Growing up-we didn't have any extended family in Michigan, and we never traveled for holidays.  Which meant, my Mom had to work extra hard to make holidays special.  She succeeded.  I want Karson Christmas to be just like mine were.  Spending the day in his jammies, in his house, playing with all of his new toys.  DJ and I agreed last year on one of my favorite family rules....if you want to see Karson on Christmas, you have to come to our house.  This year, it worked out perfect.  We had Christmas Eve & Christmas at our house...but it will get harder.  Our family is transitioning to a new normal for Holidays.  We all have littles, we all want to be home for Christmas.  I told my Mom it is her fault...we all want our babies to have the Christmas Memories we have.  But this year was perfect. 

I was feeling horrible on Friday, and didn't get anything done, other than laying on the couch.  I didn't sleep Friday night, and was up early Saturday.  I have learned...holidays as a Mommy means going on no sleep.  By Saturday afternoon, I felt 100% better, and was ready for all things Christmas!   DJ and I raced around the house during nap time, to put the finishing touches on the house, and make the last of the h'orderves.  Plus...I may or may not have sent him to Panera to get me a smoothie-pregnancy craving. 

Aunt Katie & Uncle Shawn stopped over, and gave Munchkin a Christmas present.  I love how close we are with our friends, and I love how they treat Karson as their own.  My Mom & Dad came over, with a car full of my favorite Christmas munchies.  My Mom helped put the finishing touches on the table, we made the last of the food, and we started our holiday ritual of stuffing ourselves.  Christmas meat balls...I only get them once a year...and they are amazing!!

 

 Karson loved that he could reach the table...and wasn't being told no.  He had a lot of crackers-and plates-and pretzels-and cups in the living room!!

After munchies...Karson made reindeer food, for Santa's Reindeer of course!  What I had thought would be a 5 minute activity that he would loose interest in, turned into a very long and messy activity that ended in a bath, and finding glitter and oatmeal all over my house for long time...

It started out innocent-I gave him a container of oatmeal, a jar, and a measuring cup. 

I showed him what to do, and he loved it!  Then we got out the glitter....and more glitter...and more glitter..and gave him a spoon to stir his reindeer food up with.

It got out of control long before we actually stopped him-but it was Christmas, and it was about making a memory.

 the floor had to be vacuumed mid activity because Maggie was eating it

And in June when I am still finding pieces of glitter all over my house, I will laugh.  

And this was the moment we decided it was time to put a stop to the Reindeer Food...

Karson got deglittered in the bath tub and we all piled in the car to go see 'the lights.'   Just down the road from us is a house whose Christmas lights are set to music.  Karson loves them!  He sat on my lap looking out the window in a trance.  He kept saying 'wights wights. oh wow oh wow.'  We came home and sprinkled our reindeer food all over the deck.  Daddy was thrilled about this...

Rick & Melissa came over with Gavin, and we put Karson to bed.  DJ got out the presents (mistake #1) and my Mom and I got out the stuff to Fondu.   My Mom told us to wait to get out the presents until after we fondued...we didn't listen (mistake #2).  We all sat around the table for hours, stuffing ourselves with amazing fried foods.  Apparently, we got too noisy...Melissa thought she heard Karson.  In 2 seconds he went from a whimper to an all out sob.  (remember mistake #1 & 2?) I ran to him, while everyone else ran all the presents from under the tree to our bedroom.  He just needed some snuggles-and was back out in a half hour.  I think we made it to bed by 1...

Christmas morning my parents came back over, bright and early.  I had gotten up extra early to have everything ready by the time Karson woke up.  The coffee was on, the coffee cake was in the oven...and then Karson decided to sleep in.  Apparently he forgot Santa had come!!

Maggie on Christmas Morning waiting for Karson to wake up.

We ended up having to wake him up at 8.  He walked straight to his presents and started to open them...

A new bottle of bubbles...and a still half asleep baby...

 

It took us hours to open gifts.  He would open a toy, and want to play with it.  When we asked if he was ready to open another, he very adamantly said 'no!' and went back to playing.

Karson got spoiled-exactly the way it should be.  

Christmas breakfast: coffee cake, egg casserole, and Mandi's orange juliuses.

We put Karson down for a nap, cleaned up, and got ready for my brothers and their families to come over.

Someone got caught taking a nap...

cary-don't get me in trouble...please :)

The rest of the day was spent visiting, cooking, and playing with Munchkin.  Who, again, thought it was too cool that he was allowed to steal food off the table...

We attempted a picture of the 2 babies...

It obviously went extremely well.


...and this is how Karson spent his Christmas.  In his jammies, at his house, playing with his new toys.

DJ parents stopped over, and after everyone left, we crashed on the floor, and put in one of Karson's new Caillou movies....

 my living room still looks like this.

We all went to bed early, and slept in yesterday.  I put Karson down for his nap, and went to check on him on the video monitor and saw he wasn't in his bed...

I think Christmas officially tired him out!!

Christmas is over, my tree was down yesterday before 10am...not because I'm a scrooge...but because Karson got a lot of toys, and we needed the room.  We are still catching up on sleep, my house is a disaster, and I still haven't finished this years entry into our Christmas Memory book.  But our Christmas was absolutely perfect! 

Next year....Christmas with 2 little ones. 

Merry Christmas

Molly and Karson double teamed us last night.  

1:00am: Molly jumped on the bed and tried sleeping on my legs. I nicely kicked her off...ok it was 1am so it wasn't so nicely.

2:30am: She was sleeping on our bed, she waits until we are asleep to try to jump up, and had an itch behind her collar.  Have you ever heard a jingling collar in the middle of the night.  I pulled her collar off, shoved her off the bed, and told her to go get on the couch.

3:00am: I thought I heard Karson playing on the monitor.

3:30am: Molly was whining at us next to the bed.

3:30am: I hear 'Mommy, Mommy, Mommy' and more playing.

4:00am: Moll is still whining at us, and DJ gets up to deal with her.

By this time I am more than annoyed...and wide awake...

Karson is running around his room playing, and Molly is satisfied that she woke us up, and is back asleep on our bed.

Karson played in his room until he fell back asleep around 5...while DJ and I were up for the day.

Thank you Molly and Karson for giving us a glimpse of what sleeping with 2 babies will be like.

I am tired, and have had far too much coffee for the day...but...it is only a few days before Christmas, and I am determined to fit it all in. 

Today, my fireplace looks like this...

Thank you very much...I started that fire myself.

Since I am exhausted, I declared today Christmas movies by the fire  Day. 

And that is exactly what we did, all morning.

Of course, we had to pause our snuggling by the fire whenever a song played.  He insists we dance together every time he hears music.  I love him!

I love our relaxing mornings.  I love how excited he gets when I ask if he wants to have a fire and watch the 'ho ho ho' movie.  I love how he laughs at the winter warlock in the Santa Clause Movie, and says  ho ho ho repeatedly when we watch Rudolf.

*****

He figured out how to climb through my cupboards.  He empties them, and makes him self a little fort.

He thinks it is hilarious when he can climb all the way though!

***

Saturday was Christmas Cookie Day.  We spent the entire day baking at Nana's house.

Karson had a blast, and loved helping us.  But let me tell you-doing cut out cookies with an almost  2 year old is challenging.  It is definitely not the same as play doh.  We have some very interesting shaped cookies.  They have yet to be decorated-that is on the list for tomorrow.

***

We had Christmas with DJ's family on Sunday.  Karson had so much fun opening gifts.  He opened all of his, and all of Mommy's. :)  With every rip of paper, he said 'thank you, thank you.'  DJ and I were laughing so hard at him!  He was having so much fun, and insisted each toy come out of the packaging after he opened it.  He kept saying 'stuck stuck...hewl mommy stuck.'

***

My fire needs another log, and I hear Karson up...2 hours early from his nap.