I'm the Mama!: 12/23/07

Merry Christmas! We've had a pretty good Christmas this year! We did all of our traveling over the weekend so we could stay home today.

On Saturday, we traveled to my dad's and stepmother's. We just relaxed, visited with Dad, Patti (step-mother), Deb (step-sister), Michelle (step-sister) and Jeff (step-brother-in-law) and had a good time. Christopher enjoyed playing with Cooper (step-nephew), who's 13 months older than him. C's been a little interested in Thomas the Train for quite some time, but thanks to Cooper, he's a good bit more interested now. He loves watching Thomas on tv. Unfortunately, we only have 1 recorded show on the DVR (none on DVD) and it only comes on tv on Saturday mornings. I'm getting sick of the same show being played over and over! For dinner, we ate ham, which was really yummy. However, we should've been eating prime rib, but it got delivered to the wrong address! Christopher could've cared less about opening gifts, but he got a rocking horse (Christmas gift), Vtech computer (birthday gift) and a pair of toddler roller skates (birthday gift from my sister, Christy). Although it's for 24+ months, it'll probably be a little while before I let him try the skates just because he isn't the most stable on his feet yet. I forgot my camera, but here's one of him on his rocking horse that I got today:

Mindy got some, so hopefully she'll forward them on to me. Christopher went all day without a nap and ended up falling asleep on the car ride home. It was torture for all of us trying to get him to bed when we got home! Then, he woke up at 4:00 in the morning and demanded my attention. Not fun!

On Sunday, we went to church where I worked the nursery (my assigned Sunday to work Extended Session). Afterward, we ran home and gathered stuff together and then headed to my mom's. We spent the afternoon down there visiting with her, Cheryl (my aunt), Mindy (my sister), Katie (my niece), Brian (Katie's husband) and Joshua (Katie and Brian's 25 month old son). We ate a ham dinner around 4:00...about the time Christopher decided he needed a nap and pitched a fit. Therefore, he missed eating with us. After dinner and Christopher's nap, we opened gifts. He got several good things, including an Elmo computer, an Elmo chair, a train set (from Katie), some books and an outfit. We headed home later than we'd planned, so Christopher had another late night.

On Christmas Eve, we didn't do much of anything at all. Shad was told on Friday that he could have the day off, which was really nice. Other than going grocery shopping for our Christmas dinner and making a quick trip to Wal-Mart for a couple of things (surprisingly not bad at all), we just lounged around until it was time to head to church for the Christmas Eve service that evening. Since there was no childcare offered, Christopher had to sit with us, which was a first for him. He surprisingly did pretty good for a 2-year old! He had a hard time whispering, but overall, was really well behaved. He was really cute when his friend, Anna Grace, went running after her mom: he yelled after her (while the service was going on), "Anna Grace! Anna Grace!" LOL! It was too funny! After getting home, we decided to use one of our gift cards and ordered a Papa John's pizza for dinner. After Christopher went to bed, Shad informed me that he wanted me to open one of my gifts then since it wasn't the best gift to open in front of your child. It wasn't too bad...just a gift card to Victoria's Secret...for a bra. He said he'd intended to buy me one, but when he got there, he was a bit overwhelmed. LOL! I told him not to worry because *I'm* overwhelmed when *I* walk in there, too! LOL! After I opened my gift, we watched Live Free and Die Hard (the most recent Die Hard movie) and didn't go to bed until around 12:30.

Around 8:30 this morning, I was woken up by Shad saying that Christopher was kicking the wall. It wasn't long before I heard, "Mommy!" so I went to get him up. I walked into his room only to find him sitting on top of his crib railing as happy as a lark! {gasp!} He wasn't even panicking this time! After rescuing him, the first thing he wanted to do was ride his new rocking horse. Then, I was able to convince him to go out to the living room to see what Santa brought him. He walked out and immediately recognized his gift: a Radio Flyer tricycle! I wish I'd had the camera ready for his expression! It was too cute! So, he started riding the thing around the house, went into our bedroom and what do 'ya know...he fell over. :( Poor thing was afraid of it for a little while, but we managed to get him back on later. We all opened gifts right away (yep, still in pj's and bed head!...not too many pictures as a result). Other than his tricycle, Christopher also got an Elmo phone, a bucket of Play-Doh and accessories and a cute little battery-operated race track. My other gift from Shad was Adobe Photoshop Elements (what I was expecting). Unfortunately, I won't be able to use it until we get a new computer in February/March...one that's capable of supporting the program, plus the video editing program, Elements Premiere. Shad's gifts from me were a UT license plate (to replace the one I broke) and a bluetooth adapter for his truck.

Richard came over around 1:30. After Christopher showed Granddaddy what all he'd already gotten, we opened more gifts. From Granddaddy, C got a Play-Doh activity caddy (we've got PLENTY of Play-Doh and accessories now!), a wooden UT Vols rocking chair from Cracker Barrel, a bunch of books and some Elmo dvd's. The really big thing was Shad's gift...a new gas grill! Richard wrapped the grill cover and gave that to Shad to be opened. The actual grill was being stored over at a friend's grandmother's house here in town. So, Shad and I went over and picked it up. Boy, was he surprised when he saw it! I should've had the camera! Here's a picture of it:

Since we'd already had ham 2 nights in a row, we decided to do something different and went with fondue for our Christmas meal. It was so good that I think we want to do that each year. We started off with an appetizer of a cheese mixture (cheddar cheese, mozzerella cheese, Velveeta cheese, pico de gallo and jalapenos). Unfortunately, we only have 1 fondue pot, so Shad just heated it in the microwave. We dipped veggies, tortillas and chips in it. For the main course, we had a flat-iron steak, chicken, shrimp and veggies. It was VERY yummy, but it sure was time consuming! We were so stuffed that we didn't even want to *think* about dessert! LOL! After dinner, Christopher stayed up watching his new DVD from Granddaddy (Elmo Goes Potty) and playing with Play-Doh. He finally went to bed around 8:45.

Shad has to return to work tomorrow, but Christopher and I have nothing planned. I highly doubt we'll venture out since stores will most likely be very crowded with returns and after-holiday sales. I've got some gift cards that I got and want to use, but will probably wait until later this week or sometime next week when crowds might not be so bad.

Here are a few Christmas pictures that were taken:

Grandma, cousin Joshua and Christopher