Second Christmas

This weekend, we went down to my parents’ house for “Second Christmas”. The fun of having family out of town is celebrating (and eating!) multiple times. I was a little nervous before we went down that we wouldn’t be able to go to my Aunt Val’s for dinner on Saturday. My Grandma had been diagnosed with shingles almost 2 weeks ago. We had to see how she was doing to see if we could take Eli over there. The shingles have been taking their painful course but, after consulting our pediatrician, we decided to go. We made the hard decision that neither Grandma nor Grandpa could hold Eli or even be really close to him but that’s what we had to do. We hope to go visit after things are better.

Dinner was yummy and food was plenty, as usual. During dinner, I decided to let Eli try some mashed potatoes. I put some on my finger and he loved them. He was opening his mouth waiting for more when he saw my finger. (We should have no trouble with him eating from a spoon!) After dinner, we exchanged a few gifts and Eli got some presents. He seemed more interested in the bow than his actual gifts. He was also quite interested in the Christmas train surrounding the tree. He had fun watching it go around and listening to the sounds. Tim has been wanting a train for the tree so that will be fun for next year. Lots of pictures later, we headed back to Mom’s house to turn in for the night.

Picture in front of the tree - a family tradition

Choo choo with Grandma

Yummy taters - give me more!!

No need for presents, I'll take the bow

Sunday morning we woke up and played Christmas with my parents. We acted as if it were Christmas morning (I love to do that). After breakfast, we went to church to hear my Dad preach. During the service each week, my Dad has children’s service. I took Eli up to the front pew for the children’s service. While Dad was talking, Eli kept looking at him and smiling. It was the cutest thing and it almost made my Dad lose his composure. Eli was paying such close attention and just looking at his Grandpa. My Mom could see it from the choir box and it just made us all smile.

After church, we went back to Mom’s for more food (lunch) and to finish gift exchange. My Grandma (Dad’s Mom) came to church with us and then back for lunch. We had not done Eli’s gifts in the morning because he took a nap so we saved them for the afternoon. He had tons of presents. The coolest thing was his HUGE stocking hung by the fireplace. There was a card inside alerting Santa to the new stocking and asking him not to overlook it because it belongs to a special baby. My Mom had written inside that it’s ok if Santa forgets to fill it because it’s already full of Grandma & Grandpa’s love. It was so sweet!

A fun afternoon and then we headed back home. Traffic was pretty heavy on I85 and it took us a lot longer than usual. But we were very happy (and tired) when we finally got home. We’re very much looking forward to our first Christmas at home with Eli.