Our Christmas festivities were spread out over an entire week which made the fun last as long! Our first stop was to see my side of the family. Forgot the camera so minimal pictures with low quality. I could just kick myself every time I forget the camera! We had a such a wonderful time--and of course, the day went by way too fast!
This was the first year we held the festivities in my parent's basement. I had to inwardly giggle because growing up we always had Christmas in the basement at my Grandma's house. It's fun knowing that Rory will have those memories too.
Rory has tons of fun playing with play-doh and so did my Mom...and Josh! We made a complete mess but as my Mom says, "just let it dry and it's easier to clean up." :)
(Note the absence of any children playing with play-doh!)
Christmas Eve was just me and Rory. I had to work but Rory came to work with me for the last hour of the day. Then we headed to church for the Christmas Eve service--it's my favorite service of the year and something I look forward to every year. The music, lights, candles, family, it's just magical. I think I love Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day--the pure excitement and anticipation gets me every time.
I let Rory open one present before he went to bed--new pj's and an ornament for the tree. He was pretty psyched about being "Fireman Rory."
I was the first one awake in the morning with Rory quickly following. He really had no idea what to expect because we haven't pushed the whole Santa thing or really talked about it. Everything he knows he's picked up from other kids at school or TV--we really want him to know why we celebrate Christmas and that it's Jesus's birthday. We haven't burst the bubble yet--after talking to quite a few parents if he wants to believe that's OK with us--we just haven't confirmed or denied anything.
He was really excited about his new "guitar" aka ukulele! He started strumming and singing a song right away.
We grilled steak and potatoes for lunch. Rory picked out Mississippi Mud Pie brownies for the birthday celebration. It was fun to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and indulge in a sweet treat.
Later that evening we drove around the neighborhood looking for Christmas lights and fun decorations. We topped the night off by watching Rory's new movie, Planes.
The day after Christmas we headed down to spend the day with Josh's family. It was our nephew, Carl's, first Christmas! I think he was more interested in the paper than anything else but it was fun to watch him and remember what seems like yesterday, literally, that it was Rory's first Christmas. My how time flies!
Carl is so close to crawling! I think at one point or another everyone one of us was on the floor next to him, either showing him how to crawl or trying to entice him to move with something interesting.
We finished our night with 2 games of Five Crown, a card game. Not that I want to rub it in but I'd like to point out that I won both games and was the only one to stay under 100 points during our second game. **wink wink**
While we played games, Rory helped Grandma bring in more firewood and kindling. Such a good helper!
This Saturday we spent the day in Indiana with some of my extended family. We always have fun when we get together. LOTS of yummy food! We always end up playing an exchange game rather than exchanging gifts. Some people call it "Dirty Santa" but we dont' have an official name for it--all the gifts go in a pile, each person selects a gift based on their number and you can steal other gifts if you like what someone has.
We are definitely family and think a lot alike because quite a few of us went home with the same gift we bought--and only because someone else bought the exact same thing!
It was fun to watch the 3 "grandsons" all play together. As you can see, Rory wasn't too thrilled at first but he came around to the idea.
I had Josh take this picture---it may look like one set of hands but it isn't. One hand is mine and the other is my Aunt Janell's. It's funny to me how much our hands look alike. I cherish those family connections and little similarities.
We had a wonderful 2013 and I hope that yours was as blessed as ours. Here's to an even better 2014!
