Christmas Part 1

...a weekend of early Christmas celebrations. Now that we live closer I guess our families could finally schedule Christmas celebrations at more convenient times for everyone else. It was really nice because for the first time we were able to spread out our extended family Christmases and spend more time with everybody. It also provided a welcome break from unpacking moving boxes.

Christmas has always been an important part of mine and Amanda's relationship. We start celebrating the day after Amanda's birthday (November 3rd), so we can make sure to have enough time to enjoy it. It definitely rubbed off on Kate. What do you think...does she look excited?



Jude wasn't old enough to quite understand what was going on beforehand. I have no doubt he will be joining in the festivities in a couple of years.



Usually we are traveling and staying with family for the holidays so we never really get a chance to have much of a Christmas with just our little family. We definitely haven't had Christmas in our own house before, so living close finally gave us a chance to spend some great time just relaxing and being in our house together during the holiday.



Everybody is happy about the new house. Jude and the dogs love laying together in the floor soaking up the sunlight.



We got to add a new stocking to our lineup this year. We are so blessed to have Jude in our family.



We made a herculean effort just to get the tree up this year with the move and all. The only reason we did it was because Kate was so insistent on having a tree. We only put part of our ornaments out, and Kate kept asking when we were going to finish the tree. I guess it did look a little sparse.



Kate playing with her cousin Jace. While we were at GG Debbies, Jace and Kate were in the backyard playing in leaves. At one point Jace started playing with a bat and baseball (of the nerf variety). My Dad asked Jace, "Jace, will you let a girl play ball with you?" Jace: "Um, yes." Kate: "No thanks, I'm just looking pretty." My Dad: "Did she just say that???" Me: "You have no idea."



Jude started to figure out that there were fun things under the wrapping paper. Here he is with his puppy dog eyes trying to convince his momma that he should get to open one more.


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