Christmas with Rad & Jen, Enchanted Village and Santa, & Christmas at the Braces

Well, it has been another busy week, of course, with it being Christmas! On Sabbath there was a nice Christmas program done by the school kids. Caleb enjoyed watching the kids sing especially. During the children's story he was sitting on Rissa's lap because there wasn't any room for me to sit with him and he was being such a ham. He kept waving (his constant waving had gone away for awhile and it has come back in full force) and smiling and even laughing and everyone on that side of the church was very distracted and kept waving back to him. It was so funny!

 

 

After church we had potluck and Caleb ate quite a big of food off of my plate. I am still primarily giving him purees as his main food source,  but I am slowly trying to get him to eat more regular food. He ate some potatoes, most of a meatball, and some manicotti. So, that was good! After potluck we went home and Caleb took a nap. It was a nice long nap, so that made me very happy! After he got up from his nap, we fed him an early supper and then we headed to my parents' house to have Christmas with Rad and Jen before they left for Michigan on Sunday morning. We had a wonderful time. My parents had gotten a bunch of Indian samosas from a restaurant we like, which was a really nice treat. We had Christmas music in the background and we enjoyed spending time opening our gifts. Caleb got a couple of gifts from Auntie Jen and Uncle Rad. He got a toy with a hammer and he really liked playing with the hammer. I made Rad and Jen a photo book of Caleb's first year and that was a big hit. However, Steve upstaged me by making a sandblasted piece of stone with their house number on it. Rad was in on it, but Jen was completely surprised and she was so excited! So, it was a successful Christmas!

 

After Caleb went to bed Saturday night I did 1 1/2 hours of work so I could get a jumpstart on my week because I knew it would be tough to get enough work done with everything that was going on. Sunday morning I got up and worked like normal. After Caleb's morning nap Steve took him and they went Christmas shopping at the mall. I continued to work for awhile and then I went and did some grocery shopping by myself and then met Steve at the mall and picked up Caleb to bring him home to take a nap so Steve could continue shopping. Caleb took a nice long nap and I did some more work, which was good for my weekly total! Steve came home around 4:00 and Caleb was just waking up. Then we went out to an early supper at the Thai restaurant and then we took Caleb to the Enchanted Village at the Cape Codder hotel. It is free, but you are supposed to bring a toy to donate, so we brought some Matchbox cars. I had heard that they have a really good Santa there, and he really was! He was very authentic with a real beard and everything and he was very friendly and didn't rush us even though there was a line. We waited probably 10 or 15 minutes in line, which wasn't bad at all. Caleb did great and really liked Santa's glasses and the bell on the end of Santa's hat.

 

 



Then we went outside to the Enchanted Village part, which is in the courtyard of the hotel and it has a lot of lights and a few Christmas statues and buildings. It was nice and I think Caleb really enjoyed it.

 

As we were leaving, there was a male quarter singing a few Christmas songs in the lobby and Caleb was completely enthralled with them. It was very cute to watch his face.

 

 

On Monday we didn't go out at all because we were planning on going to Edaville Railroad with the Brace clan in the late afternoon. However, it was a rainy day and so we canceled our plans to go, so that was disappointing and it also made me a little stir crazy because I didn't leave the house all day! Oh well. I was able to get a lot of work done and I got the rest of my presents wrapped, so that was a good thing. Earlier in the day I wanted to make sure that Caleb was going to fit into his Christmas outfits, so we tried them on and had a little photo shoot.

 

 

Monday night while Caleb was finishing supper, Carmen came over to bring Caleb a Christmas gift. It was a little elephant stuffed animal, and a very cute sweater and matching winter hat. It was so nice of them to get him a gift.

 

 

Tuesday was Christmas Eve, of course! Steve had the day off, so that was nice. I wanted to get a couple of hours of work done, so I did half an hour while Caleb was playing and then luckily he took a nice long morning nap, so I was able to get the rest of my work done. After Caleb's nap, Steve gave him a bath since we would be at the Braces' house that evening and then Steve played with him for awhile while I made some food to take to the Braces'. We fed Caleb lunch and then packed up to get ready to go around Caleb's nap time.

Have you ever seen a jumping elf?

He has figured out how to make the car go, but it still surprises him when it goes forward!

Looks like a mischievous elf!

Ready to go to the Braces' house

 

We left around 2:30 and Caleb fell asleep in the car for a little while. Unfortunately, he is not the best car napper, so usually I can plan on 30 minutes but no more. We got to the Braces' a little before 4:00 and just hung out the rest of the day. Caleb played with the rest of the kids some. Brady liked to follow him around and kept calling him "Big Guy", which was really cute.

 

Just about the same size!

 

 

So, Caleb had a challenge going to sleep on Christmas Eve. I nursed him around 7:00 and he fell asleep while nursing, which is fairly normal, but when I put him into the pack and play, he woke up. The problem was that we were staying in Uncle Bill's study, which is right off the kitchen and living room, so that's where everyone was talking and laughing and so it was very loud. It was also kind of bright in the room because the lights from the kitchen were coming in through the windows. Anyway, I put Caleb down close to 8:00 and he did not fall asleep until 9:30, which was a little frustrating, but I had to just roll with it because of the circumstances. At one point, we were watching Caleb on the monitor and he was standing up in the pack and play and pulling Uncle Bill's books off the bookshelf and into his pack and play. That was so funny, but Steve went in and moved the pack and play away from the shelves so he couldn't reach anymore. Even after he finally fell asleep, he woke up a couple of times and started to cry, which is so unusual for him, but it was really loud in the house, so I can't blame him. He slept pretty good after that, especially after it got quiet, but we did hear him groaning a couple of times in the night, so maybe he had something else going on that was affecting his sleep.

 

One of the highlights of Christmas Eve is always the games that Corey plans. This year I was on a team with Uncle Bill. We started out not doing very well because the first game was charades and I am horrible at acting, but Uncle Bill wouldn't do it. I knew I would be better at guessing, but he made me do the acting and we did horrible. We did redeem ourselves with a Christmas word scramble game and ended up coming in second place overall. The winning team was Steve, Shawn and my dad.

 

One of the games

 

After the games were done, we just sat around talking for awhile and the Braces had their annual Christmas card contest where they vote on the best Christmas card that they received. We went to bed probably around 12:30 and then Caleb was up at 6:00, so it was a short night, but oh well!

 

Christmas morning was fun with all the kids in their Christmas pajamas. We got up and the kids had a muffin and then Uncle Bill read them the Christmas story from the Bible story book.

 

Love this picture of all the kids in their Christmas jammies!!

Colby is a cute baby Santa!

 

After that, we did our stockings. Caleb had a stocking this year that I had gotten him for his birthday. My mom and I bought things to put in it and it was quite a success! My mom got him some jingle bells and a pretty real looking cell phone and keys that Caleb really enjoyed. I got him a squishy ball that lights up when you squeeze it or hit it and Caleb really liked that. In fact, that might have been his favorite gift of all Christmas and it was one of the cheapest! Go figure! My dad doesn't like to do stockings, so my mom, Steve and I just get things for the other two people's stockings instead of picking names. Steve did very well with his stocking items and both my mom and I were very impressed!

 

 

 

After our stockings, it was time for presents! Every year we seem to have more and more gifts, which actually makes sense because every year there is at least one more kid!!

 

 

Now, this may seem crazy with almost 20 people in the house, but for the most part, we open one present at a time and everyone watches. The kid are constantly wanting to open another present so sometimes we double up a little bit, but it is a long, drawn-out process and to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way. I think it is crazy to be done opening presents in a few minutes and I like that it lasts a long time. Luckily, Caleb did take a nap for almost an hour during the middle of it, so we didn't have to chase him around the whole time, but it was still a very enjoyable experience. We all got some great gifts. My mom got me pretty much everything on my list, which was amazing. I got rain boots (for NNE camp meeting), a big black purse, purple sheets, a tablecloth, and an applesauce maker for both Steve and I. In addition, she also got me a dress, and a couple of other clothing items. So, it was a great year. Steve got me a few clothing items from Talbots that were very nice. He is a good shopper, which might surprise some people. Caleb got lots of toys and his big gift from Grammy and Grampy was a tiny piano and a nice suit! His big gift from us was a Mickey Mouse chair and he seemed to really enjoy it. He sat right down in it and actually stayed for awhile.

 

His favorite new toy

 

After opening the presents, we got brunch ready. We don't do Christmas dinner, we do Christmas brunch and it is always so good. The Walls showed up for brunch (quite late, however), so it was nice to see them. Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Kevin brought presents for the kids and they gave Caleb a very cute Mickey Mouse car, which is a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

After brunch, we sat around for awhile longer and then got ready to go because Caleb was ready for a nap. We left a little after 3:00 and Caleb fell asleep pretty quickly in the car, but still only slept a little longer than 30 minutes. Oh well. We got home and unloaded the car, fed Caleb supper, and took a few pictures of Caleb in his new chair in front of our Christmas tree at home.

 

 

After that, it was off to bed for Caleb and Steve and I went to bed fairly early as well after putting away a lot of our Christmas presents.

 

I worked today and Steve stayed with Caleb all day because he had the day off. They had a good day and did a lot of Christmas shopping for Steve's family because we are going to Vermont this weekend. Caleb took a great morning nap for Daddy but would not take an afternoon nap, so that was too bad, but oh well! They also had lots of fun playing with Caleb's new toys. Tomorrow I look forward to having a day off and getting the rest of the Christmas stuff put away as well as getting ready to go to Vermont. Merry Christmas everyone!