Our second round of family has come and gone and with them, so has Christmas Day. However, this will be a Christmas we will never forget. (Between the zillions of pictures and hours of video footage, how could we?) But, even without all that, I don't think I could ever forget Jack's true Christmas joy. He actually got it--the whole giving, receiving (especially the receiving), opening gifts, playing with new things, trying to say thank you, and all of the excitement that comes with Christmas morning. We are still working on him "getting" the real meaning of Christmas, but that will come in time. There is only so much a 20 month old attention span can comprehend. However, I must note his favorite character in our nativity scene is "babee sesus" . And unfortunately, this season "May-ee" is already missing a hand. I think I'm going to have look into one of those Little People Nativity scenes for our curious toddler next season. But, for now, he is happy with all of the goodies Santa and family brought him this year.
Jack's Christmas morning followed a rigid sequence, that looked a little something like this...1) choose a gift from under the tree (Jack's were relatively easy to find in the bright Sesame Street wrapping paper) 2) find a family member's lap to take it to 3) tear into the wrapping paper 4) take each piece of torn wrapping paper across the room to "Jack's trash pile" one at a time 4) find the gift inside and smile 5) sit down and read or play with it for about 2 minutes 6) place the gift in Jacks' present pile with assistance 7) head back to the tree and start all over again. He's got a little of Mommy's Type A personality in there...Merry Christmas to me! ( I think).
After all of the gift exchange was complete we headed down to the playroom where Jack's BIG gift awaited him. Oh, and did I mention Mommy and Daddy got a beautiful new umbrella for the deck from Grammy and Grampa? Love it and can't wait for warm weather so we can enjoy it! But, anyway on to Jack. So, Christmas Eve night Daddy and Grampa assembled Jack's new and very cool train table. This included putting together some VERY confusing train track pieces, along with the table itself. But, low and behold before bed time Jack's new table was complete with tracks, trains, tunnels, stations and ready for Christmas morning. When Jack was released into the playroom, he sprinted across the room to his new table, grabbed a couple of trains, climbed on the table, squealed with glee, and....had the tracks and trains unassembled in about 3 minutes. Kind of what we figured, but not really expecting it to happen that fast! But even with pieces here and pieces there, Jack played his little heart out with his new train table and the many pieces that adorned it.
Merry Christmas little buddy, you sure do give Christmas a new meaning! And we LOVE you for it! Now we wait for Round 3 of Christmas company to arrive on Sunday!
The new train table, still partly assembled! Jack figured it was much easier to reach the pieces if you just sit on them.
What is Christmas without Elmo and the gang? I'm pretty sure he is chanting Elmo's name here.
Grammy was the lap of choice for this present. Notice the video camera in his face at all times.
This is what I mean by each piece of wrapping paper that went to Jack's designated trash pile--none too big or too small.
The train table BEFORE Jack decided to sit on it.
"Is all this really for me? I love Christmas!"
Jack got 12 books for Christmas, have I ever mentioned he LOVES to read?
"Hmmm...now, I know there are more of those Sesame Street presents in here somewhere."
Our second Christmas family photo. This was taken on Christmas Eve right before we went to 4:30 Mass. He looks thrilled, doesn't he? That was followed by Jack's first fine dining experience. How did it go? Let's just say, Jack won't be attending anymore restaurants above 2 stars until he's about 16.
