Christmas Recap

Christmas has come and gone. We took all the decorations down day before yesterday and got the house all cleaned up. Christmas was wonderful this year and we really soaked up the blessing we were given in 2011. Our little man, Will loved opening his gifts from both sides of the family. He really loved the paper...as do most 6 month olds. My parents and sister came to stay with us on the 22nd. We opened presents and did our Christmas dinner on the evening of the 23rd. More on that later. Will opened his gifts earlier in the day because we wanted to see how he reacted to the gifts and paper and such. In case you are wondering what to get a baby, paper. Will loved ripping the paper and putting it in his mouth. He was very meticulous about tearing it off the package...every move was determined guided by deep concentration. He could have sat there forever and ripped paper I think. And of course, he was the center of attention. We all just watched him play with his toys, open gifts..etc. It is nice to be the center of attention...right? Later that evening we had dinner and I actually used the fine china. I have never used the dinner plates! In 5 1/2 years of marriage not once have we eaten dinner off them. So, this year...we used them. We had ham, corn casserole, green beans, squash casserole and an array of dessert items. Very typical Christmas dinner but everything was yummy! After dinner we opened gifts and my mom thought Ray would look "pretty" with a red bow tied around his neck. And so she did put the red bow around his neck...and he disliked it greatly. So it came off rather quickly. He never wears a collar except on walks so this bow was not happening. The next day was Christmas Eve or December 24th, Allison's birthday. She had a tiny gift unwrapping helper this year. Will spent some time hanging out on the floor with his bald twin, Pappy... Lounging around...

And practicing sitting up Christmas Eve we went our church's Candlelight Service. It was packed and we stood in the back. Will was SO good! He never made a peep. He just watched the big screen tvs in the sanctuary...he loves TV! Oh dear! But at least it kept him occupied while all the other kids in the service were having meltdowns. Our token family Christmas pic in front of the tree.


Christmas Day, my parents went home and we headed over to Guntersville to do Christmas with T's side of the family. His mom had an unfortunate accident on Christmas Eve and ended up with a broken arm due to a fall down the stairs. So Taylor's dad and I cooked Christmas dinner which consisted of prime rib, twice baked potatoes, green bean casserole and rolls. It was delish! We had lots of fun hanging out with the cousins. Opening presents was a little chaotic with 3 little ones roaming around but it was exciting. Another thing that I did this year was make salt dough ornaments for the "kids". Thank you pinterest. I think they turned out pretty good. They were a little "fluffy". I'm SO glad that we did this though. I want to remember those little hands and feet forever! We got a couple of hand prints from Will and one of his footprints. Our hardest ornament was Ray's pawprint. When he wasn't freaking out that we were trying to put his paw on the dough, he was trying to eat it! So he would fight us and pull away from the dough, but when we finally got him close enough to get his paw in it, he would try to reach down and eat it. It took a few attempts to get his. So hopefully they will not break by next year. I didn't spray them or mod podge them. Anyone done this without coating them? Did they hold up. I wrapped them in bubble wrap and put them in the attic.



Some upcoming posts will include a 6 month post for baby Will (ped visit next Tuesday) and some news on the running front. Taylor and I are going to run the Nashville 1/2 marathon. I'm putting this on the blog for accountablilty because I kinda feel like I've lost my mind committing to this. Did I run a 1/2 marathon when I was in shape and running 4 days a week??...no. Am I going to run a 1/2 marathon while starting out in the worst shape of  my life, post baby?....yes...what the heck! Oh well, here goes nothing I guess. I'm sure I will have a few running posts in the future. There may be a lot of complaining so that is just a fair warning to anyone who may still read this blog. Happy New Year!