Christmas Wrap-Up!!

The night before the night before Christmas...we spent it with some of our favorite peeps...exchanging gifts! Brandon ordered theirs (and couldn't tell me what it was because mine was similar...that took some major trust :o) Our gifts didn't come until the day after Christmas! hah! We had a blast having dinner, exchanging the kids gifts, and then going to drive through a local place that decks their farm out in lights each year. It was so fun to load up and go together.
Harrison rested up during the drive...opened his eyes for a few seconds at the light display and slept all the way home! ha!


On the way home, we stopped by a house in an ordinary neighborhood in our town. This house does something out of the ordinary for Christmas though. They have their lights set to music which you play on a local radio station as you sit and watch their light display! Too fun!


On Christmas Eve, we went to the Candle Light Service at our church
and then my family joined us at our house for our gift swap. We draw names for the adults and then everyone buys for the kiddos!! From the church service to the family gathering...Harrison was quite whiney and wiggly and fussy. He just didn't bring his "A" game! We coudn't figure it out just thinking he was tired. The next morning, we noticed THREE new teeth on top...there had been a nub or two we were watching but we were not expecting THREE!! They were on the top and big too!! Poor baby boy!!

This is the group shot!
I think these boys have many more Christmases to look forward to like this one! Matchy Matchy hats from GiGi. They got outfits too!
The babies with Papa and MeMe...
My sis and her little fam... The puppies were getting ready for the big morning by resting by the tree!
This is Harrison getting ready to dive-in to his presents on Christmas morning! We are trying to keep Christmas gifts reasonable...EVEN starting now. We want to enjoy the Santa fun and also keep the real reason for Christmas in perspective. That being said, I saw in the comments on another blog where a family does these gifts for their children: something they want - something they need - something they can wear - and something they can read. We liked the idea so we swiped the idea :o) The goal is to sit down with our children in the years to come and help them write their letter to Santa...encouraging them to think through each item in the select category and explain to them that gift giving is just a way to remember the most SPECIAL gift we've all been given...JESUS! We will fit whatever we can in the stockings and we will do PJ's for the whole fam on Christmas Eve. We are sure grandparents and other family can take care of any other items we don't squeeze on the list for Santa.

Harrison's gift from Santa fit perfectly in the 4 categories. He got a busy ball bopper because he just loves them so we were sure he wanted us to let Santa know. Santa came through. He got a whole outfit complete with shoes and socks(something to wear). He got another pair of shoes because he NEEDS shoes and he got a DVD...because he has LOTS of books and we thought a DVD would be close to reading. Those DVD's are what get us through our breathing treatments 2-6 times a day (depending on how much we need it)

After we had our Christmas at home, we headed to my parents for breakfast. Harrison was worn out so he fell asleep on the way!
That's about all of the capturing I got on my camera!!

This Christmas was so very very special to us. We so enjoyed time with our sweet boy and our families. We have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to in the years to come!! God has been so good to our family this year!