Liam, of course, is still too young to understand what Christmas is about. He's still not even super interested in opening presents. This was probably the last year I had to open most of his presents. Pretty much the only goal I had for this Christmas season was to teach Liam the name Jesus and have him be able to identify baby Jesus in the manger. I got the Fisher Price nativity set for this purpose, as well as a couple of Christmas board books. We totally succeeded at this. Fairly quickly, Liam was able to identify the baby Jesus in pictures and even in nativity scenes in peoples' yards. He still likes to say "Jee-us" and find his picture in the books. He even gives him smooches sometimes. (He will give pretty much anything a smooch.) It's really sweet.
We keep our Christmas season calm, which is easy to do without any parties to attend. Will skipped his office party because he was sick, and Liam is my boss/coworker, and he doesn't host parties. We did get together with friends one night, and that was fun! Leading up to Christmas, we did attend the Christmas program at church, and it was a wonderful way to get in the Christmas spirit.
As for decorations this year, I put out more than I usually do. I made a felt tree for Liam and put that up right after Thanksgiving. He loved taking the ornaments off and putting them back on the tree over and over. He learned the word "star" the first day we had it up. Now he's kind of obsessed with identifying stars. I also decorated our mantel with a tiny tree that held our sentimental ornaments, and our new stockings that were handmade by a friend. The tree was left alone by the cats for the entire Christmas season. Miracle. The Fisher Price nativity (that I had to place back on the table multiple times a day...ok, sometimes I just left it all on the floor) rounded out our decorations this year!
Since our family lives in Louisiana, that's where we headed last weekend. We were only gone one night this time since Liam tends to forget how to eat and sleep properly away from home. Plus, he's just been a general fussbot lately, asserting his independence (which is actually a great thing) and making his grievances known (loudly). We were gone less than 36 hours, but the trip didn't feel rushed, and we managed to see everyone we wanted to see.
We left Dallas just 15 minutes behind schedule (which is a miracle for us), stopped for breakfast at our favorite truck stop in Kilgore (the halfway point), and made it to Homer right at noon. After lunch, the three of us headed out to the park just down the street for the 18th annual JAAG Christmas. The four of us (me, Amy, Amanda, and Glenda) have been celebrating Christmas together since were were high school freshmen in 1995. It works out since we all tend to be in Homer at Christmas. Some years, it's the only time we're all together. This year, Glenda brought her kids and Amanda brought her niece and nephew, so there were big kids for Liam to try and play with. Will took him on the merry go round with them and slid down the big slide with him. Amanda pushed him in the swing and on the springy horse. He had a great time "pay"ing. It was fun to be at the park. I have lots of memories of playing there and having/attending birthday parties.
After JAAG Christmas, we went back to my grandparents house, and my goal was to put Liam down for a nap. He was certainly tired, but still had some fight in him, and I ended up laying down with him on the bed while he slept. I didn't sleep, though. After the nap, we headed to my parent's house for our family Christmas celebration. We had a great dinner prepared by my sister and brother in law. Then it was time for presents. Liam got the most, of course! He had very little interest in opening gifts, so I helped him a bunch. He got toys, books, magnet letters and numbers, a table and chair set, as well as many other items. He also got his first bb gun from his papaw. Since he loves all things Curious George at the moment, I got him a CG Christmas shirt for cheap at Old Navy that he wore that night. He also got a couple of CG DVDs, and he even got to watch some after the present opening. He was a happy kid!
After all the excitement and the very long day, I was hoping Liam would go to sleep in his pack and play without a fight. Nope. He did lots and lots of screaming. Will and I ended up going to bed at the same time as him and letting him sleep in between us on the bed. It was nice to snuggle him at night, but I don't sleep well with him in the bed, and he never sleeps in our bed at home. I'm not totally against it happening on occasion, but he thinks our bed is a super fun place to play, and as soon as he gets in our bed, he's up jumping around and trying to stand on me. No thanks. Thankfully, he slept through the night!
The next morning, we headed to Ruston. I love Ruston. I would live in Ruston again. One question, though. When did Monjuni's become Pizzoli's? It was kind of strange to see that. When we rolled into Ruston, Liam was snoozing in the backseat. We dropped Will off at Baldwin's Jewelers so he could do a little shopping in private, and I decided to drive around the campus of Louisiana Tech. The campus was quiet, of course. It certainly has changed a lot in some ways since my college days, but in essence it's still the same. I was surprised by the appearance of several new buildings I had never seen, but comforted by the fact that many buildings I spent a lot of time in still look the same. Surprisingly, after only about 15 minutes, Will called me and told me he was finished at Baldwin's! After that, we headed to Chili's to have lunch with Will's parents before we headed back to Texas. As usual, Liam had a big time taking his Grandpa's cap and either putting it on his head or throwing it on the floor for laughs. After lunch, we went back by Baldwin's so Will could pick up his purchase, and then we got on I-20 coming back to Dallas.
It was dark when we got home but not very late. After dinner, Liam got a bath and I put him in his Christmas pj's. Then he opened his Christmas book, and we read it together. After Liam went to bed (in his own crib!), I wrapped his presents and Will and I filled his stocking. We also took turns filling each others' stockings with gifts we got for each other.
We didn't open presents right when Liam woke up the next morning. We waited until after he had breakfast. We got him three presents plus stocking stuff. We went a little overboard on stocking stuff, and some of it had to be wrapped because it wouldn't all fit. From us, Liam got a wooden alphabet puzzle, a Duplo ABC block set, and a play fruit/veggie color sorting set. He is loving letters lately, so I wanted to encourage him to play with them so there's more opportunities to learn them. We also wanted to start teaching him the names of different fruits and veggies. A week later, I can say that Liam loves his toys, especially the alphabet puzzle! He also wakes up most mornings and immediately starts building with his Duplos...and he pretend eats the play fruit and veggies. I got Will some things he wanted and needed, and Will got me Nutella and an Etsy gift card (still deciding what to buy with it)! We were both very happy with our gifts. Will also decided to give me what he bought at Baldwin's, even though it is technically a tenth anniversary gift (which is not until February). He didn't want it to have to sit around for two months! I knew what it was, but had no idea what it would look like. Inside the box was a beautiful vintage diamond wedding ring! I will most likely write about the ring more in February, but I have to say it's perfect! He did a great job, and I love the ring!
Later that Christmas Day, it snowed for several hours giving us a white Christmas. Unfortunately, Liam really doesn't have proper snow attire, so we just admired it from inside...for a couple of days. All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas!
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