Christmas Day!

Despite it being a very long day including a few meltdowns we had another wonderful Christmas.  This year was fun because it was the first year that Alex understood who Santa Claus was and that he was going to bring presents.  

When I told Alex that Santa Claus had finally come at first he was a little scared.  I think he thought Santa was still upstairs.  Once we told him Santa had already left he was happy to come upstairs to see what he got.  

Lots of presents for a very good boy!

Next, we headed off to Grandma Clements.

Alex loved these Star Wars space ships and played with them much of the rest of the day.

Side Note: Brandon had to work Christmas Eve night from 1 am to 7 am.  He went the rest of the day on no sleep and was a little sick.  Even though it wasn't so pleasant for him we were so glad he could spend the whole day with us.

 Finally, we headed to Grandma Hettinger's house.

By the end of the day Alex was tired, cranky, and not willing to share any of his new toys.  Despite that we had a wonderful day and loved being able to spend it with family.

Christmas Eve

This year Brandon's work schedule allowed us to spend time with both families on Christmas eve.  We started the morning by going out to breakfast with Brandon's family at the Original Pancake House.  Later in the day we met up at Brandon's parents house for dinner.  It was a delicious dinner of steak and crab.  We even had time to exchange a few presents before heading off to the next family party.  

 Next, we headed to the Thomas annual Christmas Eve party.  This year it was held at a church and the kids had fun having lots of space to run around.

 As per tradition during the party the kids each received a gift (picked out by their own parents).  Alex received a Captain America shield.  He was extremely excited for this gift.  The following sequence of pictures shows him opening it and then running off to play with it by himself.  We only had to take it away once for hitting Wilson with it.  We will count that as a victory.

Finally, Alex is all ready for bed in his new pajamas.  He is excited for Santa to come!

Pre-Christmas Parties

This year the Clarks were in town for Christmas and we were lucky enough to spend a night up at their cabin.  We had dinner, played toys, and caught up.  It was great to see them as always and we had a lot of fun.  

Once again the Gygi side of Brandon's family gathered for their annual Christmas party.   This is the only time each year that we see many of them so it is always neat to see how things have changed.  There were a lot of new babies and many more on the way.  We ate delicious food (as always) and even met Santa.  At first Alex stayed far away from Santa but when he realized he was handing out candy he gladly sat on his lap.