We put our tree up in early December, while listening to Christmas music. (It has yet to be taken down, as I have not felt up to tackling it yet, so it and all the other Christmas decorations are sitting tucked away in the extra bedroom for now). Funny thing about that star on top. We didn't have a star, and I wanted to get out sometime and find one I liked. Well, David came home from shopping at Goodwill one day with that star in hand. I told him no way we were putting that on our tree! (It also blinks off and on, and while it might not look that bad in the picture, it really is, and really doesn't go with the rest of our tree.) Of course David put it on the tree, and I never got around to buying another one!
It's so much fun having a little kid during a holiday, and Christmas is an especially fun season! Eli received a big basket of musical instruments for his birthday, so we did a lot of singing of "Jingle Bells" while shaking our bells. Eli always lit up when we sang it together. He also enjoyed singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." We unfortunately weren't able to make it to any Christmas parties due to sickness, so Eli never met Santa, but we talked about him a fair amount. He enjoyed seeing Santa in his special "Twas the Night Before Christmas" book recorded by Grammie and Grandpa, that he listened to A LOT.
We had a rather quiet Christmas this year, as each of my other siblings spent the holiday at their in-laws. David, Eli, and I headed over to my parents the Sunday evening before Christmas, as my Indiana sister, Rebecca, and her husband were there that night for dinner and to exchange presents with my parents. My mom went ahead and made that dinner the "fancy" Christmas Eve dinner with ham and yummy wassail. We watched White Christmas and enjoyed basking in the warm glow of the fire, with the beautifully decorated Christmas tree in our midst.
On Christmas Eve night our small group ate a good pot roast dinner, I played Christmas carols on the piano, my dad read the story of the Nativity, and we watched our classic traditional black-and-white 1940s "Twas the Night Before Christmas," as well as It's a Wonderful Life (after Eli was tucked in bed dreaming of sugar plums).
We didn't wake up any earlier than normal on Christmas morning. We were excited to get Eli out of bed and tell him how Santa Claus had come and brought him presents! We joined my parents in the family room to open stockings. Eli of course saw his first stocking stuffer (a toy airplane) and was content with that and not interested in seeing what else there was to pull out. : ) We were all treated to an abundance of goodies!
Before opening the rest of our presents we paused to have our yummy, also traditional, breakfast pizza!
Eli received a t-ball set from Grammie and Grandpa M. He and Grandpa had a lot of fun hitting the ball!
Helping Grandpa open his big present.
It was a picture of our whole family. Grammie's pointing family members out to Eli.
That afternoon we headed over to David's parents to spend the rest of the day with them. We had planned to spend the night there, but we had a big snow storm warning, so we had to cut our trip short and head home early.
Eli with Grandpa H.
Immersed in playing with Grandma's vast amount of cars.
Loving his new toy tricycle! Couldn't quite reach the pedals or figure out how it works, but hopefully will this Spring!
We're so grateful for the time we had to spend with both of our families to celebrate such a special holiday. We're thankful for the gift of our Savior, and for the opportunities we have to remember and reflect on Him.
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