Christmas 2014

I haven't done this in the past but Neil really made Christmas for us this year and I don't want to forget it so I wanted to do a separate post just about Christmas. This will have a lot of detail, mostly for me, but for anyone who is actually interested (ha) this is a long post with pictures.

Neil was really into Christmas this year. Frosty the Snowman was definitely his favorite, but he loved singing Christmas songs and reading Christmas books. His other favorite songs (off the top of my head) were Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Away in a Manger, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Neil also got Santa. We put up the tree with minimal ornaments but got the tree up (late, very late). There was a Rudolph ornament that he wanted to turn the flashing lights on all the time, and the better ornaments were out of reach. He tried to hang a punching balloon (present from Santa in his stocking) as well as a Grinch gift bag for Dave, as ornaments on the tree as well.

I wrapped pajamas for Neil for Christmas Eve and put them under the tree a few days before Christmas. Neil noticed the present right away and exclaimed "Santa". He thought Santa had already been there. So I tried to explain that no, that's from Mommy and Daddy. I had him wrap presents for the rest of the family with me ("helping") and then on Christmas Eve Dave also let him "help" wrap my presents. Neil really liked picking out wrapping paper, and ran off with the tape for me. I had to go chase him down. But it seemed to help him understand.

Christmas Eve we went to a service at the Presbyterian church where Dave plays drums about once a month. We watched our friends' kid Ethan during the service and the two kids together were feeding off each other. Neil did start out singing (something) to the songs. It seemed like he was making it up. Dave took the two of them in the nursery for a few songs and brought them back in for the end, when candles were lit for Silent Night. I did light a candle but that meant I couldn't shift Neil's weight because the candle took up one hand. Next time I wouldn't do that myself.

After the service, we went to Tamarind for Indian food with our friends, Ethan's parents. It reminded me of the Christmas Story and them going for Chinese. I had been there for lunch before and it was a buffet, but that wasn't open so we ordered off the menu. Neil got chicken nuggets and didn't seem very hungry, which was unusual (foreshadowing).

We figured Neil would fall asleep on the way home but he sang Christmas carols until we were less than 10 minutes home. Go figure. He was so excited. Then he started to fall asleep so I let him watch a few songs/videos on my phone (Let It Go from Frozen and Under the Sea from Little Mermaid). That kept him awake for the end and we did the normal bedtime routine. He was very excited about Christmas and we left out cookies for Santa to eat.

Santa made an early visit figuring Neil was in his crib and couldn't get out. It was very windy and rainy and we lost power a few times for a few seconds each time. This made our carbon monoxide detector go off, and reset the camera in Neil's room, which means it "homed" - went to the range of its capability and then set into a home position. In addition, Neil was getting a drum set from Santa and Santa decided to hit the drums while putting it together. Between all that, we looked at the monitor and he was sitting straight up in bed. No crying, breathing heavily (had had a cold), but we figured he was just excited. It took awhile but eventually he fell asleep and laid on the other end of the crib.

The next morning he was awake his usual time, at 7am, even though he went to bed pretty late and then was up for quite awhile. I went to get him and he asked right away about the cookies for Santa. I leave the light off when I get him out of the crib, so it wasn't until after I changed his diaper and Dave walked in that Dave noticed Neil had thrown up pretty badly in his crib the night before. I felt terrible not getting him when he was sitting up- we had no idea.

So we changed him into fresh pajamas, and took away his sheets and everything that had some puke on it to wash. Neil seemed okay and wanted to check out the cookies that we left out for Santa, so we just let him go.

Under the tree we already had a bunch of presents, but Santa added a small pile in Santa gift wrap as well as a drum set, filled stocking, and this year's Snowmen musical thing from Hallmark. Neil made a beeline for the snowmen and we couldn't get him to look at anything else. When we got him to pay attention he had a huge smile on his face for the drums, and it was nice because he didn't tear through unwrapping presents or looking in the stocking but took his time.

After presents, I made egg sandwiches, and Neil barely ate any of it. He did drink a lot of milk, though. He seemed tired/off so he and I watched Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on television while Dave got in the shower. It was a pretty normal day (although we all now have that Hallmark Snowmen song memorized thoroughly). Neil ate a pbj sandwich pretty well for lunch and a few bites of banana, and then we put him down for his nap. He couldn't have his pacifier because it needed to be washed but he did fine without it.

After his nap, I made Crinkle Cookies (yum) and we let Neil have that for a snack but he barely ate it.

Dave put together his big boy (toddler) bed. We gave Neil a Spider Man blanket for Christmas, for the bed. Once the bed was together Neil spent a LOT of time in it.

Christmas dinner was crescent roll hot dogs with cheese, green beans, and blackberries. Neil only really ate the blackberries so he didn't get any dessert. It was all very laid back. I should mention Neil and I wore pajamas all day and the three of us stayed inside the entire day as well.

We spent the rest of the night cleaning up the house; I also tried to finish Christmas cards (late on that), and Neil went to bed at his normal time. He has a pretty bad cough at this point and did only throw up the one time, so I'm crossing my fingers he's okay!