Christmas Highlights

We had a beautiful Christmas. It was disappointing not having the girls with us,and my being sick caused us to cancel much of what we had planned, but it was still a fun day for our little family. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures to go with this post. Most of the pictures were taken on Stuart's work camera that I have been using since Jack broke ours last year. Because I got a new one for Christmas, Stuart took his back to work before I got a chance to download the pics from it. Oh well. Here are some highlights.

1. Jack was very excited to make a gingerbread train this year. He was even more excited when he realized it was decorated with candy. He ate almost as much as we used for decoration.
2. He loves Christmas carols at bedtime. Currently, Silent Night is his favorite. The smile on his face when I start to sing it is priceless. He always request that I sing "Night." If I try any other song, he puts his hand over my mouth and says "no no."
3. On Christmas Eve we followed our usual tradition of opening 1 present. We told Jack it was time to finally open one and he excitedly ran to the tree. I told him to wait because first we were going to talk about the reason we give presents to loved ones at Christmas and I started to explain the spiritual significance of exchanging gifts. Jack immediately dropped his head forward and put a huge scowl on his face. It was hysterical. I wish we had video of his reaction. He definitely didn't want to be deterred from opening his gift.
4. This year we again wrapped the entry to the Christmas tree, so Jack had to tear through it to get to the presents. He LOVED it. He ran around the tree in circles. It was an effort to get him to sit down and open gifts.
5. We started with his stocking. With each item he pulled out, he was thrilled and wanted to stop and play. He didn't see a need to look inside for anything else.
6. It took us ALL day to open gifts. We really did try to keep spending in check this year. We had a $100 limit for Jack and in retrospect, it should have been half that amount. He had so much fun with his toys that most of the presents went unopened. Finally, just before lunch, we convinced him to put his new toys away and open everything else.

Some of his favorite gifts?

• He loves his cardboard house. He plays in it constantly.
• He loves his tools. (We got him a tool set and grammie and papa got him a workbench.) He immediately tried to put his hammer in his pants of course...


• He loves his little "baby penguin" from his stocking. He kisses him all the time and takes him for rides on his bike. (Note, the penguin is helping him with his tools in the above picture.)
• He loves shaving with his new shave kit. He is very thorough when he uses it.

He really does love all the gifts picked out for him by his family. Everyone knows him well! I especially love the gift from his aunt Alicia. A toy donated to a needy child on his behalf! Now that is the way to do it right!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I will try to post more in the new year!