More Christmas

I seemed to have forgotten my camera on Christmas Day as well as the day after.  There were a lot of fun moments, unfortunately, none that I have pictures of. :/

Christmas Day we got up after Xander had his morning bottle and then a short capnap.  Christmas morning has always meant Christmas stockings and Santa gifts at my parent's house.  We've done this for a long, long time.  As Xander gets older, we'll start our own traditions I'm sure, but for now, he's young enough and it's simple enough for us to continue with the traditions we already have in place.  We did take Xander's gifts from us (that were wrapped) over to Mom's house to open gifts with him then.  Then he'd have some things to keep him busy.  Christmas morning, though, he had 1 gift to open from a Secret Santa friend, so we opened that, which was a bag of Garanimals wood blocks.  Xander loved them! (I do have pictures from this - posted later)  He was interested in the paper until he saw the blocks dumped out on the floor - then he wanted to crawl to them to play for the morning.  It was nice to have this family time before we went to Mom's house.  That may be something we do in the future if it works well with the day. 

Then on to Mom's for, like I said, stockings and more gifts. We also had a nice laid back breakfast of cinnimon and caramel rolls, along with little quishes.  Yum. :)  It was a very relaxing morning, and since Christmas dinner was later in the day, not rushed like it has been some years.

After we got ready for the day, we headed to Sumner for Christmas at my aunt's house.  We had a great dinner with lots of great food. Some of my favorites including Kathy's Corn, and the pineapple cheese casserole (I don't get this often and it's sooo good!).  And for dessert, Mom made my Grandma's ice cream roll dessert (although we ate this later in the day).  It was a sweet reminder of the special things Grandma did for us all at Christmas.  After dinner we spent some time going through Grandma's things.  It was neat to see what Grandma considered special and to talk things like, Grandma wore these pins on her gray suit, and this was was Grandma's grandma pin, etc.  There were some moments that were really emotional, but it was a nice way to remember her and spend time "with" her during the holidays.  I felt very special for recieving a pair of Grandma's earrings as well.  I wasn't expecting anything, and I love having momentos of Grandma around me. 

Finally, we opened gifts with the family.  Grandma made some really neat ornaments and decorations - he's so talented at woodworking.  Our tree is FILLED with decorations that he's created.  Xander got a play telephone from my aunt and a book and Spin & Say (I think that's what they're called) from Grandpa.  Xander loved textured books, so this one was great, and the other 2 toys he's constantly playing with.  He loves that they light up and make sounds. :)

Mom gave my aunt and uncle each a bear that she made.  The bear was dressed in a jacket made from a skirt my Grandma.  The skirt was pretty special so it was neat that it could be used in such a way.  The bears also wore matching hats, in true Grandma style - so classy!  The jackets were adorned with Christmas pins of my Grandma's and each wore some of Grandma's earrings.  There was a handkerchief tucked into a sleeve on each bear.  I thought the bears looked amazing, and it was nice to see them appreciated by others. 

Overall, it was a great day. :)
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The next day we had Christmas with Justin's mom, Connie.  We spent some time relaxing and enjoying time with her.  Xander got a lot of clothes! They're so cute.  He got 3 pairs of jeans, which he really needed, so that's great.  :)  Gary & Jan (Justin's aunt & uncle) also got him an outfit and a really neat toy - it's a John Deere tractor, but it can snap open and be a book.  Perfect for Xander, since as I said before, Xander loves books!  Connie also got him some books, one a John Deere book, and a cool Curious George book with counting beads on top. 

We gave Connie an ornament for her tree (or for decoration since it's huge!) that I knit.  Hopefully Skilar leaves it alone and doesn't think it's his toy! haha

We had some shopping we wanted to finish that day so we left to run our errands for a bit while Connie took care of Xander.  He was getting tired from all the running and hustle & bustle of Christmas, but good luck getting him to nap! When we got back he finally laid his head down to rest and ended up sleeping for a long time.  At Connies, in the car ride home, and then for about 1.5 horus once we got him home!  What a tired boy! 

We then had a fun night catching up with some friends of ours.  Xander got another great book with fun pictures!  I was surprised Xander lasted as long as he did while we had company.  Of course, he's nosy and needs to know everything that's going on, so maybe it's not so surprising. 

I probably left quite a few things out of our day.  We've had a whirlwind of activity this holiday season and it's hard to keep track of everything.  I look forward to Xander getting older and learning our traditions and enjoying Christmas in a different way. 

At this point, we just had one more Christmas to go, and then our days would relax a bit more.