December 2015

December was really fun with CJ this year. Something clicked in his mind and he suddenly understood who Santa was and all things that went along with Santa. He loved doing anything Christmas related. You say the word presents, party or Santa and he got soooo excited! After watching some a Mickey Mouse Christmas movie CJ tells me he wants Santa to bring him a blue truck. He stuck with that for the whole month of December.

Our traditional (minus last year) Bass Pro Shop picture with Santa. Last year he was terrified and we knew he would never get near Santa so we decided not to torture him. This year everything about Christmas clicked with CJ. He was gobbling up every ounce of the Christmas holiday. He was so excited to go see Santa and tell him he wanted a blue truck.

CJ loved turning on the Christmas tree lights. I love this picture as he gently holds the ornament in his hand and looks at it. This was the "fancy" tree in Mamaw's living room and he was very gentle this year with the ornaments.

At our ward Christmas party Pop Pops dressed up at Santa. CJ didn't know he was going to be Santa. CJ was so excited to see Santa as he stood in line for a couple of minutes. When it was his turn he ran up to Santa and hopped in his lap. CJ then looks at Santa and starts laughing. He says softly, "Pop Pops" and then couldn't stop smiling. He told Santa he wanted a blue truck for Christmas and the photographer got this great picture. I was so happy they had someone kindly taking pictures because I thought I was video taping this all but it turns out I had pushed the button twice and so it didn't record. :(  The whole time at the party he kept telling everyone who passed by him "Merry Christmas" It was adorable. It is really fun to see him get so excited about these things!

Jeff's work Christmas party was really fun. We ate delicious food from Olive Garden and I laughed so hard I cried during an exciting game of White Elephant. There was some intense fighting over some Star Wars stuff and a fight for Jeff to end up with the BYU fanny pack. Jeff works with some really great people and we are so grateful to his boss, Kyle, that Jeff has a job he loves!

No Christmas season is complete without a gingerbread house full of candy.

I debated whether or not to get CJ the traditional jammies for Christmas Eve. CJ was going through a phase of hating jammies. He would not wear anything resembling jammies to bed. He slept in "clothes" aka sweat pants and a t-shirt. I wasn't going to get some for him but then I found these McQueen jammies in a closet of mine that I had bought the previous year a size bigger. I realized that they now would fit him. I decided since I already had them it would be no loss if he didn't want to wear them. To my surprise when he opened them Christmas Eve he was beyond thrilled!! He put them on immediately and kept saying over and over, "Thank you" and "Merry Christmas."

We had so much fun Christmas morning. He was such fun to watch. We took a couple hours as we would play with a lot of the toys before opening another. His favorites were, of course, the blue truck from Santa and then he loved his paw patrol things. A close second was Toss the Pig from Mamaw and Pop Pops! You pass the big and it eventually burps. CJ thought this was the best game ever. He couldn't stop laughing, I mean fall over, couldn't hardly breath laughing.

Mamaw and Pop Pops also got CJ this track with cars that went around the track by themselves. CJ sat and played this for hours on Christmas Day.

Christmas dinner was over at Aunt Jenni's house. CJ got this Paw Patrol Saves Christmas book from the Silcox's and we read that book dozen's of times over the next few months. I love this picture of Jeff reading to CJ and his cousin Clara.