ingest it.
When he gets another present we do this again. After some forgotten number of presents, Ben got too tired and frustrated to continue, so we left a few of his presents for later.

He really likes his Hawaiian fish blanket, thanks go to Aunt Ellen, Jamie, and Mom!
Cousin Brandon spent quite a bit of time with us. He was very interested in Ben, so he was always standing around watching what Ben was doing. But Brandon didn't quite know what to do with Ben, so he only ever watched:
Here is Brandon showing off his new machines to his aunt. Brandon loves all kinds of trucks and machines. Guess he gets it from his daddy (and grandpa, and great-grandpa!)Here he is using the loader to put a car in his dump truck:
We really enjoyed our time in Arizona. My entire family was there for Christmas, so Ben loved being the center of attention. He'll have to enjoy it while it lasts, since he'll have a new little cousin soon!