Christmas 2013

Santa went a little crazy this year. 

Actually, that's crap.

I didn't let Santa take credit for as much as I maybe should have. So we went a little crazy and I let Santa take credit for the stuff Grant asked him for and then some other stuff that I thought Grant would go crazy over. But it turns out...he didn't care what was from Santa. I was a little neurotic over what was "from Santa" and what was from us. But in the end it didn't matter. And I know for next year (although that older gets it may matter?). What matters is that Grant had a great Christmas and we had so much fun watching him open his presents.

Christmas Eve - which was low key and only the 3 of us this year - ended with Grant putting out cookies & milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.

Santa really likes those sugar cookies from the grocery store
that have the mountain of frosting on top.

Then we stayed up for a bit after Grant went to bed so I could wrap some last minute stuff and put out all his presents (and Husband stayed on the look out for Grant). I like to leave Grant's presents hidden so when he gets up he's really surprised.

Santa wraps the presents that come to our house. Even if it
means a giant gift bag...I don't like unwrapped presents under the tree.

Husband was an absolute child on Christmas morning, practically jumping on the bed to wake me up. Christmas music was already on in the living room and he was working on getting Grant up too. He managed that, showed him that Santa enjoyed his heavily frosted cookies and presumably fed the reindeer their snack since most of the plate contents were gone (all this while I made some very necessary coffee) then it was stocking time. 

We always do stockings first and Grant's was pretty well loaded.

Everything from undies to gold doubloons!

Presents were very exciting. We tried not to make it go too fast. That wasn't all that difficult because Grant loved everything he opened and wanted to open it to play with immediately (except clothes...he's rarely excited about clothes but that's ok because I am).

Yay! Skipper from Planes...which he loves and still hadn't seen.

Batman glasses!

New board game!

For the boy who pretends to "Hulk Smash" everything

New hockey sticks and gloves!

That needed to be tested...

Immediately.

So excited!...About?

Planes! Good job, Santa.

 What Grant wanted most from Santa was "big Buzz Lightyear". He's obsessed with Toy Story right now and loves him some Buzz. He had spied a Buzz toy at the Disney Store months ago and couldn't get it out of his head. And when he opened he started yelling "What's this? No way! NO WAY! IT'S BIG BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!" It was so funny to watch him and great to see him love it so much.

We asked him if he loved it. This is him telling Daddy "YEAH!"

Captain America gear!

Grant got lots of stuff. More than I'm really willing to keep posting pictures of...because do you really need to see endless pictures of him opening presents? No, you don't.

The last thing he had to open was the one from Santa with the giant bag over it. And after running over and touching 400 times and asking repeatedly what it was, he finally said "Is it a bicycle? Is it??"

It was, in fact, a bicycle.

It was a really great Christmas morning.

We go to my mother-in-law's house for Christmas lunch after we do our morning stuff. Grant never eats well on Holidays because Gramma's house means playtime and who has time to eat if you're going to miss out on playtime? He was ready to skip lunch and just open presents. So being the mean Mama that I am, I told him he can't open his presents unless he ate some lunch. For a little while, I really thought I'd have to make good on my threat...but in the end it mostly worked.

Grant likes to help pass out the presents

Getting sleepy but would never admit it!

Another game to play!

An Iron Man shooter thing...that I think could take the
head off a cat or small rodent.

Books!

Ooooh...a transformer!

As you can see, he had an insanely great day. More new things to play with! And did we ever. I was off the week of Christmas and the day after wore us both out we played so much! And then Grant took a 3.5 hour nap! He hasn't napped that long in ages.

It was a little tough for me to find my Christmas spirit this year. Some years have been harder than others without my parents and this was just one of those years. I wasn't as excited about decorating the house or the tree but I got there slowly. It didn't help that it was too warm (hot, even) for December and it never feels like Christmas unless it's cold! But whatever my reasons, come Christmas morning, I was really excited to see Grant open his gifts and have so much fun. It was a really great day :)

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

The Saturday before Christmas, we made plans with my sister-in-law and her husband to get together. On Friday (my last day of work until after Christmas - woohoo!), I got a text from my sister-in-law: "Ok so i know this is a big odd, but do you mind if I have a baby pig sidekick this weekend?" But see, it wasn't odd...because it was Hollie. She and her husband breed and sell pot belly pigs and the little guy was only two weeks old and bottle fed. So there was a pig at my house. I think pigs are cute...but I don't want one as a pet. If you want to have one, that's fine. But not me. But as far as guests so, this guy was fun to visit with.

Grant knew a pig was coming and there was no hiding the excitement.

Oh hey, tiny pig.

Grant, Pig...Pig, Grant.

I've always found pot belly pigs...well, ugly. So imagine my surprise when it looked like a normal pig (way to go Hollie!). He was a cute little guy and we all had fun playing with him. Grant conked out for a nap before the first feeding happened, so I got to do it.

Then it was sort of play time.

After Grant woke up from his nap and we told him the piggy had already been out to play...well, it was time to play again.

The pig would do a little hop when Grant tried to pet it,
which Grant seemed to find funny but made him a little nervous too.

Getting friendly!

Piggy kept rooting around Grant's feet which tickled
and made him laugh so hard.

It was time for another bottle! Grant was comfortable enough to give this feeding a try with some help.

Since the moment Hollie & Travis walked through the door with presents, Grant had been asking to open them. I guess I shouldn't admit that since it's incredibly rude...but I'm relatively sure that someone mentioned they were for him and he was really excited. So after a late lunch Grant got to open his presents from Aunt Hollie & Uncle Travis.

A dinosaur that makes noise, shoots guns, and walks?!
Jeez, it's like they looked into his soul.

Hollie & Travis got married on Hollie's Grandpa's farm (where they have their pigs and lots of other animals). On our way to their wedding we kept telling Grant about all the difference animals they have and he'd always chime in with "and big BIG DINOSAURS!" So they decided to get him a dinosaur for Christmas :) And boy did they pick a good one because he loves it! And we enjoyed spending the afternoon with them - and their piggy.

The next morning, Sunday, we met my father-in-law and his wife for lunch so we could do Christmas with them too! We had a yummy lunch at Cracker Barrel (which always means pancakes for Grant) then headed to our house for a bit so we could open presents by the tree.

Fun! A John Deer gator - with a plow!

Grant loves it when he gets to spend time with Grandpa!

It was a great weekend with family and a great start to the holiday!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) One of my favorite things about Christmas is wrapping presents. I'm not being sarcastic, I love it. Fun paper, curling ribbon, bows, all of it. And last weekend, Grant helped me :)

2) I saw this sign stuck next to the mirror in our bathroom at work. With the constant never-thin-enough-I-must-look-perfect attitude so many people have, it was nice to see something like this.

3) Grant has always loved the Christmas tree but this year he is genuinely ecstatic about it (and all others and anything adorned with Christmas lights). He gasps every time I plug in our tree and every time it makes me smile.

4) I employ Grant's help in the kitchen whenever possible. One night this week we had little pizzas (made from pitas) & salad for dinner. Grant was only too happy to help me put the pizzas together. Helpful Tip: never leave an olive-loving little boy alone with a bowl of black olives unless you only want them to be on his pizza.

5) Santa visited Grant's school this week! Remember the first time Grant met Santa? If you don't, go HERE. Things have majorly improved.

6) A package arrived from my Aunt Bonnie yesterday containing Grant's Christmas presents from her and a gorgeous stocking that she cross stitched for him. It's sort of a family tradition. Aunt Bonnie has made one for all of us as kids and I love that she made one for Grant too.

Happy Friday and Merry Christmas!