Wow-wie! I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone already. It's seems like once the day after Thanksgiving hits, it's a whirlwind until Christmas and then it's over quicker than it started.
This Christmas was definitely one for the memory books. I feel like Mason finally "got it". Probably not fully and not as much as next year, but he totally understood the concept of opening presents this year. What he didn't understand was the concept of waiting until Christmas to open them and the second Seth or I wold turn our heads away for a second, he would sneak over and tear a corner off. Case in point, a text I got from Seth on Christmas Eve while I was at work :
But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me back up a few days to the 23rd.
In our family, we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas. So, on Tuesday, December 23rd, we celebrated Hanukkah with Seth's family. We all got together at my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's new house and had appetizers, dinner, and dessert as well as played the white elephant gift exchange game and exchanged presents. Mason, of course, made out and totally scored tons of awesome things and Seth and I didn't do too bad either. Seth's Grandma (Bubbie) usually just gives the adult kids money or a gift card somewhere and when everyone but me got presents, I was a little confused. Not to sound greedy, but I started wondering what I did this year to get left out! I figured she just forgot and was going to leave it alone when my niece handed me a box. I opened it and Bubbie had given me this GORGEOUS scarf. These people know I am scarf obsessed and this was the perfect present. I loved it so much that I wore it on top of the scarf I was already wearing and kept it on all night.
Wednesday, December 24th I had to work (boo). Seth was home with Mason and I was at work until 2:30pm when my boss let us all go home early (woohoo!). I quickly drove home (or as quickly as horrible holiday traffic would let me lol), got us all packed up, and we headed to my brother-in-law's mom and dad's house for Christmas Eve dinner. We ate way too much and opened too many presents, and Santa even made a stop on his way to deliver all the toys to the kids around the world!
And we FINALLY got a good Santa picture after all the Santa fails we had!
Hallelujah!
Then we headed home, put Mason to bed, and Santa's elves went to work putting the finishing touches on the gifts under the tree.
Thursday (Christmas) morning, a Christmas miracle happened. Mason slept in until 7:30am! It was a miracle indeed because that meant that Seth and I slept in until 7:30am too! I'm not quite sure how because we were both so excited for Mason to open his presents, but I guess going to bed at 11:30pm will do that to you. However, that being said, Seth and I woke up on the right side of the bed and were super excited that Mason was finally awake. Mason, on the other hand, did not. Mr. Cranky needed some time to wake up still and did not have quite the reaction I expected.
He soon turned his frown upside down and finally made his way down the stairs. And once we started him on opening presents, he was unstoppable.
From Seth and I, Mason got a Go Go Smart Wheels dump truck, a wooden Brewster (Chuggington) train, some fruit snacks,
a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse t-shirt, some wooden play food, a hot wheels car, some replay recycled forks and spoons, and of course, some Christmas colored goldfish in his stocking and some Cars books, some Sandra Boynton books, some Tiny Toms, a Melissa and Doug puzzle, some Melissa and Doug food, and a
new bike under the tree.
It was so much fun to see Mason unwrap all his gifts and get such a big smile on his face.
After Mason opened his presents, it was time to head over to Seth's mom's house for more presents. (This kid is so spoiled, let me tell you). We arrived around 9am and had so much fun opening presents, eating breakfast, and playing with presents that we didn't leave until around 1pm when we determined that Mason needed to take a nap before we headed back over for dinner.
(The absolute hit of the morning : the Go Go Smart Wheels Train Set from Nanny. It's huge and moves on it's own and Mason was in HEAVEN for almost an hour, just sitting there watching it go around the tracks. A MAJOR win in my book!)
However, little man had another idea. We put him down at 1:30pm for his nap and he screamed, yelled, banged on his blinds, open and shut his dresser drawers, and knocked every book off his book shelf until 3:45pm when I guess he tired himself out enough to need to sleep. He finally fell asleep for his nap just in time for us to need to wake him up at 5pm to head back over for dinner. Needless to say, he wasn't the happiest camper during dinner but we all survived :)
We ate dinner and too much dessert and I actually remembered to take a family picture as well!
All in all, it was a great Christmas and holiday season and while I think it came and went too fast, I was more than ready to take down the Christmas decorations on the 26th and call it a day.
Merry (belated) Christmas!
