The first of many. . .

We began our Christmas celebrating with a visit from Jason's Uncle Lee. Lee lives in Florida and this was his first time officially meeting Blaine.






On Tuesday evening the 22nd we went to Jason's Grandma Dawes'. We had a really good timed catching up with Mrs. Dawes and Donald and exchanging a few gifts. Blaine did a great job considering that he had had only one early morning nap.

This is such a great picture of Jason's Mom with Blaine...



An attempt at a family photo...this is how it usually goes. Jason talking to someone else, Blaine being busy, and me trying to get the picture : )


On the 23rd Blaine and I followed our normal family tradition of visiting my Aunt Debra's. This is an opportunity for me to remember my cousin Brandon that was killed in a car accident May 23, 1997. This happens to be his birthday, and he would have been the big 3-0 this year!! It was nice to see my family and for Blaine to see some of my side of the family that he doesn't get to see too often.

On the 24th we usually try to get together and my Mom and Dad's but this year we began WAY sooner than we normally do, considering the two new babies that we added to our family since last Christmas...WOW what a difference a year makes, we do EVERYTHING a little earlier now! Blaine had a chance to play with grandma and grandpa Anderson and got LOT'S of gifts. My Mom and Dad bought Blaine AND Jackson Britax carseats for Christmas. Both of them needed new carseats and Melissa and I picked out the ones that we liked. Mom and Dad are very practical gift givers, so we asked for these for our boys!! : ) We chose the Britax Boulevard car seats

Blaine also got a really neat dry erase table and chairs from his grand-mama and granddaddy Anderson, as well as some blocks. I thought this might come in handy for when Al and Melissa come over to have dinner with Jackson...the boys will be able to sit at the "children's table" : )

Very short stay of the antlers on Blaine's head . . .



Loved this pic of Jackson opening his first present of the evening. . . he looks a bit mesmerized...




I don't know what Blaine's thing is about trying to poke Jackson in the eye....



Best buds in the making...


Jackson making a silly face!!



Blaine really liked taking the bows off of the packages!!


Blaine also got bunches of cool Leap Frog toys from Aunt Melissa, Uncle Al, and Jackson. I think his favorite was the guitar!!
Today was an awesome day . . . What joy I experienced today being with our families, and watching Blaine enjoy his first Christmas Day. This morning started off with my parent's and Jason's parent's coming over. . . . I put a breakfast casserole in the oven, and right at 7:00 am as expected Blaine woke up. I fed Blaine in his nursery, and then Jason (who had just gotten off of work) brought him out as I videoed:

Santa brought Blaine a thomas the train tent, a ride on dump truck, and electric 4-wheeler, coloring books, crayons, finger paint, play-doh, blocks, bubble bath, and lots of other little goodies. It was so much fun to see him overwhelmed with so many people here when he woke up and with all of the "stuff" in the living room. We had so much fun this morning watching Blaine, eating breakfast casserole and soaking in this almost one year old wonder!!






After Blaine had some time to play with his toys he went down for his morning nap. Once he got up we went to Jason's Mom and Dad's for Christmas there. It was so much fun!! We took ALL afternoon to open Blaine's gifts, and mine and Jason's. It was nice to do this at our leisure. We stopped several times for bathroom breaks, snack breaks, and Blaine took a nap break!! : ) We didn't rush...we enjoyed every moment of it!!

Blaine got so many different things...books, baby Einstein videos, a cool toy that has a "ride" that responds and makes things happen on the TV - can't remember the exact name of it, a "big boy chair with his name on it from Pottery Barn Kids, lot's of cute clothes, a "farm house", and the list goes on and on and on. . . here are a FEW pictures from the visit. . .



Jason and I also got SO MUCH STUFF from Santa *wink* *wink* : ) I got some Danskos that I have wanted for a LONG time!! I also got a Pandora bracelet and a few beads for it!! Jason got a new deer decoy (for shooting with his bow), a range finder, and a new pair of binoculars... just to name a few things!! This Christmas was obviously not about us, but Santa made sure that we weren't forgotten!!


I tried to post more pics, but I guess I ran out of room . . . .we had such an awesome Christmas and it was simply amazing how much MORE fun it was having Blaine. A baby changes EVERYTHING!! Now off to planning Blaine's first Birthday!! : )