Christmas 2009

Cookies and the key for Santa


Waking up Daddy


Seeing the haul for the first time


His Batman castle


His outfit for the whole day.

Christmas this year was the best. Jack was so excited about it and is already counting down the days until "the other Christmas," as he calls it. I was worried how he would do when we took down all the decorations, but he has handled it rather well. I think it helps that he still has his little tree in his room. :)

Since this was my brother's last Christmas at home for awhile, we spent Christmas Eve with my family. That is typically a bigger deal than Christmas. We headed over in the middle of the afternoon and left Jack there while we went home to grab presents and Zoe for the nightly festivities. Zoe was really excited to be included. We headed back around 4 and my mom was almost done with the Hunt family favorite dinner... FRIED CHICKEN. I know, it doesn't sound very Christmasy, but it was YUMMY! That might be why my blood pressure has been acting up come to think of it. :) Anyway, we ate dinner and chatted about Jon's mission... After dinner we relaxed, cleaned up and hung out for awhile. We have been trying to teach Jack a little more about Jesus in relation to Christmas and I thought it would be good to get the Nativity movie that is about 5 min long and narrate it for him. It was really successful. He got to see all the major players in the Birth and now when anyone talks about Baby Jesus, shepards, Wise Men, etc. he seems to understand. Next year, we will delve into it a little more, but for this year I was proud with how much he thought about the real meaning of Christmas. We watched that movie again on Christmas Eve and after that Jack was so ready to go to bed that he was practically tucking himself in. We did the traditional one present for him. He got Transformer PJs. He loves PJs. It is so funny to see him wearing his different PJs to the gym and the kids running up to him and asking to see the PJs he is wearing that day. He was really excited to wear these Transformer ones there. They have been a big hit. After the present we set out the cookies we had made for Santa, as well as a "Magic" key that enabled Santa to get into the house. Jack then ran up to bed and made not a peep until 7am. Us grownups watched "Jack Frost..." per Jon's request and hit the sack around 11.

Jack woke up at 7am and ran around waking up everyone. He was so excited to get down there and open presents. We make the kids crawl through a tunnel every year to reach the presents and this is the first year that Jack just barrelled through that thing. I was lucky to get a picture. His favorite toy was the Batman Castle he got from Santa. He loved the stockings and everything else as well, but that Batman castle has been a hit. He was happy that Santa remembered Zoe and left her a big candycane bone in her stocking. After breakfast, we headed home to shower and head out to Jason's family's house for the rest of the day.

Jack loved the bike, monster trucks, coloring supplies and cowboy boots he got from Jason's family. We spent a great day relaxing while Jack played with everything and walked around in his cowboy boots. They are the cutest things!! We napped and then headed over to my sister in law's mom's house for dinner. It was really yummy. After dinner, Jason, his dad and I decided to hit a movie. We went and saw the Blind Side. It was a great show, but the seats were terrible for this pregnant lady... I think I am still recovering! Jack had a movie night with his Grandma and his favorite uncle.

It was a beautiful day and although I wasn't thrilled with Jack's attitude toward the end of gift giving, it was such a joy to be a part of this magic for my child! I am already thinking of ways to make next Christmas even better!