It's winter…that means it is time for CHRISTMAS
All these new traditions started early. As in December 1st.
Eli got this from Nana…
I let him open it.
An Advent calendar!
I won't lie, I thought it was silly. He won't care about an advent calendar…but I'll humor her
I forgot one thing. Advent calendars have DOORS.
and Eli loves doors.
We eventually decorated the house. Complete with giant Rodney.
and a tree
a very sparkly one
and the living room
This all sounds so simple, but seriously, it almost didn't happen. We were still moving in and I told Rico that I was throwing in the towel on this Christmas. Eli wouldn't remember it anyway, so maybe it was ok if I didn't put up a tree.
He basically said "I will stay up as late as you need and do whatever you need me to do to make this happen"
So, we had a watered down version of Christmas decorating this year, and I'm SO happy to have it.
Even the library got in the holiday spirit.
Yes, that is a Christmas tree made of books.
Rico's work had a holiday event too. They rented out the movie theater, catered in breakfast, and managed to get Santa there!
with no line might I add. He was a little unsure.
This was at the end of the hallway, so obviously we had to try to get a picture with it.
With 10 days left until Christmas, his grandma brought these- to start another tradition:
He opens 1 book each night until Christmas.
He gets to choose the book and open it every night. It not only got us in the holiday spirit, it helped Eli to practice opening presents.
Next up: we broke out the Santa suit that Eli got from my mother-in-law waaay back at my baby shower.
We visited Rico at work.
A lovely lady offered to take our family photo at the second tree.
On the way home I stopped by my sister's work to spread more holiday cheer. He didn't look so cheery here, but I promise he was a hit.
First up: Christmas at my parent's house…
and ANOTHER tradition
Christmas pajamas!
We used to get to open 1 present every Christmas eve…and it was always PJ's to wear that night.
I think she did a great job.
Lizzie got PJ's too. They opened presents (duh)
Eli did more climbing on his presents then he did anything else.
Yes, he is standing on one package to get to the next.
Lizzie helped Eli open presents (thank goodness, or we would have been there forever)
She loved her present from us- a baby doll to take care of when mommy's hands are busy taking care of her soon to be new baby sister.
Sounds cute, right?
Um, well, we didn't read the box until we got home and were wrapping it.
The baby sucks its bottle- and then CRIES when you take the bottle away.
oops.
To wrap up the night, my sister read Lizzie a story, I think it was called "Santa Comes to Kansas"
It has all these Wichita and Kansas City locations throughout the book- it was super cute.
Lizzie got all excited when Santa flew over Daddy's office
She was super into it
Oh my gosh- this was when Santa was eating the cookies and milk
my sister: "Look Lizzie, he's at OUR HOUSE, eating the COOKIES WE LEFT!"
Eli snuck in at the end.
Don't be fooled, he doesn't have any idea what was going on.
He LOVED his presents..as did I (which makes sense since I pretty much picked them all out)
Some Melissa and Doug Puzzles and a puzzle rack
Which he likes to climb on
And a music set
Which he ALSO likes to climb on
and Mega Blocks
Which he LOVES, despite the fact that he has yet to get 2 blocks to come together.
He also got this rubber jumper cow.
He was interested.
So I put him on
Then this happened. Yes, the box said 18 months +, I knew I was pushing it
On Christmas Eve we did Christmas with Rico's family.
We had breakfast, opened presents, has a marshmallow fight with our marshmallow shooters, and played Apples to Apples for PRIZES
He was SUPER spoiled, as we all were. He got lots of bath toys/ towels,
TONS of adorable clothes (seriously, you have to see this stuff),
and, as you would expect, lots of toys!
Rico became a human play toy. He had a niece pulling off an eyelid and a son ripping off his lips- and he loved every second of it.
Next up, church and Rico's extended family
(I don't believe in pictures in the sanctuary, so I don't have a picture of it, but he hung out on my dad's lap almost half the service and then slept through the second half. It was near perfection)
Eli was dressed to the 9's.
I was worried about mixing patterns (a polka dot bow tie on a plaid shirt), but I had been noticing that all the pro athletes and announcers were doing it, and I KNOW they have stylists, so I went with it.
He got that shirt from my mom for Christmas, so he got to wear it basically immediately.
We went back to the Great Grandparent's house to open presents.
I love that at family events, Eli gets whisked away and loved by so many people that I often have no idea where he is. At one point, I looked over and he was just hanging out with a couple of uncles.
There's something adorable about men and babies.
Then, last, but not least, Christmas with Rico's dad's extended family
He got to wear one of his adorable outfits that he got for Christmas from Rico's mom
He got to double team Megan (with his cousin Grace)
We opened even MORE presents
(I'm telling you people, I am spoiled.)
Again, he enjoyed ripping/eating paper and standing on almost everything
And he got the final tradition- his first piggy bank!
His great grandparents filled it up nicely, so it was nice and stable for him to do his favorite thing…use it as something to help him stand
Ok, ok, we get it, you want to stand and walk around. I had to get this shot as they left the room, because his little outfit was just so cute from the outside too!
All these photos and events and you might notice something missing.
What about our family?
As in, our new little family of 3?
There are lots of different ways I could answer that, but basically,
that wasn't a priority this year.
We got him a gift (because I felt like he had to have at least ONE present from us), but that's it.
He didn't even open it on Christmas morning (he got into it a few days early and we let him)
Christmas morning didn't involve any stockings or presents by anyone.
Even Rico and I didn't have presents to give each other (he is building me something and he got tickets to a concert that aren't in yet)
I could say that we did it on purpose, but honestly, we were just so busy making sure we were able to get to everything else that I forgot that we also need to do something for us.
So, I dropped the ball on Christmas, but we had SO many other wonderful memories that I'm giving myself a break.
I just forget sometimes that I'm an adult and that we are a real family all on our very own.
BUT, you better believe that next year we WILL have stockings
and we WILL leave cookies for Santa
and we WILL have at least SOMETHING to open on Christmas morning.
…or if we don't it will be on purpose, not just because I forgot.
