Christmas 2014

Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year! This past couple of weeks has been so jam packed with holiday parties, bowl games, and traveling that I'm just now finding a minute to sit down and do a Christmas recap...






Kicking off the holiday festivities was a trip to the children's service at church. As is usually the case during the Christmas season, the sanctuary was bursting at the seams. T had dropped C & I off at the door due to the frigid weather, and by the time he was able to find us again, I think the service was about halfway over! Luckily, someone recognized him, and had seen C & I sit down so was able to point T in the right direction. C did pretty good throughout (minus the singing of Angels We Have Heard On High...he's not a fan of 'in excelcis deo' during which he shed a few frightened tears), and was particularly fascinated by the children's skit, candlelight, and watching all of the people with sparkly Christmas sweaters.





After church, C got to open his gift from Santa; a few new storybooks (including I Am A Big Dinosaur by Francois Crozat - a new favorite after reading and re-reading it many times this past week!), a skwish stix ball, T-Rex PJs, and a new dinosaur stuffed animal from Jellycat. As you can see from the above pictures, he was really excited about the new books and ball, and had great fun trying to eat the shiny wrapping paper.



Christmas Eve with T's family got off to a late start after T left half of the gifts at home and had to turn around and go back to our house after dropping C and I off at his parents. I was so busy worrying about getting C all packed up and not leaving important things like diapers, suitcases, or babies at home, that I wrongly assumed that T had the gifts covered. I think we may need to make a checklist to hang by the door before the next holiday comes around so we don't forget the essentials...





 We were worried about the lateness of the evening and keeping C up past bedtime,
but after an initial meltdown - and a contest between C & the dog on who could scare each other more (one barks then the other cries or vise versa) - he enjoyed a meal, got into PJs, and his temperament shifted. He was perfectly happy to help unwrap the shiny gifts and stay up late as long as he got to be the center of attention.






Christmas Day was spent in my hometown surrounded by family at both my parents, and later with extended family at my grandparents. C was short on sleep from the late night on Christmas Eve, so ended up sleeping through most of the opening of gifts at my parents. Between nine adults and two babies, we had to stop several times so someone (adults included) could nap, get some food, or have a show-and-tell with whatever gift had been most recently opened. Ultimately, the day was pure chaos, and we loved every minute.













C had so much fun playing and roughhousing with his Grandpa, Uncles, and Cousin J, that I think he is still going through withdrawals now that we are back to our usual day-to-day routine without all of the commotion to keep him busy!


Later Christmas Day, we headed over to my Grandparents for an extended family Christmas. They had been in Florida enjoying the nice warm weather for about a month already, so it was nice that everyone was able to convene back in Iowa for Christmas Day. So much fun catching up! It was C's first trip to 'The Greats' house (he's been around them many times, but for some reason, never been to their main house until Christmas) and he had fun taking in all of the new scenery and rooms to explore.



Rounding out the holiday weekend, we got together with Mama J's side of the family, and had so much fun catching up with all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles. There were four little boys running around playing with tractors, and keeping everyone on our toes. After taking an epic nap, C was in people-watching heaven with all of the goings-on. He and cousin J had particular fun trying to figure out Grandma J's new ball popper. This may be the most still these two boys were the entire trip!





All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas holiday made even more fun this year by the presence of our little guy. Looking forward to what the new year has in store for us!

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Thanks for visiting! Let me know if you have any suggestions of recipes I should try, fun ideas to do with the kiddo, or a suggested adventure to add to our bucket list!

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