Chasing down Santa Claus

I'm convinced that Santa Claus travels eastward. It's the only way he can make it work. I'm sure of it.

Now, as you know, I'm not a huge fan of the man in red. The beard, remember? But, I do know that he's the one who supplies the gifts on Christmas. Or at least some of them. And now I know that on Christmas Eve night, he travels east. How do I know? Because I travel east, too.

It would be impossible for me to list every detail of our Christmas trip to Tennessee, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. But we began with a visit to see Aunt Jane and Papaw. Then that night, when we got back to Nana's house, Santa had been there. Must've sneaked in while it was still daylight. So we tore into the presents. One thing he left me among MANY items was a Jack-in-the-Box ... awesome toy.

On Christmas, we headed east to Grammy's house. And what do you know -- Santa came before we got there. Told you he travels east. And that dude is impossible to catch. One thing he left me there was a red wagon ... pretty dang cool.

I got to see tons of people on this trip, and a lot of my people came to visit during my post-birthday party in Elizabethton. We just mingled and had a good time, especially with more birthday cake. I could get used to that stuff real easy. Wes and Nikki brought my buddy Julian to play, and we had a great time playing with plastic cups and riding in my wagon. We've planned to do that again soon.

As with all visits, this one was too short. But Santa was good to me (despite me not being too nice to him this season) and I got to catch up with some friends and family.

Alas, it's now time to reflect on 2008 and ring in 2009. But something tells me that I'll be snoozing away when that happens.

-- Hudson W. Pate

Merry Christmas!

So before I head home for Christmas, I had to blog one last time. But this one will be a quick one.

I've been doing well. As you know, over the Thanksgiving holiday I met Santa Claus for the first time. Weird dude. And then I saw him again! At school. And then I saw him a third time this past week at church. Uh ... I'm not a fan. Let's just get that clear. It's the white beard. I just don't trust a guy in a red suit with a white beard who hands out candy.

Most of you will see me within days. I just couldn't resist sharing a recipe with everyone. Nana was down to visit for my birthday, and she brought some treats with her -- Reindeer Poop.

Despite the name, it's soooo good. So I had some.

If your Christmas is as good as the Reindeer Poop, then I'm sure you'll have a blessed time. I love everyone, and let's wish a happy birthday to Jesus!

Hudson W. Pate

Party! It's fun being 1

Let's cut to the chase here: Friday was my first birthday. I'm 1 now. Can you believe that? I can't. We did it up right, too.

I got all dressed up for school Friday and was in a good mood all day -- I knew what day it was! Ms. Faith at school had a present waiting for me when I arrived (a cool Jeep outfit). Just don't tell my classmates. Mommy also took some cupcakes for me and all the kids at school -- had a great time partying.

Friday night I got to open a few presents. I got some really cool boxes with paper on them. Those were awesome. Mommy and Papa showed me how to tear the paper off and it was such a good toy. Kudos to whomever gives those gifts. Then I got a remote controlled car (it scared me at first!), a few books to add to my library, an awesome basketball goal and baseball batting practice tee. Great stuff.

Then we went to a party with some folks at church. It was nice seeing everyone. I knew it wasn't my party -- too many adults. But I made the most of it, hanging with the old people and making everybody laugh when I danced with the singing snowman (they think I don't know I'm on stage).

Overall, it was a solid birthday.

Saturday ... the day of the party. I really looked forward to this. Got up, played with papa and my new toys, then went to the church. Me and papa rode around for some man-to-man time while mommy and a few others did their thing ... then I fell asleep. Booooooring. But when I woke up ...

There were tons of people there. All these colors. Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. Orange (my favorite). Billy and Kailynn and Jake and Nati and Samantha and Caylee -- all my friends from church were there, and some friends from Mommy's work. Even got introduced to Mommy's friend's daughter Jena, who's nearly halfway to being a year old. Then there were all my adult friends from church. And we even had a special appearance by the M&M's guys (Bill, Johnny ... I knew it was you). It was awesome.

What did we do? Well, I walked around everywhere, pushed my car all over, some of my friends colored, then they played "Pin the M on the Candy" -- the adults played that, too. All kinds of fun.

The big highlight? CAKE.

Everybody sang "Happy Birthday" to me really loudly. Then we had a blue cake in front of me, and everybody was watching. I'm not sure what they were watching. Anyway, everybody was staring at me, so ... I dug in. At first, I didn't want to get messy, so I just stuck my finger in it. Man, it was sooooooooooo good. Thanks to Mary Ellen for making the cakes.

It was so good I put my whole hand in it. I don't know how you eat, but when I eat, I take my palm and make sure everything gets in my mouth. I did that with the cake, and blue got all over my face and hands. It felt really weird, so I squished a bunch in my fist.

What a cake. What a time. Ms. Amy and Ms. Kati whisked me off into the kitchen and stripped me down to clean me up (easy, ladies). So I got into my Nike jumpsuit and then helped clean up the Fellowship Hall.

I had such a good time with all my friends. What's cool is we collected tons of canned food items to donate to The Salvation Army. Instead of gifts, people brought that for donations.

Afterward, me, Mommy, Papa and Nana all went out to eat at Chili's and then went searching for Christmas Lights. It was fun for a while, but my tummy started hurting real bad and my congestion was getting to me. I was tired, and well, let's just write that one off as that -- we headed home in my new car seat (thanks Mommy and Papa, even though I got it messy the first time) and hit the hay.

Sunday I slept in a little (8 a.m.!!!), then got up and hung out with Nana and opened the presents she got me -- an awesome little puppy, some PJ's and the perfect sleeping quilt that she made.

Just like that, I'm 1. Hard to believe. One of my adult friends at the party made a comment to Papa, "Just think, this time next year you'll be celebrating the Terrible Twos." Papa emphatically shook his head no. I don't know what all that means, but if next year is anything like this one, I can't wait.

-- Hudson W. Pate

Thankful ... and ready to celebrate

OK, so I've been a little tired lately. As you know by now, I'm a walker. Even in the last week I've improved quite a bit in my balance and walking skills. Now I can go from the couch all the way to the front door ... AND turn around. Mommy and Papa laugh when I do that, but I think I'm pretty good at it.

I hope your Thanksgiving was enjoyable. Mine was. Grammy and Memaw and Paw came down, and I got to eat turkey and a few desserts, which by the way I really like. Bill and Marlene came over and brought Kailynn and Billy. We had a good time playing after we ate, and they gave me two of the best toys -- a desk and this toy that shoots balls up in the air. Love it.

I got a few other toys, too. At Babies R Us, we picked up a popcorn popper, which I walk behind, and a John Deere tractor that I can push or ride. I really like that one. It's joined my stable of two other cars that I push.

The day after Thanksgiving I went to visit Santa Claus at the mall. He was weird looking, with his long white beard and such. Oh well. To each his own.

Funniest thing of the week: I was trying to reach a toy in my toybox and BOOM -- I fell into the toybox. Everybody thought I was crying, but I wasn't. I was trying to get my toy. And, well, I got it. So I hung out in the toybox for about 30 minutes. It's cool in there.

Don't think I've forgotten. It's one week until my 1-year birthday. Hard to believe. My birthday is Friday the 12th, and my party is Saturday the 13th at church. I can't wait. One year. Amazing.

I'll report back on how the party goes. Until then ...
Hudson W. Pate

These boots were made for walkin'

I realize it's been a long time since I last posted a blog entry, but, well, I've been a little busy.

Busy walking!

It's true. Click on the play button on the video above. Mommy and Papa had been encouraging me to take some steps, and I took one or two steps on my own two weeks ago. But nothing more than that. So, after the teachers at school kept telling me the same things, I wanted to give it a try. I was so nervous. But I did it.

On Wednesday last week, I took off at school. Walked about six or seven steps. So I did it again. The teachers were going crazy, clapping and congratulating me. They even called Mommy at work to let her know what I had done for the day. And they turned on the recorder at the front desk and recorded me walking. When Papa and Uncle Matt came to pick me up, it was the first thing my teachers said. And they wanted me to show off to Papa, too. So I did. Took eight steps in a row all by myself.

So since then, I've been working hard on walking. I can take about eight to 10 steps in a row before I start losing my balance. What do you expect, you know?

But that's been my highlight of the week and I wanted to share with everyone. Meanwhile, I'm gearing up for Thanksgiving. I hear it's quite a good time -- and good eats.

Most of all, however, I'm thankful for God, Mommy and Papa and Macy, my family in Tennessee, my friends in Tennessee and Georgia and all over the country (some of which I've yet to meet), my buddies at school, bananas, playtime, cameras, blogs, formula, good food, laughs ... and I'm especially thankful for you.

Hudson W. Pate