Christmas 2013

Oh what fun Christmas was with a 2 year old this year! Drew still didn't fully understand, but for the most part he was really in to it. We read "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Christmas Story for kids" every night leading up to Christmas. He loved to point out Santa Claus in the first one and Baby Jesus in the second one. I loved to hear him say "bay cheesus" and point to Mary and Joseph. He still asks to read "bay cheesus" every night, but after he met Santa Claus, he stopped asking for "The Night Before Christmas". Ha! He talked about Santa the entire way to see him. He told us Santa was nice, that Santa says Ho! Ho! Ho! and that he wanted to set on Santa's lap. However, when we turned the corner and he saw him, he was definitely not a fan. On the way home he told us that Santa was scary and then later that night I asked him to tell me what Santa Claus says and he responded with "walk away Sanka Cwaus!"....

Christmas Eve was just the three of us and we started our own little tradition. Andy grilled steak, we made cookies for Santa and just had a quiet night at home.

Once Drew was in bed, Andy and I got to work getting his gifts together for Christmas morning. Since this will be our only Christmas in the rent house, I wanted to make sure I included a picture of the set up and where we were on Drew's second Christmas.

Drew's big gifts were a train table and a tricycle. He wasn't sure what to think when he came down stairs. Watching his face put it all together was pretty cute! He immediately went to the train table, but it only took about a minute before he wanted on his "mycycle". He was so fascinated with those two things that he didn't open all of his presents and stocking from us until the night after Christmas.

He finally tore in to a few packages and we got some "oh wow's" and enthusiastic "what is that's". 

After we finished Christmas morning at our house, we went over to my parents house for lunch. This is a newer tradition as well and we love it! Mimi goes above and beyond to make it a perfect day. She even put out a place setting for the kids. How cute!

Marlowe was cute in her apron and oven mitts..

And Poppy was pretty cute in his new headphones too!

Thought this was a sweet picture of Uncle Lance and Drew playing with his new wooden train. Drew thought he needed to be eye level with it to make it move.

Mimi and Poppy bought Drew a new pair of tennis shoes. I am pretty sure I have talked about the favorite red shoes that he was so obsessed with. Well,  I think we finally have a replacement. He opened these and immediately put them on! He hasn't asked about the red shoes since then! Whew!

Drew got this pillow for his Mimi. Couldn't be more true! She is too good to us and we couldn't be more thankful!

I wanted to add this next picture, because it is the only clip of a picture I have of Drew in an actual Christmas outfit. He wanted that shirt off as soon as he walked in the door. 

And, I couldn't leave out our family picture in front of Mimi's tree..

Later that afternoon, we headed to Berryville to see Andy's grandma and do Christmas with that side of the family. We draw names for that Christmas and Drew got a fun little steering wheel from Aunt Dessa, however, I think he enjoyed his QT with the Emerson girls even more. They love him so much and the feelings couldn't be more mutual. 

We had a few other Christmas celebrations before Christmas day. One weekend we spent the night at Andy's mom's house to celebrate with her. He got a cozy coupe car and loved hanging out with Uncle Tim and Daddy while they put it together for him. Doesn't he look so big here?

He also loved hanging out with all the girls...

This picture was the next morning as we were getting ready to leave. Could these two be any sweeter? 

One other family Christmas we went to was my mom's side of the family. We get together on a weekend close to Christmas with her brother and their family every year. We were too busy playing Dirty Santa for me to get any other pictures, but I was impressed with GleeAnna's skills in holding both of these boys at the same time. 

We truly had the best Christmas! We are so very blessed with the best family and friends to celebrate with and I'm so thankful that Drew gets to grow up with all of these memories and traditions.