The First Noel: Christmas Morning

Okay, so here we are. I've finally made it to Christmas day, and I literally have dozens of pictures that I want to post. I'm trying to decide whether to post them all at once or to break Christmas day into two shorter posts...what to do? In the interest of time, I suppose I'll do the twofer and start with Christmas morning.

A had woken up around 4am, as was his usual practice while in Eldo, and after a bottle and some mommying he went back to sleep until eight. Auntie L had slept over because she was afraid that Santy Claus might not have gotten her change of address form, and she didn't want to miss out on any of the Christmas fun. After changing and feeding A, Timothy, Alex, Murphy, and I woke Auntie Leah up and we all paraded to Grammy and Papa's room to let them know that Santa had indeed showed up and that we were itchin' to see what he brought us.

A was all warm and cozy in his Christmas jammies that Grammy and Auntie L had bought him, complete with convenient trap door for easy access to the bum region (ideal for diaper changing). He sort of had an "elf goes to prison" look going with his green and white stripes, which I thought suited him nicely.

Murphy seemed more impressed by the large pile of presents that filled the den (that's Arkansas for "living room") than Alex was. He immediately sniffed out which stocking was his and couldn't wait to check out the contents. Turns out that Grandma B had sent some yummy rawhide bones and a couple of toys, along with a red velvet collar with bells and a teeny Santa hat with an elastic chin strap. We made him try them on and tried to snap a picture, but we couldn't get the hat to stay on his head and he ended up with a red and white beard, instead.

Auntie L doled out presents and A had quite a few to dig through. I'm kind of surprised Santa left so many considering that Alex didn't even leave him cookies and milk or a note or anything. But he has been such a good boy, so I guess Santa looked past all that and brought him exactly what he wanted.

Again, he was a pro at tearing things open. He couldn't wait to rip all the wrapping off of this gift!! To see what was inside!! Boy oh boy!! He just couldn't wait! He was oh so excited to see what...

...the paper tasted like.

So maybe he was a little more excited about the delicious wrapping paper than what was inside it, but his dad and I were pretty happy to see that Santa had brought him this cool high chair that straps to a regular chair at the kitchen table. We couldn't wait to try it out at breakfast, but first, there were more presents to open.

Grandma and Grandpa B sent him some fun books, a red onesie embroidered with the words "Alexander the Greater" (he is great, isn't he?), and some old timey wooden toys to hold him over until they came to visit the next week and bring the rest of his presents.

Grammy and Papa had gotten him his very first Radio Flyer wagon, which he seemed to like. And who wouldn't? Every self respecting little boy needs a red wagon!

He got lots of other cool gadgets and toys and things that make noise, one of which was a Learn and Groove Musical Table from Leapfrog. Oliver had one that he really seemed to like, so I thought it might be something that A would find interesting and added it to his wish list. And whaddyaknow, I was right (as usual). He played with it...

...tried to eat it...

...and eventually became very possessive of it. "I see you trying to mess with my toy. Back up off it...or else."

Overall a good choice, I would say.

And that's not all! Papa had someone from the church handcraft this cool high chair/rocking chair/desk and chair that converts from one to the other just by changing its orientation. It'll take some time for Alex to grow into it, but for now, it will stay at Papa's for him to use when we are there.

...and the list goes on. Shoes, clothes, stacking toys, stroller toys, etc., etc., etc. Auntie L hooked him up big time, as well. He got some stacking rings, some John Deere boots called "Johnny Poppers" (they're all the rage south of the Mason Dixon), bath toys, a musical drum toy that lets him create his own tunes, so on, and so forth.

Timothy and I didn't do so bad either. He got a few history books, an Illinois hoodie, a moleskin notebook, and...other stuff. I got some awesome dishes, a dock for my iPod, and lots of other great things that would take me a week to list. Together, we got an external hard drive, a DVD player that will play CD's burned from the computer, and...GUITAR HERO! Oh boy, that spells trouble. Many deliciously wonderful, fun-filled rockin' hours of trouble. Timothy still has a semester of school left and we're all a little concerned that having full access to Guitar Hero may hinder his ability to focus on his schoolwork and thus, to graduate. Grammy threatened to keep the game at her house to avoid such a fate, but we promised to limit our playing to just eight hours a day so we could take it home with us. Here we are practicing...

At last, it was time to try out the new high chair. Once Papa and I finally figured out which strap went with which clip and which clip fit through which slot, we got him buckled in and pulled him up to the table so he could...watch all of us eat a scrumptious Christmas breakfast while he feasted on some savory plastic rings.

After breakfast, we had some time to kill before heading over Mamaw's, so we played a little more GH (that's what you call Guitar Hero if you are awesome), A worked on some Excel spreadsheets with his dad, and we basically just laid around and played with all of our Christmas loot.

Oh, and we made Murphy clean up his wrapping paper mess. Here he is picking up the last little scrap.

Auntie L set the scene and took pics of Alex with his large stash of new toys. He is well on his way to being spoiled rotten...

Enough messing around. Time to get ready for Mamaw's. A got dressed, and luckily he got some new kicks for Christmas because the ones I brought for him to wear with this outfit turned out to be a bit too small. Kid's growing like a weed! These new ones worked out even better though. They gave his uber-preppy get-up an urban flava that made him feel fly.

Dressed, shoed, and ready to go, over the river and through the woods!