Christmas 2009

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas. We celebrated the birth of our Savior and His redeeming love. The truth that because He came as a little baby, we can spend eternity with Him, know Him, and trust in Him as the only unchanging thing we will ever know. We celebrated being in our new home, with our new son. We celebrated new family members. Two new sister-in-laws, a new niece, and a new (almost) nephew (expected any day!) We celebrated five times! We celebrated over the course of almost a week, which meant that we were able to actually enjoy each of the afore-mentioned celebrations! We were blessed with wonderful people, wonderful gifts, and wonderful food!!

The first celebration we had was with Jason's dad and Betsy (aka Grandpa and Mimi!). This took place the Sunday before Christmas and was a wonderful way to usher in the season! We were also able to enjoy this celebration with Jason's brother Nick and his family (Sarah, Sean, and Aubrey), Jason's brother, Dan, and our new sister-in-law, Amy, and niece, Anaya. Amy's husband (and Jason's brother) John is in Iraq this year, but we look forward to celebrating with him next year!
Opening his first wrapped presents ever!! He had no problem catching on to the tearing of the paper.

Grandpa and Mimi!

A pretty sweet action shot of Anaya...if I do say so myself. Which I do.

Koala children and Uncle Dan.

The next two festivities we enjoyed were on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning, we had a brunch at our house! Yia-Yia and Nick, Sarah, Sean, and Aubrey came over and we had a wonderful time of eating and opening presents.

Uncle Nick, Jason, and Sean playing a fishing game on Playstation.

Aubrey and Nate

Jason and the boy babies. (Well one big boy and a baby)

Next we headed over to my parents' house and celebrated Christmas with Dad, Mom, Matt, Michael, Christina, and Josiah (although I'm sure everything was a bit muffled for him;o). We started out by attending the Christmas Eve service at my parents' church! It was a beautiful service....Emily Richards sang "O Holy Night" and it was one of my favorite parts! Nate did pretty well during the service, but in keeping with his current modes of expression, had to be removed for volume reasons. After the service we went back to my parents' house where we had our traditional Christmas Eve meal of velveeta dip and fritos. It was delicious, and not nutritious. But hey, it's Christmas. Then we put Nate down and watched A Christmas Story! I enjoyed watching the movie and enjoyed staying up super late with my family! We didn't even start opening presents until after 11pm! It was so fun. Nate did a great job too...he slept through almost everything and went right to bed when we got home.

Daddy and Nate with his Santa hat on.

Me and Nate. (for some reason, this was the only time my camera was used. I guess thats what happens when the baby goes to bed. I will do better next year.)

Whew...okay...next came Christmas morning at home:o) It was delightful. Nate slept until 9 something (due to the late night on Christmas Eve). He got up and opened one present, I think...and was then ready for the first nap of the day. This worked out well because then Jason and I were able to enjoy a leisurely present opening and breakfast. Nate finished his presents later in the morning.

Baby's First Christmas!!

Jason and Nate on Christmas morning!

Last but not least we headed up to my grandmother's house in Plant City to have Christmas with my mom's extended family: Nana, Aunt Jane, Aunt Judy, Jimmy, Ryan, Aunt Mary, Chuck, Mom, Dad, Matt and us. We had a wonderful meal and a great time.

Baby's First Christmas bib from Aunt Christina!

Nana, Mom, and Nate! (Four generations if you count the one taking the picture;o)

Me and Dad:o)

Nana bought this Santa suit for Nathanael and repeatedly asked for us to put it on him and take a picture. He looks so cute:o)

So there it is....Christmas 2009! We are so blessed. We had a wonderful Christmas! We hope yours was wonderful too! Happy New Year!