Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Last week, Grandma Pam came to visit. I helped her make Christmas cookies.

While Grandma was here, we celebrated an early Christmas. Here's our pretty tree. All the fancy ornaments are at the top, you'll notice. I thought that was a bit unfair.

And here's what Santa brought me! A cool kitchen and a cash register. I'm glad he had no hard feelings about our meeting at the mall.

Here's me on "Christmas morning" discovering my new toys

Grandma and Grandpa gave me a train set! With a remote control!

And here's the train all set up in my room. Calvin likes to sit on my dresser and watch the train go around.

Here's another toy I loved- a barn from Great-Grandma Maggie.

Daddy and I had colds and didn't feel so well. We had to take a break from all the excitement.

After our Christmas in Atlanta, we drove up to Virginia to visit with Grandpa George and celebrate Christmas on the 25th.

On Christmas Eve, Grandpa George read me "The Night Before Christmas" like he used to do for Mommy when she was little. The first few lines were very nice, but when I heard "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse," it reminded me that I should be up and stirring, so I ran around while he read the rest.

That night Santa came again! He brought a cool trailer for Mommy or Daddy's bike so I can go with them on bike rides. I also got tons of cool stuff from everyone else. Here I am in my Christmas pajamas having a good time.

I opened my presents and helped hand out the presents to everyone else.

While I was at Grandpa George's house, I had a lot of important jobs to do.

I had to move the ornaments around so they looked better-

I had to check all of the doors to make sure they were operating properly. And Grandpa George sure has a lot of doors!

I had to feed his dog, Winnie. Here I am mixing up some food and water for her:

And here I am sharing my peas with her:

Uncle Brian brought over his Wii games, so I spent a lot of time teaching everyone how to play. Here I'm showing Uncle Brian how to drum. I'm not sure why, but everyone kept insisting I use the drumstick only on the drum set. I had a ton of things I wanted to hit with the drumstick. But whatever...

Here I am showing Mommy how to "drive" on a different game.

We're back in Atlanta now, relaxing after our long drive. Thank you to everyone for all of the cool toys and gifts! Merry Christmas again!
Love,
Quinn

Dear Santa,

Dear Santa,
I would like to apologize for the recent incident at the mall. Attached is a picture of our meeting in case you don't remember which lovely angel I was. Mommy assures me you are a very nice man. However, I was in desperate need of a nap and not really up for a chat. Maybe we can get together next year.
Sincerely,
Quinn Park

P.S. I hope this won't affect my status on your list...

Great-Grandma Joy

Last week we went to Virginia to say good-bye to my Great-Grandma Joy. She passed away recently.

The only good thing about the trip was I all the great people I got to see. Great-Grandma Joy sure raised a nice family.

She was a fantastic lady and I loved her a lot. And boy did she love me! Sometimes I was all she talked about. She had a pillowcase with my picture on it and always kissed me goodnight. I know she'll be watching over me as I grow up so I'll try to be a good boy!

Day at the Zoo

Today we went to the zoo! We had some free tickets and decided to brave the cold weather.

Here are three meerkats cuddled up to show you how chilly it was:
We saw a ton of cool animals.

The most active were probably the pandas.

There was a cool playground next to the naked mole rat habitat. I had fun playing there until I stuck my mitten in a puddle of cold, muddy water in one of the tunnels.
In the reptile house, they had tons of snakes and turtles. My favorite exhibit was this coin donation funnel. (Sorry for the poor video quality, I changed the settings on Mommy's camera and didn't tell her.)

There was a petting zoo where we got up close and personal with some goats and sheep.

After the petting zoo, we rode the carousel. Since I don't like staying still for too long, I tried out a couple of different animals. Here I am riding an otter.

We also rode a little train around the children's area of the zoo. Surprisingly, I stayed still for this whole ride!

All in all, we had a great day at the zoo!

Talk to you later!

Q