We spent our Christmas Eve morning burning off some mega calories at Pump It Up in Athens. A few other families from the ward came and it was fun to start off the holidays with some action. Henry was terrified of the bouncy castles and refused to go in them willingly. After a few minutes of coaxing we got him to bounce on a mat at the bottom of the huge slide. In the end, he was also forced to go down the slides a couple of times and enjoyed bouncing off the slide to the mat. Maybe next time he will be more excited.
Steve and I also raced through an obstacle course and I creamed him.
For Christmas Eve we started some fun new traditions. I made tamales which turned out pretty good and of course we made cookies for Santa. Henry loved cutting the cookies and "helping" put them on the cookie sheet.
We also were gifted this advent calendar from my mom. It was the one we used growing up as kids. I almost cried when I opened it. Henry loved putting up each little figure everyday and sometimes 2 a day as I would forget to do it daily.
Another tradition I had growing up was making name tags to leave on our stockings for Santa. Each family member decorated a name tag and left it in their stocking. Santa would leave our names next to our gifts Christmas morning.
We also decorated the cookies for Santa and made him this plate. Henry was very excited the next day to see that Santa (I) had taken bites out of each cookie.
After decorating and eating cookies, Steve read the story of Christ's birth from Luke 2 while Henry put up the pictures on a flannel board. Yes, this flannel board story is circa 1983. Then we sang "Away in a Manger" and Henry went to bed. It took him awhile to fall asleep so we were grateful we had built his little kitchen days before. With everything set up, we went to bed.
Santa brought Henry a new, red kitchen full of felt food, a Mickey Mouse cell phone, a talking zoo with lots of animals and a huge drawing book.
Santa brought Steve and I a new Wii and some movies plus way too much candy.
Henry woke up early but we woke up earlier. We all showered and got dressed before the party started at 6:30. Henry came out into the living room and was in awe of all that Santa had left. After looking at our stockings, we took turns opening gifts which helped it stretch out to about an hour. Henry loved handing each of us a new gift to open and of course he loved opening all his new gifts too. I used a number system this year so all the presents had numbers instead of names. We were very blessed from family who showered us and Henry with a wonderful Christmas. Steve did a particularly wonderful job mixing items from my list (new art from etsy), things I needed (armband for phone while running and new headphones) and surprises (necklace and gift card to Entourage). He also got me tickets to see Beauty and the Beast which is coming to Athens in February.
After opening everything, we had waffles for breakfast and candy too. The floor was soon covered with toys, puzzle pieces and felt raviolis. For dinner we invited the Nelson's over and we had a delicious turkey and all the classic dishes. Steve and I each managed to take small naps to keep us going. We also got to Skype with our families and see everyone we missed and love.
I have admit we were a little overwhelmed with all Henry's new toys. It was unsettling how quickly his room filled up. But we have sorted out old toys for storage and sent some things to Goodwill and life is a little more organized these days.
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