A Very Merry Christmas

I sincerely hope that everyone had a blessed and joyful Christmas. I know I did. It was pretty low key at our house, but I loved watching Brennan experience his Christmas this year (last year he was a bitty little guy so he didn't do much...although he did enjoy laying beneath the Christmas tree and gazing up at the lights last year.)

Derek was gone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (The life of a pilot!) but he came home around 3 o'clock on Sunday so we celebrated from that point on. We started with chopping down a "Christmas" Tree and hauling it back to Grandma and Grandpa's house to decorate. There were a few reasons for the delay in the tree festivities this year, but the main reason was that Brennan is quite "grabby"...so we wanted to hold off as long as possible so we wouldn't place an unnecessary temptation right in his lap. It was actually quite nippy outside (rare for Texas) so we bundled Brennan up in his batman hat and mittens (SO CUTE!) and we hopped on the gator with Grandpa and drove out to the pasture where we located the perfect tree. Not your typical Christmas tree, but a tree nonetheless. This was my first tree-cutting experience and I will say that I didn't actually cut the tree, but watching Derek do it was awesome. He was a pro! The tree came down in under 5 minutes and it fell perfectly. I asked him later how he learned to cut down a tree like that and he said it was from watching "AxMen" on the Discovery Channel. Don't you just love educational TV? Anyway, we got it loaded onto the trailer and hauled it back home and set it up with decorations and all. It was lovely and smelled quite nice.
Then we had a delicious Christmas feast and we all ate way too much, but then again...what else can you do when you have such amazing food staring you in the face? It just wouldn't be Christmas without a healthy bout of food contractions.*

After dinner we opened presents. Let me just say that I enjoy presents, but not nearly as much as I enjoy giving presents. Now that I am a mother, I can't tell you how much fun it is to watch my baby boy open presents and get excited about them! Probably the most precious thing ever. By the way...it's official...we have the most spoiled boy in the world right here. He got so many books and toys and clothes. Funny thing about the clothes...every time he opened an article of clothing he would throw it over his shoulder as if to say "Are you kidding me?? What is this?? I asked for TOYS. T-O-Y-S. Not CLOTHES. Ugh." Hilarious. They learn early, don't they?

All in all it was a very sweet Christmas and spending time with family was wonderful. I love having Derek home to snuggle and watching Brennan reunite with his Daddy never gets old. It melts my heart into a puddle of warm, sappy goo. I am so blessed! I'm bracing myself for a fabulous New Year and I hope you are too!!
By the way, I had pictures to go along with this but couldn't seem to make blogspot upload them. Terribly sorry. Maybe next time?**

*Food Contractions were first introduced into my life whilst having a delicious-sinfully delicious-meal ala Lisa McCart (aka Mama Lisa) the mother of my dear friend, Kirsten.
**Speaking of Kirsten, I totally stole the "*" at the end of the word to express something below from her blog. Thanks Skirst!