What a wonderful Christmas we had this year staying in town, enjoying the festivities with the kids, and spending time with our family and friends. The long weekend started off badly with Hayes having ANOTHER ear infection and us missing the Anderson's annual open house, but got a lot better once P and Pop came into town. They gave Gray a toy instrument set as soon as they got there and we had so much fun watching him "parade" around the house all night. We got an even bigger kick out of watching him play with Mal and Big's gift, which was a lifelike dinosaur with moving sensors. He about jumped out of his skin every time the dinosaur moved! Unfortunately, my parents had to head on to Birmingham the next day, as it was Christmas Eve. We spent the day cozied up in our house cooking, watching Christmas movies, and putting together the kid's toys. Late that afternoon, we braved the rain and cold and went to church so Gray could see "Big Jesus", as he calls him, and then hurried home to bake some cookies for Santa and get snug in our beds for the night. Adam and I had so much fun laying out all of their gifts, eating the cookies Gray left for Santa, and then watching The Family Stone (one of our favorite Christmas movies) after the kids were asleep.Christmas morning was so much fun and it made me even more anxious for next year when the kids will be that much more into the Santa thing. Gray loved his easel chalkboard, guitar, and other gifts, but was just as interested in Hayes' ball popper and babydoll! Uh oh....Santa did good this year!
The Pattersons came over mid-morning and we enjoyed my homemade peppermint hot chocolate and Adam's annual sausage and cheese balls as we exchanged gifts. Again, we spent most of the time laughing at Gray and enjoying his reaction to the gifts he received. Lauren and Andrew gave him "Mater", the tow truck from Cars, and they are now best friends. It is the first thing he talks about in the morning and the last thing he sees at night. He even talks on the phone to him! The best part of it is that we finally have something he cares enough about to take away (or threaten at least) when he's misbehaving. Thanks Uncle Andrew and Aunt Lala! What a gift!
We wrapped up Christmas by going over to Billy and Linda's for a big dinner with all of the Garrety side of the family. Dinner was sooo yummy (Beef tenderloin, twice baked potato casserole, and more) and it was awesome having so many people who wanted to "take the kids off our hands for a sec". You didn't hear me complain! After dinner, I found Gray in Papa's leather recliner with his shoes off, a blanket pulled up to his chin, making fake snoring sounds. What a comedian! We spent the next 2 days in our pajamas, recovering from all the fun and festivities, but it was so nice not to have anything we HAD to do.
I'm looking forward to having Adam home again this week. It's so much fun to do stuff as a family and I'm already sad about when he and the kids go back and the daily grind begins. The kids are growing up so fast and I just want to stop the clock sometimes. Hayes has discovered her feet and could watch them for 20 minutes! She loves to listen to us singing and watch us dancing and she is just such a happy baby. Thank you Jesus! She loves her solids even more than her bottles and the reflux is FINALLY getting better, poor thing. She's already almost 17 pounds and growing! She's sleeping great, 7-7, and has even stopped fussing on car rides. Now if we can just keep these ear infections away, we'll be good as gold! Gray continues to be a feisty, funny, stubborn, independent little man with so much personality. He can count to 15, say all of his ABC's, knows all of his shapes, and is saying full-fledged sentences. My favorite is "What you doing in there, Mommy?". Obviously, he hears that question A LOT from us because we never know what he's up to! His teacher says he is smart....too smart, in fact. She says he manipulates all of the other kids until he gets what he wants. I can't imagine where he got that from. He is still unbelievably picky when it comes to food and pretty much likes to control everything. (Again, no idea where that comes from). It just gets better and better and I am looking forward to every second we have ahead of us!Merry Christmas,
The Pattersons
