Christmas Celebration

JDubbs, Jax, and I started our Christmas celebration Christmas Eve by going to mass at our church, St. Denis. We got all dressed up and went out to remember what Christmas is really about, the birth of Jesus. I want to make sure that Jax understands this as his childhood goes on and Christmas becomes more and more about presents. Of course, for a while, it seems to be completely about presents, but to me it's important to keep perspective and remember why we give gifts on this day in the first place.

So church was great, although we did leave early and JDubbs and Jax spent most of the service downstairs in the church basement--Jax was good for about 45 minutes, which was admirable, but when 30 of those minutes were spent waiting for church to start, we had a small window of religious adoration. Becky represented as best she could. Then after church we headed to Nana and Papa's for dinner, where Jax put on his new Christmas pj's and Daddy read him The Night Before Christmas for the first time.

Christmas morning was really great; Christmas with a fourteen-month-old is a lot more fun than Christmas with a two-month-old! We had a chance to buy him a few things that we hoped he would like, such as Elmo slippers (the Elmo love has already started).

And although the gift-giving was kept pretty small, JDubbs and I both put a lot of thought into the gifts for each other and a few for Jax and Baxter. In retrospect , we should have just got Jax a dog bone and been done with it.


After gifts, we got dressed and headed over to Nana and Papa's again for Christmas day. We were lucky to spend the day with JDubbs's whole family, including Tom, Molly, and Tommy, who made it up in time for presents and yummy dinner. The day was spent playing, eating, and relaxing.



Jax and Tommy had a very adorable interaction. I think it was the first time they both acknowledged each other's presence at the same time. Undoubtedly, these two are going to be buddies!



It was wonderful to see how much Tommy has grown! He's starting solid food, laughing, and is generally adorable. I hate seeing him so infrequently, but it does make us appreciate it when we're together.

The next morning, we headed down to Massachusetts to see my family. As usual, it was a whirwind of car rides and quick visits, but we got to see Grammy and Grampy, Nana and Gree, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even our friends Kim and Eric from California! Again we enjoyed good food and thoughtful presents, and especially company of family that we don't get to see every day.

Jax loves visiting Gramma and her giant dog Smokey. He made himself right at home :)

We had such a blessed and happy Christmas celebration. And of course, we made a big announcement!

See next post for details...