Christmas Eve

Because I am working over Christmas this year, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve.  It was a great day!  I did have to go to work for a little while but then was able to get back and spend the rest of the day with my boys.  We opened presents, went to church and ate a lot!  Jackson has gotten so many wonderful gifts that we are spreading opening out over a few days so that he doesn't get quite so overwhelmed.  Today he opened a present from us- a Ball Poppin' Dino which he really seems to like.  He is very focused on figuring out how it works.  He tries out a variety of things to stick through one of the holes in it, he wants to know what makes it turn on, etc.  Very cute!

 

His absolute favorite toy of the day (I think) was from Queenie and was a drum and variety of other musical instruments.  He LOVED beating on the drum with the drumsticks and was also into shaking the egg-shaped maracas!  He liked placing the maracas in the Ball Poppin' Dino because it made extra noise :)  He is definitely very musically oriented- he loves anything that he can make noise with!  He also loved the use the drum as support to walk around the room- he would push it in front of him while he walked!

We also got several wonderful books to share with him.  He loves "The Little Blue Truck" which is a board book I found at Target and that Santa put in his stocking :)  It's super cute!

He was such a busy boy that it didn't take much for him to take a nap (starting out on me).

We went to church after lunch which was wonderful.  He did great throughout service!  When the pastor made jokes and the congregation would laugh, he would start giggling about 30 seconds after everyone else had stopped :)  We thought it was coincidental but in the truck on the way home, he started giggling after Del and I laughed at something.

Before church :

 

At home after church (note minimal snowfall):

We finished the day with our Christmas dinner.  We had stuffed beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, chorizo and apple stuffing, corn casserole, grilled bacon-wrapped asparagus with gruyere in the center and a peppermint chocolate roll cake to finish it.  We were stuffed!  Jackson tried everything but was more a fan of corn casserole and stuffing than of steak or mashed potatoes :)

 What a change from last year:

We want to say thank you to all of our friends and family that have been such a comfort to us in the past year!  We are beyond blessed to have had such a happy year!  After the fear and anxiety that surrounded last Christmas, this Christmas is the exact opposite.  Del has been released from having his blood counts checked regularly and now only needs to have them checked if he gets sick!  This is very exciting news to us.  He will have to continue to take antibiotics every week for the at least the next couple of years to hopefully prevent a recurrence of the Campylobacter.  Small price to pay though for being otherwise healthy.  

 Merry Christmas!!