Christmas Bells Are Ringing!

Holy Crap I need to catch up!  Christmas was jam-packed with lots of fun stuff and dare I say, it was Gloooooorious!!!

I was so excited for Christmas Eve!  I was given these white and red striped baby bottoms a long time ago and I was hoping they would still fit Asher by Christmas and they did.   I wanted to find just a plain red onesie to go with it but happened upon a $3 'My First Christmas' onesie that was actually pretty perfect for it so I snatched it up.  He looked adorable!!!  I was so excited for everyone to see him and they all just ate him up!!  See him in his little baby Santa hat with lipstick marks all over his face?? That's the proof!!  Other happenings for the evening:  my dad and Asher had some good times together.  Asher LOVES being up in the air.  If he's cranky, you can stick him up in the air and he just starts smiling and laughing.  So fun!  Morgan and Gaven had a wrestling match in the middle of Catch Phrase, Paul and Gaven put Aiden and Bronsynn up on their hands (I dare say Gaven had the harder one!!), and Asher being so stinking cute in his Christmas Jammies and, as you can tell, he's so excited in his crib waiting for Santa to come!

Paul and I were sooooo tired by the time we got home from my parents that night.  It felt good to hit the sack.  But Paul was up and at it at 7 am Christmas morning.   I forced myself up and out of bed and helped Paul get our stuff set up....a fire, Christmas music, lights, hot chocolate!  This year Bacardi got a super nice bed along with his bone.  At first he didn't know what to do with it but eventually reached the point where he didn't even have to be told to go to bed.  We'd just start closing up shop and in he'd go.  I think he likes it.   

Our sweet baby in his cute Christmas jammies, playing on his Christmas blanket that Paul's parents bought him.  He played with wrapping paper while Paul and I did our thing.  He received this cute bomber hat for his nugget in stocking and got a super stellar outfit for Christmas from Mom and Dad!

Paul made out like a bandit.  In his stocking, among all the goods, he found coal.  Guess he was a little naughty...ha ha ha.  He got a stellar tie 'from Asher', his yearly BKE's, and then it got a little tricky.  All Paul wanted for Christmas was an Xbox.  He actually wanted it last year and I basically refused it.  We already have the Wii and why do we need two gaming systems?  But the Wii doesn't have Call of Duty, Halo, or the not-stupid versions of Madden Football, Paul cries to me.  So I pretended I was still not going to buy him an Xbox, but in order to fool him I wrapped up two extra 'presents' to throw him off (the idea being that if he had six wrapped presents then there's no possible way an Xbox could be one of them because that would be way over the limit).  It worked!  Ha ha nailed it!!  In one box I put a bunch of stupid stuff from around the house in like a mini flashlight, knee straps, nipple cream (yep!) and then a card where I made up a little Christmas jingle about this stupid musical tie Paul's mom gave him that he would never wear in a million years.  Then he opened his Xbox - lots of smiles!!  Yay!!  And then he opened another empty box.  And then he opened up his Kinect...because c'mon - I can't NOT get a Kinect to go with it!  And then he opened up MW3.  I think I made him pretty happy: 

One of the thousands of reasons I love my husband is that he is so thoughtful with his gifts.  He tries to make things meaningful and he pays attention to the little things and he always ends up happily surprising me!  I got my slippers I wanted (cuz I actually found them, bought them and gave them to Paul and said "Here: wrap these.  These are from you to me."), a 15lb kettlebell (which was too light for me and so we upgraded to a 30), money for me to shop for myself, a killer new pair of running shoes, and Asher 'gave' me some weight lifting gloves!  

As tradition serves we gathered up presents and headed back out to my mom's where hot Sticky Buns welcomed us.  My nephews were so excited for their new Wii and Balance Board.  They also received dart gear, as you can see on Paul and Aiden below.  They have shirts and goggles and the two of them had a war all morning.  Paul and I received a stellar tent to add to our camping gear!  In the last few Christmas' we've collected some nice stuff from them for Christmas and we are so excited for the summer!  Asher got a suuuuper cute pair of overalls from Grandma and Grandpa along with that really cute stuffed dragon that matches his room (it's actually an alligator but I saw it and had to have it and I say it's a dragon so there).  Exchanging presents with sibs and fam was full of laughs and great fun.  We hung out all day and watched new movies and then headed over to Paul's parents: 

Paul and I had a great time at his parents as well.  We ate a great dinner and visited with some family we haven't seen in awhile.  Trudi and Mike had also given Asher a Christmas outfit that I changed him into.  It was pretty dang cute on him!   Asher the Elf visited with Santa Matt, drooled all over Grandma Budd's pants, and was given some toys, books, a Champion tracksuit, and jammies.  His Uncle Beej and Aunt Hilary also gave him some great books! In the middle picture with me and Matt in the background...I promise Matt isn't really picking his nose.  That was just for the camera's benefit.  Also, BJ had me for Christmas this year and when he asked what I wanted I jokingly told him I wanted sand from a beach in Costa Rica.  They were married back in August but had just left a week before Christmas for their honeymoon and guess where they went??  Well, those gift cards down in that there picture box would be sitting on top of a bunch of sand.  That's right --- I have sand from Costa Rica!  I laughed so hard when I picked up the present and felt something slosh to the side.  So cool!: 

We had such a great couple days and felt so blessed.  I love being with family more than anything and Christmas makes it super special!  But that wasn't all the Christmas fun - my dad's side of the family got together a few days after Christmas.  We had a Cafe Rio style nacho/taco/salad bar (which was absolutely tremendous!), the kids smacked the pinata and it only took 2 rounds to bust it this year, my cousin Nicole got a Sundae in her mouth, Paul visited with my tiny cousin, Ella, and my Grandma is sitting there in the corner with her 13 great grandchildren!!  Holy Cow!!  There were three great grandkids born this past summer.  Oh, and that middle bottom picture is Asher pushing himself up onto his knees!  That was a first!