Merry Christmas!!
I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!! We sure did! It was so so much fun with Bryson this year because he's SO into presents and being the center of attention with all of our family and gets SO excited so easily! He is such a joyful boy :)
Feel free to read this post novel split up over the next couple days because that's definitely how long it took me to write it! haha. (And yes, I know I have a TON of posts to catch up on, and I WILL get to them!)
Backtracking...
Our Christmas picture with Santa. B loved loved loved him from afar. Squealed with delight with every move "Yanta" made as other kids sat on his lap and got a candy cane, but as soon as I sat him down.. we reverted back to last year:
Mommy and Daddy joined in and he gave a teary half-smile.
We went to Preston Center again and they have the greatest set up. They have Santa, a massive tree with presents for the kids to climb all over and 2 live reindeer. It was so much fun!!
We made yummy christmas cookies and christmas pretzels :)
We went to Christmas Eve Candlelight service at my parent's church.
They had a kids Bible story, so I took B down to the front; he climbed up the stairs to sit and listen and I found a spot on the front row to watch. About 2 minutes in, he turned around to the congregation and the spotlight was in his eyes, so he covered his eyes and yelled, "oh no, so bright!" then layed on his belly and slithered until he found the shadow of a few poinsettias and then scanned the area where I was and when he spotted me. He yelled and waved, "hi, mommy! hi!" Then returned to listening to the story of Baby Jesus. I, on the other hand, waved energetically while laughing so hard that tears were rolling down my face. Just as I contolled myself, he fell on his belly AGAIN, found me and yelled, "hi, mommy!" and then stood up to walk closer to the book. Yes, more tears for me! It makes me laugh just thinking about it :) I sure wish we had video of that!!
We went back to my parent's house and fulfilled some of our Christmas Eve Traditions.
Happy Birthday Jesus Cake
Pictures infront of the fireplace
Christmas presents from Sisters and Out of town family
New Christmas Eve Pajamas (from Alaska!)
Then, we went home to wait for Santa...
Bryson, sadly, woke up screaming at 5:45 because of his poor tummy, but after a few good toots and an episode of Bubble Guppies, he was ready to see what Santa left for him.
Michael lost his Aggie Ring in Mexico over the Summer :( so all he asked for from everyone was money so he could get a new one. I made part of his present into the block ATM with $1 bills. I felt a little shady asking for all the money in one dollar bills ;)
I got a Dyson!!! I technically have been using it since Black Friday{shhh}, but it is THE best thing ever!!
Michael is the more romantic of the 2 of us. Besides the Dyson,he also gave me several gift certificates to be used with a "Date Night a Month" coupon book!! I am SO excited about this. Like, SOOOO excited!! We rarely get date nights and to have at least one a month planned is going to be so exciting! ;) I love him so much!!
Bryson just plain ol' LOVED opening presents. He would tear the paper off a present and get to a plain white box and squeal with excitement and yell, "oh wow!!" After we stopped giggling, we would tell him to keep opening and the whole time, he would talk to himself and smile and giggle until he got to the real present and get a silly face and tell us what it was. "oooooh wow!! drums!!" oooh wow!! Mommy, a moomie (movie)" Ooooh wow!! night night jammies!!" It was precious!
We made breakfast together as a family
Then, we went over to my parent's house around 10. I would tell you that we had to change clothes first, but we didn't, so I can't ;) We are a family FULL of traditions, and one of them is to get new Christmas pajamas from my parents on Christmas Eve and spend Christmas morning in our pjs. And yes, we're old and grown and have kids of our own and real jobs and such, but we STILL wear pjs on Christmas morning :) Love it. :)
Another tradition is for the sisters to make snowman pancakes
And then read the Christmas Story from the Bible and open Santa presents!!
Again, Bryson squealed during every.single.present!
He loved the car from Aunt Jenny and Uncle Brandon. LOVED it! He has played with it every day!
After presents we took our "Christmas Trash" picture
and ate some yummy food while B napped (a good loooong nap, thankgoodness!)
Off to the Fant's House. I am still kicking myself for leaving our camera at my parent's house :( Thank goodness for iPhone cameras, right!?
We opened presents as soon as we got there!
B got a Dallas Zoo membership that we are SO excited about!!
We all took turns and went youngest to oldest opening presents :)
I got a new lens that made me even MORE anxious to be reunited with my camera!!!
Michael added lots more money to his ring fund, and B got some amazing Cowboy boots!! So so cute.
4 generations in boots! How fun!
We had such a fun Christmas celebrating with our family. It's always so fun to continue with all of our family traditions, start new ones with our little family and get caught up in the excitement of presents and food and stuff. But, it is so important to remember the REAL reason for Christmas.
Every day for the last month, I've read Bryson a toddler version of the Birth story of Jesus. Sometimes I read straight from the book and sometimes I made up my own words and sometimes I even made it into a song, but I want so badly for him to know and understand the real meaning of Christmas. I know most of this is just reciting, but I get teary and tingly when we walk past the manger scene in the house and he waves and says hi to Baby Jesus. Or picks him up and gives him a kiss and says "my Desus, yuv you!" (my Jesus, love you) I don't care even for a second that he could drop and break the figurine.
THAT is what Christmas is all about!!
