Baby's first Christmas

I have been looking forward to the years when my child(ren) were old enough to anticipate and understand Santa and Christmas for what seems like ever.  Last year, Caleb understood (and LOVED) that he got to open presents but this year was the year I have been waiting for.  We read books and watched Christmas movies for weeks before and he got so excited.  He understood the 'Elf on the Shelf' and Santa coming to visit our house.  

Putting Baby Jesus on their advent calendar on Christmas Eve!

It's always been important to Josh and I to wake up in our own house and beds on Christmas morning with our kids so we didn't travel on Christmas Eve.  We had planned to spend it going to Church and having our traditional lasagna dinner alone but at the last minute my parents came up and spent it with us.  While we loved the company, the best part was that my mom brought her lasagna for dinner.  Seriously, my mom's lasagna is the BEST lasagna in the world and it's always been a tradition to have it once a year on Christmas Eve. 

After dinner, we made magic reindeer food for the reindeer and Caleb was excited to throw it out in the front yard.  This was a tradition Josh had done with his family for years and he was excited to share it with Caleb.  It's a mixture of oatmeal and glitter which as he explains to me, has a two-fold purpose.  To guide the reindeer to the house and also to feed them, of course.  We left Santa some cookies and milk that we made earlier and put the boys to bed.

For the first year, Josh and I were Santa's elves and actually had our first big toy that required assembly with Caleb's new train table.  Eli's big present was an Anywhere Chair which didn't require much assembly!  For weeks he had settled himself in Caleb's chair every night to read stories and he was excited to have one of his own. 

We came down on Christmas morning and Caleb first checked to make sure that Santa's cookies and milk were gone (which they were, Santa was hungry!) and they both ran over to the new train table to play.  They were so pumped about the table that neither one of them wanted to open their other presents! 

Finally, after a little coaxing and cinnamon rolls they opened the rest of their presents from us and we packed up the car and drove the hour to my parent's house.  To be honest, this picture below was about as excited as Eli was all day about opening his presents.  He was more excited about the paper and the boxes than most of the stuff actually in them!

We opened presents with my family and had lunch before we packed up again and drove the 2.5 hours to Josh's parents house. We were lucky that his brother and his family were able to fly in on Christmas night and we were able to spend some time together. 

Caleb and Eli loved getting to spend time with their cousin and now that he and Eli are getting older, they can really play together.  So adorable.  All the toys were pretty much community property while we were there and they shared surprisingly well.

Caleb got a new bike for Christmas from Oma and Papa and was excited to get to ride it around in their huge unfinished basement.  He's a little confused why he can't ride it around our house while it is still cold and snowy outside!  The things you can do at Grandma's house I guess!
 

 

We left late on the 26th to be home to celebrate Eli's birthday the next day.  While the visit was short, we had a great time and the kiddos had a lot of fun playing together.  They were very blessed to received so many new toys and clothes and have been playing like crazy men.  

As Caleb would say, "Merry Christmas to all.  All have good night." It's close, right?