The First Christmas Celebration

Whew it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted.  I kind of enjoyed my break from the computer.  I didn't really get on at all.  I checked my facebook from my phone mostly (of course I definitely had to do it after that football game last week - we'll talk about that later) and I didn't check my email or anything really.  So I have a lot of catching up to do.

This year was what I considered to be our first official family Christmas.  I say this because it's the first time that Ed and I have had TJ from Christmas Eve into the morning plus we had Deuce so we were really excited for Santa to come visit this year.  My sister came and spent the night with us so she could be there when we opened gifts.
 

We spent Christmas Eve making Christmas themed Oreo balls (Ed's request after I made that batch for his work party) & peanut butter cookies,

and baking & decorating sugar & chocolate chip cookies

while Deuce played with kitchen items.

And of course Mac

We all took turns decorating our cookies.

TJ was eating while decorating.

5 for his jersey number

These were the 3 I decorated

And then I made one for each of the boys.

Ed made a smiley face with his version of a "flat top" hair style.

And Laura made a tree

All of our cookies on the plate for Santa

I cooked a spaghetti dinner and we had a great time!  After leaving out the cookies and making a card we were able to get the boys in the bed by 9:30. 

 

By that point, I had not wrapped one single gift.  Not one.  REALLY!  So my sister and I got to work while Ed sat up with us and watched TV.  He would have helped but I'm not sure what his wrapping looks like so I didn't force the issue.  I just told him he had to stay up as long as I did, lol.  My sister gave up at 1am and I was finished by 3am. 

o.m.g.

I was fully expecting TJ to be up at 6am but was pleasantly surprised when I heard him rummaging around the living room at 8am. 

We had a great time opening gifts.  TJ flew through his, of course, and was disappointed when it was all over. 

And Deuce was content eating a small piece of paper off of just one present.

He did enjoy playing with his very first basketball goal that Santa left him.

TJ made sure he knew how to use it.

I made a breakfast casserole before we took off for a long day of house hopping.  Oooooh, it was great!

Auntie gave Deuce a bath while we all got ready.  Thank goodness for extra hands & a kitchen sink when you need them!

We then headed to my mom's house.  I don't have any pictures from there, we took them all with Laura's camera.  We opened gifts, stayed for a quick lunch and then left continuing east.  We hopped over to Ed's parents house for what was a measly 30 minutes to say hello and exchange gifts because we had to have TJ in Raleigh at his mom's parents house by 4:30.  I was so exhausted by that point, but we weren't done.  After dropping TJ off, we continued east to Clayton to my Aunt Rhonda's house where my dad had come in from VA  My cousins were also there along with my Grandma.  We had dinner in Clayton with my dad's family and Deuce got his first rocking horse from my dad.  Pop was so excited to see him on it that I enjoyed watching my dad almost as much as I enjoyed watching Deuce.

Deuce was passed around by everyone which gave us a nice break to socialize with all of the family that was there.  Plus eat a nice meal without little hands in our food.

Enjoying Mountain Dew with Ryan.  Don't worry it was Diet...

...and the top was on.

Talk about a tired baby Christmas night.

All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas.  To me, it doesn't seem like Christmas if we don't spend half of the day in the car travelling between houses!  I love seeing family and am so thankful that we can make it all work.  I hope everyone else had as wonderful a holiday as us!

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