Christmas!

 Christmas this year looked a little different for us - and probably closer to how it will look in the future. Neither of us come from very big families so it's pretty easy to coordinate a day a week or two before Christmas for us to meet up. We went up to Michael's hometown the weekend before Christmas and celebrated with his side of the fam. It was so, so fun! We ate a yummy dinner, too many desserts, then opened some gifts. This year was already so much more fun as far as gifts go than last year just with Caedmon - and I know it will just get moreso the older he gets. :)

Our favorite gift? The father-in-law bought us a new set of stainless-steel cookware. Awesome! We're still getting used to it - but are mostly just thrilled that the chemicals in Teflon are no longer in our kitchen. Yea for greener living :)

His favorite gift? This Thomas the train book - it plays music when you push a button. We have heard that little tune probably 1349827345 times already. He loves it!

So after we celebrated with Michael's fam, the following week my parents and my grandmother (who was visiting from Oklahoma) came up to visit us. We had a yummy dinner at Outback (hip hip hooray for zero cooking!) (Plus, Outback is my fave). Then they spent the night and the next morning we opened gifts. Mom and Granny spent Christmas in Oklahoma with some more of our family there.

Favorite gifts here? Thomas the train, trains. Mom and Dad bought him some trains and this kid loves them more by the day. In particular something called "take and play" which we highly, highly recommend for restaurants. He will sit and play with this little set and has now made going out to eat 10 times easier :) I got a new electric toothbrush (which I've never had  before and I love!) and Michael got umm... well, you'll just have to ask him what his favorite gift was, I can't remember!

We decided to check out Southern Lights here in town. Neither of us had been and we knew we wanted to do something "Christmas-y" since we missed out on some things last year since Caedmon was so young. It's a drive-through Christmas light thing with a petting zoo, Santa, and train exhibit at the end. It was so, so fun! I let Caedmon sit in my lap while we drove though (we didn't go over 3mph, so no worries!) and that was just so nice. This kid loved the petting zoo and was totally fearless when it came to feeding/petting the llamas, goats, and cows! It was so fun watching him have so much fun!

Then we got some hot chocolate and went to check out the trains. Which as we all know are this kiddo's fave. :) He loved it and was totally mesmerized by all of them. We definitely want to go back again next year!

So, Christmas was just the three of us since we celebrated them with the families the week before. In some ways it made it not even seem like Christmas! But it was still a really wonderful weekend. :) So, Christmas Eve is an exceptionally busy day for Michael with church. They did 10 songs that weekend. Ten! And all of them were outstanding. And I volunteered to make Christmas cookies for the service. Now, it's been awhile since I've made cookies but I know I'm typically a decent cookie-maker. Not-so this holiday season! Every batch of cookies I made was... comical. Definitely not something you'd serve. Or maybe you would so no one would ask you to volunteer again. :) Just kidding. But they were awful. Tasty, but awful. Finally I got together about 20 of the prettiest cookies (out of the 3 dozen or so I made) and brought those - so I was still able to pitch in! :)

After the Christmas Eve service we headed to a friend's house who knew we didn't have any family in Lex and invited us over. It was such a fun night! There was a little girl there Caedmon's age so they were able to play and Michael and I were able to visit with some friends we see often and others not so much. It was a really good night :)

Oh, and Michael and I exchanged gifts on Dec. 23. We just couldn't wait. Mostly Michael was excited to show me what he'd gotten for me and how could I refuse? :) He bought me a new lens for my camera, a lens hood, and Photoshop! Whoa! So fun! I haven't gotten to play with it too much yet, but am so so excited to! Hopefully I'll get better and better with all this stuff :)

Michael got a new guitar just a few months ago and so we said that would be his Christmas gift and also birthday and anniversary gifts for the year. So, in my defense I didn't get him too much. But I did get him some lottery tickets, work socks, a new work shirt and tie, and a cookbook called "Simply in Season" with a promise to cook one meal from the book for the next year. He liked it :) We have a strong desire to eat more real, locally grown food so this book was perfect for that. Here's to hoping next year is a bit more disciplined for us than last!

Okay, so now Christmas morning :) I tried to make cinnamon rolls (again, fail... but we ate them anyway!) and then opened presents! His favorite toys were the trains - but when we put batteries in the trains he got scared every time they would come back around near him. It was precious! He was jump up in Daddy's arms and then once it was passed he would get down and point and just play with the other trains. So stinkin cute.


I'm so excited to just bring in more traditions with our little family! Do you have any favorite holiday traditions? I've read about a birthday party for Jesus... this is definitely one I want to do once Caedmon is a little older! Neither Michael or I have many so we're kind of making them as we go... so tell me your favorite ones! :)