Christmas 2018

What a fun Christmas we had!  Monday we got up and headed to David's parents' house for Christmas Eve.  

We got there in the morning and played and hung out until we ate dinner around noon.  We tried putting Cooper down for a nap after we ate, but he was having none of it, so we got him up and opened presents.

Nanny and Pappaw definitely won with these ball pillows.  Cooper loves them.  He opened them and then just wanted to carry them from one room to the other.  This kept him occupied most of the afternoon.

He came back through at one point with all the balls and found a hat David had gotten and put it on.  He was so funny carrying the balls back and forth.  He loved it so much that when David asked if he wanted to open another present he yelled "no more presents!"  Which was funny to hear from a kid on Christmas.  He did eventually come around and opened up the rest of his gifts.

His other favorite activity was trying on his new clothes.  As soon as he opened the bag of clothes he started taking his shirt off so he could put on a new one.  Here he is enjoying the Christmas tree in his third shirt of the day :)   After presents we tried again for a nap and he went down pretty easily.  We played a game with family while Cooper slept and then enjoyed dessert before getting on the road to head home.  It was such a fun day with them!

We got home a little after 6:00 and I knew we'd need something quick and easy for dinner.  I'd found an idea of doing a Shepherd's Dinner (found on Pinterest of course) and so we had our own version consisting of meat, cheeses, crackers, naan bread, grapes, nuts, and olives.  We spread out a tablecloth on the floor and ate in front of the Christmas tree lights.

While we ate, we read the second Christmas story in the Jesus Storybook Bible about the angel visiting the shepherds to announce that Jesus was born!  We sang a few songs and enjoyed our snack dinner.

We were also very thankful to be able to watch our church's Christmas Eve service online.  Because of the timing of the services along with naps and bedtime, it just didn't seem to work for us to go to church with David's parents or make it back in time to go to our church.  Our church streams their Sunday services on Facebook, so I was hoping they would on Christmas Eve as well and I logged in and we were able to watch the recording of it.  Cooper enjoyed pointing to the TV and saying "church" and we enjoyed singing all of the songs.  I was glad to be able to watch it at home, it just felt weird not being at church on Christmas Eve, so this was a nice way to end our day!

We put Cooper to bed and then got things ready for the next morning.  We filled Cooper's and Lily's stockings and then worked on each other's.  David and I don't do big gifts for each other, we just fill each other's stockings.  So we went ahead and exchanged stockings on Christmas Eve.  David got me a book by one of our favorite podcasters and I got him new toothbrush heads, a new watch band for his Apple Watch, and an OU Football Playoff Shirt.

Then we set out Cooper's gift.  Right now we only do one big gift for Cooper (and his stocking) and we don't wrap it, we just set it out.  So we cleaned up a little and then set out this play rug that we got along with all of the buildings, cars, and animals that it came with.

Then we headed to bed to get ready for Christmas!  Christmas morning we got Cooper up and sang our song for Christmas Day (Joy to the World!) and read the final Christmas story in the Jesus Storybook Bible about the wisemen following the star to baby Jesus.  Then we headed to the living room.

While I was out shopping this Christmas season, I found this set of 10 star cookie cutters in various sizes and I bought them thinking we could use them for a star scavenger hunt in coming years.  This year we just set them out on a path from Cooper's room to the Christmas tree.  He loved collecting them!

He actually brought them all and put them under the tree and seemed more interested in collecting them than his play rug at first.  But then he quickly found the toys and got right to playing!

He saw his stocking not long after and asked to "open it" so we dug in.  We got him a new book, some socks, a new water bottle and straw cup, and new Baylor, OU, and Rangers hats.  He wanted to immediately put on the hats and the socks and drink water from the water bottle.

Pure JOY on Christmas morning!

David and Cooper ended up getting matching OU hats which was a complete coincidence.  David's sister got him one as part of his gift and we bought one for Cooper's stocking.  So we took a picture in their matching hats.

And of course we documented our matching pajamas!  Funnily enough, our pictures that we take with the timer turn out the very best.  Cooper thinks the camera beeping is hilarious and as soon as it takes the picture he asks for "more beep beep beep."  I think we took about 20 pictures in this same pose because he just kept asking for more.  At least he's smiling in them all!

We ate breakfast together and then got ready and headed to my mom's house.  We had some brunch and snacks there and then Cooper went down for a nap.  He must have been worn out from the excitement of both days because he went right to sleep.  The rest of us started opening presents while he slept and then he joined in when he woke up.

This Little People farm from his cousins is the other big hit of Christmas!  He loves all the animals.  And apparently they'd enjoyed playing with it in the box before gifting it to him so they were excited to show it to him!

Piper was so sweet to play with him all day long.  Cooper loves both his big cousins and they are so good with him!

A couple of my aunts joined us for dinner and we enjoyed some games and conversation around the table before heading home for bed.  We were all filled with joy and exhausted at the end of 2 full days of family fun!  We sure were blessed with a lot of good time this Christmas.  Cooper had so much fun and was so fun to watch the whole time. And today was filled with playing with new toys and being at home.