Christmas, Part 3

After we opened our presents and had breakfast together on Christmas morning, we spent the rest of the day with my family. We met my parents and Jeremy, Anna, and Amelia at my parent's church. I wish Christmas was on a Sunday every year. I loved going to church to worship on the morning we celebrate Christ's birth.

All ready for church

We kept Nathan with us during the church service since it was Christmas. By the end of the service, Matt and I were both thankful for the nursery ministry at our church. My little guy likes to play and explore and being held and having to be quiet for so long is hard for him. Matt took him out to let him play near the end of the service. It was a special time to all be together as a family though.

After church we went over to my parents' house to eat lunch and open gifts.

I was happy to get these two babies together again!

Once again Nathan was spoiled with new toys. My mom even threw some extra bows in a couple of his gifts. He is still playing with those bows.

Matt's big surprise was a new camera lens. He had seen them on sale a couple of week ago. It was a huge sale and he really debated just buying one but decided to wait. I called my mom when we got home from the store and told her about it. She was excited because she had needed to get him one more thing in that price range, so she ran out and got the last one. He got some Christmas money from his parents and we even went to Target on Christmas Eve for him to buy it if it was still on sale (I knew it wasn't on sale anymore, but I wanted him to think he wasn't getting one, so I played along). He told me it was his favorite gift this Christmas.

Nathan got a Noah's Ark play set with lots of animals. He has a Precious Moments Noah's Ark on the shelf in his room that he loves to look at. I won't let  him play with it though, so now he has his own to play with.

He also got a drum from my parents. I think Matt wanted the drum to stay at Grammy's house.

 

My big surprise was a Roomba. I actually guessed it. My mom hinted that it needed batteries, and this was the only thing I could think of. I knew I was wrong, but I told her my guess anyway, and I was right! Once I guessed it though, she threw me off by wrapping another one of my gifts and telling me it was the big one. Then I just knew I was getting a new knife set, but the Roomba is even better! I can't wait to try it out.

 

 We spent the rest of the afternoon taking care of babies and opening our stocking gifts. Nathan posed for lots of pictures too. He is a little ham especially when he receives constant attention from everyone.

 

We had Christmas dinner that evening. I was nice to all be together as a family. That doesn't happen very often and I tried to savor the moments

We let Nathan try mashed potatoes for the first time on Christmas (before the potatoes become Pioneer Woman-ified). He didn't mind them, but he seems to prefer his sweet potatoes.

After dinner we dressed the babies in their matching Christmas jammies and snapped some pictures.

 

Nathan was enamored with his little cousin and kept grabbing at her and trying to kiss her. It will be fun when they get older and start playing together.

Monday morning Momoo came up to meet her newest great-granddaughter and spend time with us.

Jeremy and Anna left later that morning. We went back home shortly after they left. We were worn out. Nathan and I both napped that afternoon and got all our new toys put away and the house back in some sort of order. It was a busy few days filled with such joy as we celebrated the birth of our Savior with the people who are most precious to us.

Christmas, Part 2

We came back home on Saturday night so we could celebrate Christmas morning at our home. Since we've been married, Matt and I have never spent Christmas morning at our home. This year since we have a little one, it was important to us to start that tradition. Growing up, both us always spent Christmas mornings at our homes with our immediate family, and we want Nathan to have those memories of Christmas morning opening his presents under our tree at our home.

Nathan woke up about his usual time on Christmas morning (6:00am). I brought him back to our room to nurse him and finally about 6:30, none of us could contain our excitement any longer, so we all got up to open our gifts.

We let Nathan go first. He got a frog bath toy holder, bath toys, a baby Bible and a ball toy that rolls and lights up

Then it was Mommy's turn. I got a jewelery box and inside the jewelery box was a Pandora charm bracelet with two charms.Matt did good this year.

I got Matt a new computer game, and I made him a coupon book. He has been hinting all year that he wanted a coupon book like he gets me every year. I also got him a new board game, but I let him open it early, so we could play it while we were in Weatherford.

After presents, it was time for stockings. Matt and I have never done stockings before this year, and I don't think Matt got presents in his stocking growing up either, so he was a little unsure what was supposed to go in them. I think he understands more now. It was another fun new tradition we started.

Nathan got a lot of loot in his stocking this year- yogurt melts, a book, a Praise Baby DVD, a bath toy, and a small toy cell phone.

Daddy got candy, a photography book, some replacement pieces for his Settlers game, and a framed picture of me and Nathan. He got Cars 2 as well, but he opened it before we went to Weatherford.

Matt put my coupon book in my stocking. I was a little worried I wasn't going to get one this year :). I also got a book on raising boys that he let me open early.

After presents, it was time for breakfast. I wanted to start a tradition of cooking a Christmas breakfast after presents are opened. I searched for some good, but easy recipes that are different than our normal breakfasts. I wanted Christmas breakfast to be special but not require me to be in the kitchen all morning instead of spending time with my family watching my boys play with their new toys.

 

 This year we had bacon, egg, and cheese, crescent roll ups and monkey bread muffins. Nathan had fruit and yogurt for breakfast. Next year he will get to fully enjoy Christmas breakfast.

 

Matt even took a break from installing his new game to sit down and have breakfast as a family. I know that years from now on Christmas morning, I will think back to our first Christmas morning at our home and the sweet memories we made as a family of three.

Christmas, Part 1

What a special Christmas we had this year. We spent several days celebrating our Savior's birth with many family members. Last Thursday we loaded up and traveled to Weatherford to celebrate with Matt's parents for a couple of days. Nathan is at such a fun age this year. I know the coming years will be even more fun as he begins to understand the magic of Christmas, but he was a joy this year crawling everywhere, pulling bows off packages, snuggling with everyone and trying out all of his new toys.

We celebrated Christmas with Matt's family Friday morning. Matt's parents got him an elephant that shoots balls out its trunk. I think Nathan gets overstimulated with it pretty easily, but he loves watching it for a few minutes at a time, and putting the balls in his mouth, of course.

He got several other toys too, but really was in love with the tissue paper and bows.

Madeline invited my grandparents to join us for Christmas lunch on Friday. We ate and played dominoes.

Matt got a new board game from his parents and after Nathan went to bed Friday night, we spent the rest of the evening playing it.

On Saturday, we all went over to Granny and Grandaddy's for lunch. Grandaddy mentioned to me on Friday that he had a surprise for us. I could tell he was VERY excited to share it with us. Granny kept telling him to be quiet or he would end up telling us what it was.
As soon as we arrived on Saturday, Grandaddy was ready for us to open our surprise and what a special surprise it was. Grandaddy had spent all summer restoring my dad's old tricycle.

My dad got it as a gift when he was two years old and rode it, and then my brother and I rode it at Granny and Grandaddy's house when we were little. It had gotten a lot of wear, but Grandaddy did a wonderful job fixing it up, painting, replacing old parts, etc. What a special gift for Nathan's first Christmas!

I know it will be a few years before his feet will reach the peddles, but I'm sure when he is old enough that tricycle will get worn out again. I get emotional whenever I think of the significance of that gift and the hours of work my grandpa put into it. It's a way for Nathan to know his grandfather since he can't know him personally and a special way for me to remember my dad.

Nathan has no idea how blessed he is to have people like Grandaddy in his life. I pray that as he grows, Granny and Grandaddy will have the same influence on him as they have had on my life.

Momoo and Aunt Sydney also joined all of us for lunch, and Nathan was spoiled with even more toys.

Nathan was sleepy and cuddly after lunch. He laid his head on Grandaddy's shoulder and cuddled for a long time. Matt and I have never seen him so cuddly for such an extended period of time (without falling asleep). I think it was his way of telling Grandaddy thank you for his Christmas present. After lunch we visited with family and then told everyone goodbye. We know we are blessed when it takes 15 minutes for Nathan to give goodbye hugs to all his family.

A Couple of Videos

Our Nathan boy is changing like crazy these past couple of weeks. He is at the most fun stage right now. Matt and I are having a blast with him. I thought I'd share a couple of videos we took last Thursday. I'm afraid if I wait to add them for his 8 month post, they will be out of date because he changes every single day now.

We were playing peekaboo instead of getting ready for bed


He is a crawling machine these days and pulling up on everything.

A Few Christmas Traditions

We have spent a lot of time this past week making memories with some of our favorite Christmas traditions.

One of my favorite traditions is Christmas baking (particularly sugar cookies). My mom and I got together on Tuesday afternoon and baked and decorated cookies. I took my camera over but didn't manage to get any pictures of the afternoon. Earlier that day, I made some toffee and fudge too. I packaged up the goodies and took them to Nathan's teachers the next day in appreciation of the great care they give to him every week. I love to bake, but hate having the food around because we eat too much of it. Thankfully it works great for Christmas gifts!

On Wednesday night, Matt, Nathan and I went to see the lights at Rhema. Matt and I have gone to look at their lights every year we have lived in Broken Arrow. I like it because it is a fun spur of the moment weeknight activity. It's close and free and a fun outing. Nathan loved seeing all the lights. He just stared and smiled the whole time.

"Quit taking pictures of me in my Christmas outfit. I've got lights to see."

Our new camera took much better pictures of the lights than we have gotten in years past.

Nathan had such a good time watching everything.

I also mailed all of our Christmas cards this week which is another tradition in our family. Every year we include a family photo with our cards. This year we went ahead and made a photo card with a couple of extra pictures of our cutie. I really, really love this tradition and seeing how our family grows and changes each year.

I got out all of our past card photos to compare. I can't believe this is our sixth married Christmas. Time flies when you're having fun with the one you love!  Someday, I'd love to frame all of them together on a wall.

Matt and I celebrated our annual Christmas date this weekend too. It's another favorite tradition. Each year around Christmas we plan a special date and try and do something out of the ordinary than a typical date night. (I wrote about our last two dates here and here). This year's date was probably our favorite. We decided to go on a helicopter tour of Christmas lights. It was such a fun experience to enjoy together. Neither of us had flown in a helicopter before, and we had a blast. I kept getting on to Matt because he was watching the gauges in the helicopter instead of looking at the lights :). We flew from the Jenks airport to the Rhema lights in Broken Arrow and back. It was neat seeing the entire Rhema display in one view. That was my favorite part. We also flew past the mall on the way back and saw all the traffic.

We got terrible pictures, but we were flying about 80 mph(according to my husband who was reading the gauges), so we didn't expect any good ones.

After the flight we ate dinner at Johnny Carino's and then came back home. My parents kept Nathan at their house overnight, so we had the rest of the evening to ourselves which was nice to relax and spend time together and get a good night's sleep. I've been wondering about how we will do Christmas dates as Nathan gets older because I'd want him to be involved in some of our activities, but doing special things just as a couple is important to me too. Maybe we'll go on two dates in the future for Christmas, one as a family and one as a couple. We'll see, but this is not a tradition we are planning on ending any time soon.

I look forward to all our Christmas traditions each year. This year we are altering a few and adding some new ones, and I can't wait to experience them all with my two sweet boys.

Our Home at Christmas

Here is a quick peek into our home at Christmas. It's pretty simple, but I think the decorations are magical too especially with a little one in the house this year.

We got a new Christmas tree this year. I had been wanting a new one for awhile. I didn't think our old tree really fit right in our house. I really like this one. It is bigger, so we are going to need to get some new ornaments for it. We have a few special new ones this year (along with the ones we received at our ornament exchange):

 

 

I put my nativity in the office this year, so we could hang our stockings on the mantle in the living room. I think it works well to have it in there.

 

I just love that we have three stockings on our mantel this year!

 

I feel like our decorations this year are especially special because we will actually get to celebrate Christmas morning at our home this year. We haven't been at home for Christmas morning since we've been married, and I'm excited to start a new tradition.