Christmas Past!

Well, my favorite holiday has come and gone. I can't say that I am too sad that its over, though. When Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is in full swing, I am like a giddy kid. I love singing the Christmas songs at the top of my lungs! Everyone seems to be a little nicer and it is always a good conversation starter with patients. But, by the time it is here, I'm done. It has just run its course and I am ready to start the new year. The only thing I do miss is the threat of "Santa" with Kaleb. Every parent knows what I'm talking about. Here is the usual conversation: "Kaleb, please stop (insert bad behavior here). If you don't stop right now, I am going to call Santa and tell him that you are a bad boy and don't get any presents. (Pick up phone here and pretend to call.) Do you want Santa to bring you presents?... Then please stop so I don't have to call him." I worked pretty well the first few weeks but apparently even Kaleb was getting tired of it all because it was losing its effect. I think we are going to have to invest in a Elf on the Shelf next year and see how that works out. On a side note, I bet they are on sale right now and I could get one dirt cheap... Gonna have to check on that! =)

This Christmas was great for a number of reasons. First, Paul and I are in a really good spot this year to be able to give Kaleb everything we think he wanted and/or needed. Of course, if you asked him, all he wanted was a tractor! (CHECK!) Second, this year was the first year that Kaleb really understood Santa and the idea that he was getting presents from everyone this year. It was great seeing his excitement at the idea of it all.

Here are a few pictures that sums up our Christmas adventure in TN.

Kaleb and I headed north Friday after work. Paul had some business in Memphis to take care of earlier so he was already in town. We have found that two cars are needed in order to get everything back to MS in one trip.

Saturday at lunch, we went to Paul's mom's house and Kaleb got to open his first presents of the season. He is really lucky to have two sets of grandparents that go above and beyond for him. She got him his most favorite things and he made us take EVERYTHING out of the box. I left my phone in the truck (and my camera in MS) so I unfortunately didn't get any pictures.

Saturday night, our friends had a tacky christmas sweater party. We decided for cute instead of tacky, but we had fun just the same.

Sunday, we had dinner at my Meme's house. It was delicious as always. Unfortunately, my niece, Laurin, ended up sick (turns out to be the flu! Poor thing!) but she as a trooper and hung in there to open presents. Here are a few pics:

Monday night was Christmas eve and the tradition is to go to Ma's house. That side of the family is large and seems to get bigger every year making it a hoot and a half! I didn't get a picture of everything but lets just say, there was a lot going on. 

This little angel just gets cuter every time I see her. This is the present we got her. It is a Tangled doll with a matching dress for her. I think she liked it seeing she made T take it out of the package so she could put it on! So cute!

After we left Ma's house, we headed back to my mom's to open some more presents from Nana and Pop and then hit the sack for Santa. Mom and Dad do tend to go a little overboard but I know it makes them happy to spoil their grandkids! And spoil him they did.

Notice the HUGE combine from Pop. It was really neat. It was a perfect model of a new combine. He LOVED it!

He also loved his new kurio tablet from Nana.

And my present from mom and dad. I'm really excited. 

Santa. Notice the John Deere gator that was covered with presents. He didn't even see it was there until later when we started unboxing the toys!

This was my favorite thing to give to him. It is 30 in tall! It was the first thing he noticed from Santa.

Think he liked it?! He rode him around on his new gator. When we got back to MS, he made me back the cars out of the garage so he could ride batman on the gator some more.

That sums up our Christmas adventure 2012. Now we're ready to start the new year! I hope you had a Christmas full of love and family like we did. The presents are nice but its the family that makes it a true holiday.