Granddad and Nana were the first to arrive for the festivities on Christmas Eve. We had a yummy shrimp dinner, then let Nathan open his Christmas Eve present, then we read him "The Night Before Christmas." Though I was a little nosgalic that it wasn't the pop-up storybook that I grew up with, Gran and Pawpaw bought Nathan a super-cool recordable book. That night, only Gran and Pawpaw had recorded their pages, but by the end of the weekend Brian, Nana, Granddad and I had all recorded our own pages as well. How cool is it that Nathan has a book that is read to him by his parents and grandparents?!
While Nathan and I try to pose for the picture, Brian's busy figuring out how the book works. Typical!
Christmas morning Nathan let us sleep in until 7:30 (hooray!), which I believe was our Christmas present from him. We didn't open presents in the morning because Gran and Pawpaw hadn't arrived yet. Instead we feasted on a breakfast of sausage balls and homemade cinnamon rolls, then played the morning away. Gran and Pawpaw arrived between 10 and 11, beating the snow by about an hour. We snacked, visited and watched the beautiful snow fall while Nathan took a nap, then around 2 we had Christmas dinner. What a feast! Prime rib with horseradish sauce, cranberry salad, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, rolls, followed by a choice of about 12 desserts. When we were finally able to rouse ourselves from our post-feasting stupor, we decided the time had come for Christmas presents.
As with last year (and I'm sure every year to come), Nathan was the star of the show. Because he wanted to play with each new toy as it was opened (which we all encouraged), the present-opening went slowly. I took some pictures early on, then switched to the video camera, and then just decided to forgo capturing the memories in favor of enjoying myself.
Nathan loved figuring out how to "start" his mower. We were all so impressed that he was strong enough to pull the cord!
The lawn mower from Aunt Karen and family was a huge hit, and had to be hidden after 10 to 15 minutes of play so that we could move on with present opening.
The rest of the day we spent marveling over the rapidly accumulating snow, chatting, playing and eating. We had a relaxing and fun-filled Christmas day!
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