This was the first year that we were in our own home for Christmas! In all honesty, I was pretty nervous and anxious to plan lots of things to keep us busy so we didn't miss our families so much. I was still sad at times and pretty weepy (dang hormones during the holidays!), BUT I think we did a great job of enjoying the holiday and starting some good traditions :)
We put up our Christmas tree the Monday after we got home. I spent Tuesday setting up the rest of the decorations. Wednesday Jackson and I baked all sorts of cookies to share with friends. Friday kicked off the holiday weekend for us! We had a playdate with our neighbors, the Wolfes. We had a really good time, but Jackson completely melted down at the end since he had skipped his nap the day before. The silver lining was he then napped for three hours :) We picked Josh up at Metro after naptime and headed to the Yanceys' house. We hadn't seen them in SO long! We enjoyed some Chipotle and Dairy Queen and spent time catching up. Jackson and Rachel were excited to see each other, excited for Christmas, and just had a good time :)
These are the pictures that resulted form a little photo shoot with the Yancey tree!
Josh set up his special train set, and Jackson loved watching it go around and around.
Making the train cars work: letting them carry ornaments
Jackson got this awesome toy from Susie, Joe, and Rachel: Design and Drill Activity Center! We spent some time on Christmas Eve discovering all it does. I'm not sure who loves it more...
For Jackson's second Christmas, Josh and I gave him a card that sang "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." He LOVED it and played it over and over again while dancing. Well, he heard the song on the radio the other day and was reunited with his favorite song :) It was rarely on the radio, so we had some on-demand YouTube showings :)
Josh and I spent naptime finishing up our wrapping. Then I got started on dinner: Beef Brisket, red potatoes, and caesar salad. I made the brisket just like my mom: mix an envelope of onion soup mix and a bottle of chili sauce. Salt and pepper the meat and pour/rub sauce all over the meat. Bake in the oven (temp and time depends on the size of your brisket). For the potatoes, I quartered them, tossed them in olive oil, and added kosher salt and rosemary. Then we roasted them in the oven with the brisket. It was a really yummy dinner! After we ate we loaded up in the car and drove around looking at lights! FUN! Then we had a bath, set out cookies and egg nog for Santa, added carrots for the reindeer to the plate, and snuggled up for Santa to come!
Jackson was all about Santa! He was so excited to get everything ready and to go to sleep so he could see what Santa brought the next morning :)
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