Christmas

This Christmas season was wonderful and the morning certainly exceeded our expectations as well. Tate was feeling yucky but he was still in a pretty good mood. He was thrilled with his toys in his stocking and found no need to continue opening presents when there were so many fun toys around already. We persuaded him to open a few but he soon reached a point where he was simply not interested. In fact he was playing with his cars and jumping them off his other presents. He kept making them talk to each other and telling each other where they were driving.It was so much fun to watch him love his new toys and be excited about playing with them. There is so much more magic involved with Christmas now that we have a little one. It's wonderful.

Glenn and I enjoyed our time opening each other's presents while Tate was completely entertained with his own. Glenn did a great job this year and bought me a new camera. It's a beauty. He did a lot of research and found one that is far too advanced for my needs/abilities right now, but I'm excited to do some studying and hopefully find some fun photography classes as well. So excited! He tricked me and wrapped several boxes inside of boxes and when I finally got to the camera box I looked up and there he was, sitting on the couch, taking pictures of me with my new camera. Little sneak.I'm pretty sure Glenn's excited about our new camera as well. He spent a lot time during the break taking some great pictures.

Glenn got some new sunglasses he's been wanting, some Red Sox Russian nesting dolls (they were a Texas state fair find and are so funny), and some other fun things.

It took all day but Tate eventually got around to all of his presents. Nanna sent some great new Disney movies and cars, Gramma Heather sent some crayons for the bathtub which we put immediately to use.

Tate also received some toy story toys, a book, and the third Toy Story movie. You know those books that have buttons you can push as you read the story? Tate's never had one and was completely enthralled. He liked one button in particular and kept pushing it over and over and dancing an awkward little dance. It was hilarious.

He kept doing it all morning until Glenn eventually took the book away.

We took our time Christmas morning, talked to family and had a yummy breakfast. After Tate's nap we went to a movie at a nearby dollar theater. Tate was still feeling yucky and coughed until he threw up...three times. It was great fun.

I'm still in denial that Christmas season is over. It's by far my favorite time of the year and I just don't want to take the music out of my car and put everything away. We tried something new this year that I think we'll do again. I went to the library and got a bunch of Christmas books, wrapped them, and then we opened and read one every night for Tate's bed time story. It was fun to hear him quote parts of the story and gain a little more understanding about what Christmas is all about.

On Christmas Eve we did our traditional dinner on a blanket (from my family) and talked to Tate about how this is Jesus' birthday and we asked him what he would like to give Jesus for his birthday. He answered without even hesitating, "Cars".

"Oh Tate that is sweet. Is there anything else you would like to give Jesus?"

"Trains."

"That's very nice. I'll bet Jesus would love some toy trains. Is there anything else, Tate?"

"Very very quiet."

"Ah. Well, I'm sure he will appreciate when you're reverent and quiet during prayers and church, huh Tate?" We thought his responses were so funny.

He also really got into Christmas music this year. We'd listen to it as we drove around, cleaned the house, cooked dinner and such and they became our bed time songs as well. He seemed to enjoy the decorations and the whole Christmas feel. It was a wonderful Christmas season. Can't wait for next year!!