Christmas 2009 - Part I

I realize that Christmas was a month ago, but I wanted to do a post about our awesome first Christmas with Jacob! Better late, than never, right?!

We had a very busy holiday season filled with family time, traveling, food and of course presents...lots of them! Jacob especially received a boatload of gifts (some of which are still in the boxes in our spare room. There are only so many toys this boy can play with at one time, so I am keeping some for the future.)

Our wonderful first Christmas as parents started on Christmas Eve morning. Keith's mom insisted on mailing us all of our presents from her (even though we were going to see her a few days later for New Year's). Since we were going to be heading to my parents' house on Christmas Eve afternoon and staying through the weekend, we decided to start our present opening that morning.

Keith surprised me by making a trip to Dunkin Donuts for my favorite donuts and coffee and while we enjoyed those yummy treats, Jacob experienced his first present opening. At first, he wasn't really interested except for looking at the pretty colored wrapping paper.

Once he realized that this pretty colored stuff also tasted good (I'm not sure it really did taste good, although he seemed to enjoy it!), he was much more interested! It was really funny watching him try to stuff as much wrapping paper in his mouth as possible!

After Jacob finished opening his presents and went down for his morning nap, Keith and I opened our presents from his mom and then got packed and ready to head to Richmond. After I dropped off cookies that I had made for our next door and across the street neighbors, we were off to my parents' house. We arrived there in the early evening, in enough time to have dinner with them.

Our original plan was to take Jacob to the Robertson family Christmas Eve party to visit and celebrate with some of my closest friends and their family. Our plans changed though, after it was apparent that Jacob was not going to be able to stay awake long enough to go with us. My parents offered to stay with him while Keith and I went to the party since I was still very much looking forward to seeing old friends.

Well, soon after I put Jacob to bed for the night around 7pm, he woke up crying very hard - presumably with teething pain - and he was inconsolable for over an hour. It was very hard to get him to settle down and by the time he was fast asleep, needless to say, we ended up missing the party. My evening ended up being pretty boring as my parents went to their "midnight" mass (which actualy started at 9:30pm) and Keith went to "midnight" service (which started at 10:30pm) at our old church. I stayed home with a sleeping Jacob and ended up talking to my aunt and sister on the phone for quite a long time.

The next day - on Christmas Day - we had a very relaxing day at my parents' house. Jacob donned one of his many holiday outfits and we enjoyed spending time together with family.

Karen, Brian & Sierra and Mike & Blakely all arrived at my parents' house in the afternoon on Christmas day. And, my grandparents flew in from Rochester in the afternoon also. Katie and her family decided to stay at their house for Christmas so the Stank family Christmas celebration was planned for December 26th when everyone would be together.

On Christmas night though, we decided to allow the kids (Jacob & Sierra) to open a few presents.

Again, Jacob wasn't really sure what was going on, but with help from Daddy, he started to get a better idea of it.

The next morning (Dec. 26th), the Arnolds arrived around 9am and we all had breakfast together. My mom made awesome breakfast casseroles for us all to enjoy and we then started the present opening extravaganza! There were so many presents that it literally took us all day & evening (and for Jacob & Sierra...part of the next day) to open them all. We were all truly blessed by the generosity of our parents, grandparents and my siblings.

By the third day, I think Jacob was thinking "seriously?? more presents?? oooh, wait....more yummy wrapping paper!"

He was also happy to play with some of the toys that he received!

That night, after most of the present opening was complete, we sat down to a delicious dinner with the whole family. As you can see, since our family has grown so much, we have to split into two separate groups.

The Millers & Arnolds enjoying dinner

Mom & Dad, Mike & Blakely, Nana & Papa and the Weimers at the table

And, even though Jacob didn't get to partake in the same food that we did, he still very much enjoyed his first Christmas dinner.

It was so awesome to celebrate Jacob's first Christmas and to spend time with my family. I love the time that we get to all spend together (which doesn't happen very often these days). We have such a good time together and the warmth of the holidays makes it even more special!

Stay tuned for "Christmas 2009 - Part II"...our trip to PA to spend New Year's with Keith's family (and yes....more present opening!)