Christmas Time... Warning: Lengthy Post!

I apologize in advance for this lengthy post... but I love having a "record" of what we did each Christmas, so I'm sparing no details. We had a wonderful Christmas! Christmas Eve Eve we went to Mom and Dad's where we exchanged gifts with Derrick (Lindsay's bf) before he headed home the next day. He and Lindsay got Noah an inflatable ball pit that was a HUGE hit! Noah had a great time playing with it. The next morning, Christmas Eve, we went to my grandmother's (my dad's mom) for breakfast and presents. My dad's family is LARGE with a grand total of 35 people when everyone is there. So it's pretty loud and crowded and crazy but always fun. Noah is always a little overwhelmed but he seems to be warming up to everyone alot more lately. He's gotten to where he plays some with the younger kids and he'll go to my other family members when they want to hold him. He was a bit uncomfortable while everyone was opening presents just because it was SOO loud and chaotic but he got over that pretty quickly. Afterwards, my mom took Noah to go play on the piano in my PaPaw's old bedroom and he had the greatest time banging on the keys with my cousin's little girl, Allison (who is a week older than Noah). Just to clarify, my Poppaw had Alzheimers for over 20 years and was bed-ridden for the last 7 years, so he was in a hospital bed in a seperate room from my grandmother... that's why I say "Poppaw's bedroom"... it's not like they slept seperately or anything. But back to the story, anyways, everyone came in to watch Noah and Allison play the piano, which led to my Aunt Linda (who is awesome at playing the piano) to begin playing Christmas songs, which caused everyone to join in singing. As corny as it sounds, it was actually a very special moment for me. My Aunt Lin in addition to be a great piano player, has a beautiful voice and my PawPaw used to LOVE listening to her sing and play. Here we all are in the bedroom he passed away in, singing and having a great time together. I KNEW he was smiling as he watched us. Not only that, but I was SO IMPRESSED with how many of my aunts and cousins (and my dad, which I already knew) could sing REALLY GOOD! It was definitely one of those moments I'll remember for a long time.

After MaMaw's house, Jamie, Noah and I went home to let Noah nap for a couple of hours, then on to visit Jamie's grandfather, Papa Jim, who had had back surgery the day before. We went from there to Jamie's parent's house for the evening. We used to always spend the night on Christmas Eve with them and the rest of Jamie's family but this year we decided we wanted to begin our own tradition of spending Christmas Eve at home (which was sooo nice). So they let us open our gifts that night. My goodness... they always do a really big Christmas and they didn't disappoint by any means. It's a good thing we just turned our spare bedroom upstairs into a playroom for Noah because we needed it after all the toys Noah racked up on. We really enjoyed spending the evening with Jamie's family; it's even more fun now that Noah's not the only kid... Madelyn is almost 10 months and Eastlon is almost 2 months so its great getting to play with and love on them.

Around 8:30 or so, we loaded up the back of the car so we could head home. By this time, it was raining pretty hard. We get Noah in his carseat and I'm in the car when Jamie realizes he can't find the keys. He runs back in the house to look for them, to no avail. After he and I search my purse, Noah's backpack and the front and back seats, we still can't find them. I drive an Expedition and the ENTIRE back was filled full of presents, and we were afraid Jamie had laid them down in the back while loading the trunk. SO, in the pouring rain, we unloaded the trunk and searched through every box and bag that we had loaded up but STILL couldn't find them. I run back in to look over the house... nothing. By the time I get back outside, Noah's screaming his head off and Jamie's very frustrated so I get Noah out of the car and run back inside (we are now all 3 soaking wet). Finally, after 10 more minutes or so Jamie checks Noah's bag again and finds them in the bottom of his backpack. I'm not pointing fingers butttt, it wasn't my fault! :) He was pretty frustrated at the situation, as was I, but the LAST thing I was going to do was say something to him. Anyways, we get home and after we all changed out of our soaking wet clothes, we were able to laugh about it. We had invited my parents and sister to spend the night with us since it's just the 3 of them. Noah had a second wind so we read The Night Before Christmas and played with a few of his new toys before putting him to bed. After an hour or so of assembling Santa gifts, we hit the sack!

Noah LOVED playing with his new toys and was so excited Christmas morning! And to top it off, it SNOWED! It didn't cover the ground or anything but it was nice to have a little snow on Christmas. My mom and dad left around 10 to head home and prepare lunch, while the rest of us showered and got dressed. We spent the rest of the day at my parents house and had a WONDERFUL lunch, followed by napping and relaxing. Noah was a live wire... he was going non-stop all day. My parents had fun chasing him around all day (to give me a break) but later told me that he wore them out! :) My grandmother (my mom's mom, Nannie) used to make the BEST dressing and my mom and dad got the recipe from my grandmother once she was no longer able to make it. It really is my FAVORITE meal... I really considered having it served at my wedding reception but decided to go with the traditional shrimp and chicken tenders (dressing in August?... hey, I'd still eat it! :) Anyways, my parents did a great job and it tasted JUST like Nannie's. I didn't even eat dessert that evening because I just snacked on dressing... YUM! All in all, we had a WONDERFUL Christmas and look forward to all that 2010 has in store! I'm attaching just a few pictures since I've typed SO MUCH!... sorry, again.


Noah in his ball pit



Christmas Morning