Christmas Season 2010

Wow! We were so busy over the holiday that so many of my "post ideas" went unpublished, many not even making it to draft form.... I hate that! I really want to be better about posting more frequently. A New Year's Resolution perhaps? We'll see....

Anyway, one post that cannot go unpublished is our family Christmas. Tucker's 2nd Christmas was so much fun! He is such a fun age right now! He just takes everything in. It's so neat to just watch him take something new in, process it, and then watch him react. I could never get bored of watching him experience life! He never fails to amaze me with what he figures out.

We set the video camera up to catch Tucker's reaction to seeing presents under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, so no photo of his reaction, but this is what he saw:

Santa brought Tucker 4 gifts and some smaller gifts in his stocking. At first, Tucker took the 'nice-and-easy' approach to opening his gifts.....

BUT, once he realized there were toys under all that wrapping paper, he got to work ripping them open!

That is until he came across his remote control car! By far his favorite toy!

He immediately had to try it out, meaning his other gifts and stocking had to wait. In fact, he played with his car, bongos, and kitchen so hard that after breakfast he was ready for a nap! Then, it was time to go to Memaw and Papa's so the rest of his gifts had to wait until the day AFTER Christmas!

The verdict's still out on who enjoys the car the most, Tucker or Daddy....

Wes and I spent a lot of time this year talking about what family traditions of our own we wanted to start. I am a girl who LOVES traditions! I hold memories of Christmas traditions as a child very close to my heart. In a way, it really makes me sad that I am grown up (that term is used very loosely sometimes lol!) and due to our family dynamics, many of those traditions have changed. For example, the timing of our family Christmas at my mom and dad's has to be scheduled around families of spouses and significant others. Up until only a few years ago, Wes and I and my sisters would go stay at my parents' house on Christmas Eve and we would all wake up on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought everyone. While I do miss that, I want our own little family of myself, Wes and Tucker to have our own family traditions.

We immediately decided that we wanted our traditions to focus on the reason for Christmas, the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. How easy it is for that to get over shadowed in all the gift-giving, money-spending, and ripping and running. It's sad that keeping 'the main thing the main thing' (in the words of a great friend) requires you to be intentional in doing so, but it does. Luckily, we have many friends that have wonderful family traditions that we were able to 'borrow' and make our own.

To start with, we sent birthday party invitations to our family members inviting them to the Christmas Eve service at our church and then back to our house for a birthday party for Jesus! We sang Happy Birthday and blew out candles. Put it on your calender for next year!

We also decided that we would only give Tucker 3 gifts, minus the smaller gifts in his stocking, just as the three wise men gave Jesus. Many of our friends do this and we LOVED the idea from the get go. What better way to keep the number of presents your little one *expects* (because, really isn't that want they do, they expect toys on Christmas morning) under control. "I get 3 gifts from Santa on Jesus' birthday because that's how many gifts Jesus got." (It's confusing enough to even explain why WE even get gifts on Jesus' birthday.....we might need to put some more thought into that one for when Tucker's old enough to ask those questions....any ideas???) Jesus gave the ultimate gift, one that we don't even come close to deserving. To shower Tucker with a million gifts just doesn't seem right. We immediately loved the idea of giving him 3 gifts symbolizing the 3 gift Jesus received from the Magi. I do have to admit, I had a LOT of trouble with this one, hence the 4 gifts Tucker received. I found myself saying, "I think I can shove this one in his stocking and it won't count..." (For the record, the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics does NOT fit in a stocking!) We need to commit to doing better next year.

Tucker may be too young to really understand the meaning of Christmas, but it's never too early to start teaching him about Jesus and His love for us. We have a play nativity set from Little People (which is now on sale for $19.99!) that we set up on our coffee table.
When Tucker plays with it, we always take the opportunity to tell him bits and pieces of Jesus' birth and even though much of it goes over his head, it's laying the foundation for future learning and understanding. Tucker knows which character is Baby Jesus and will pick him up and kiss and hug him. If you ask Tucker, "Where is Jesus?" he will point up (toward Heaven). If you ask him, "Who does Jesus love?" he will point to himself. Tucker already loves to pray. He will hold his hands together indicating he wants us to pray at the most random times! After we pray, he always signs "more". That's my boy! :)

There's a few other traditions Wes and I have talked about, but that's a start!

Since I missed the opportunity to post individual posts about our holiday activities, here are a few (okay, a LOT, but I'm combining like 4 posts into one!) pictures from our holiday season:

Papa and Memaw with Tucker at our birthday party for Jesus.

Papa reading Tucker the Christmas Story

A few pics from Christmas at Nana's:

This is what Xavien does every time he takes a picture! He's smiling for the camera, but he's looking at the person beside him smiling! Hilarious!

Tucker LOVES his big cousins! He is so lucky to have 6 older cousins ranging in age from 7 years to 19 months. I don't even want to think about the trouble, I mean fun, he will have with all those cousins in the years to come!

This was Tucker's reaction to Santa this year. Poor Buddy! I have to admit, I have this fear that my son will be in therapy when he's 16 years old and it will all come back to the fact that his Mommy put him on the lap of some scary guy with a white beard when he was 14 months old!

Nothing a few Cheerios won't cure!

Braving the cold to help Mommy and Daddy finish up some Christmas shopping!

Tucker posing before church on Christmas Eve. Future GQ model?

Daddy, Mommy & Tucker Bug after church

And this is what Tucker spent the whole Christmas season doing. We had to move all the ornaments from the bottom of the tree so they were out of his reach.

On Christmas Day we headed to my parents' house. Here are a few pics:

Everyone waiting to open presents. It always starts out nice and calm, but it doesn't take long before wrapping paper is flying and kids are screaming with excitement! It really is bit of a crazy time!

Aunt Holli & Tucker Bug (drinking from the sippy of one of Tatum's baby dolls lol!)

Tatum INSISTED on opening EVERYONE's gifts!

Mikie, Holli & Tater Bug!

Tatum putting make up on Makenzie. Please notice that she is putting eye shadow in Makenzie's hair!

Bridgette and Holli are going to kill me for this!

O'mauri and Tucker playing hide 'n seek with Memaw! They LOVE Memaw!

Can you tell that Tucker was up way pass his nap time?

Sleepy eyes :(

Daddy, Mommy & Tucker Bug on Christmas day

Me and Mom. (Mom always wears her PJ's all day long on Christmas day ;)

Shelby & Tucker (when we first got there, before Tucker got dressed lol!)

I didn't end up with many pictures of the guys (Dad, Wes, Mikie, Luke, Nick, Joshua, & O'mauri)
because when you have 2 new Playstation 3's and a new Wii, they tend to hibernate in the basement!

Yes, Christmas this year was a great time filled with spending time with family and reflecting on the reason for celebrating.

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." -Isaiah 9:6