Merry Christmas!

 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, 
   and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests"  Luke 2:14


We are immensely blessed in this life of ours.  It's been an amazing day for my sweet Tate and me.  Celebrating the birth of our wonderful Savior.  Of course though Tate 'understands' that today is the commemoration of Jesus' birth I know he doesn't understand the significance.  I do know that someday he will.  


Yesterday morning we came over to my parents' to spend a couple of nights for Christmas.  It has been a rainy, chilly weekend, but cozy and warm.  Tate has for some reason become my little shadow.  He is constantly wanting me to hold him and pick him up.  He is crawling into my lap every chance he gets.  But I love it.  Who wouldn't love cuddles with their best guy?


He took a 2 hour nap yesterday as well...unheard of for him when with me on the weekends, and even less heard of at my parents' house (always seems like being somewhere 'new' throws him off a bit.  I got all our stuff into the house...presents, clothes, food...unbelievable how much stuff I had for a 2 day stay!  


Once he finally woke up I got us both dressed and we left for the Children's Christmas Eve service at our church.  I'm embarrassed to admit we haven't been to church much this past year.  Once he became vocal and more mobile, I haven't taken him.  I'm loathe to leave him in yet another 'daycare' setting at church;  there is a Children's Service every Sunday, but it leaves me feeling like I haven't gone to church...there are big screens, lots of hand waving and just too much 'noise.' I am a fan of the traditional service..kneeling, prayerful meditation and calmness.  But I do want Tate to know that worship is a part of our lives and its importance, so we will start making more pilgrimmages in the future.  Maybe we'll rotate the services we go to.  It was so nice when he would just sleep in his carseat :)  He had a great time at the service;  we joined the procession of the gospel and sat in front with all the other kiddos while the reading of the gospel and Larry's sermon.  He was enthralled the entire time.  He sat on my lap and didn't move.  While in the pew he was still and just enjoyed himself.  My sweet sweet boy.

We got home home in the chilly rain, got some dinner for both of us and my cutie was in bed off to dreamland by 7:15!  I reminded him several times that Santa Claus was coming and that he would be coming to take Tate's sue-ys on Monday for all the babies and that when he woke up it would be Jesus' birthday.  He was of course thrilled about the birthday celebration, much less so about the loss of the sue-y.


And it was the last evening of Advent.  He opened his last book of the season.  It was the Charlie Brown Christmas story;  Tate was not a fan, but no matter I love it.  We read 'The Little Drummer Boy' as well as a couple of other books that stay at Grandmommy and Papa's and he was a happy boy.

I spent the next 3 hours putting together his train table.  Quite a feat for me as I am definitely not mechanically or any kind of inclined. Afterwards 'Santa' left the rest of the gifts as well.  Our family tradition has always been that the unwrapped gifts are from Santa Claus and the wrapped gifts from everyone else.  Someone suggested to me last year to ensure that the big gifts didn't always come from Santa Claus, that mommies and daddies need to be known that they give great gifts as well.  Here are a few pics of the tree here at my mom's pre and post Santa :)

 

 

He woke up this morning, Christmas, at 5:15!  Just his usual M.O. :)   He pointed outside and said 'it's dark!'  I reminded him that yes it was and he needed to go back to sleep, so into bed with me he went.  That lasted about 25 minutes.  So I gave in and let him watch his Thomas the Train Christmas DVD which only gave me another 20 minutes before he was squealing about wanting yogurt raisins...so not part of his breakfast routine!  So I promised him oatmeal and out we went to go to the kitchen during which we would have to pass the living room!  And on our way, this is what he found!!!

He was enthralled with the train set and table.  Breakfast was promptly forgotten.  Grandmommy, Papa and Aunt Lindsey joined us about 30 minutes later for more present opening.  Tate vacillated between wanting to open and then becoming bored and/or overwhelmed.  I opted to not have him open all his gifts at once as I mentioned in my previous post.  He actually still has 3 presents left to open.  Other big hits were another train set from his Oma and Opa in Frankfurt, Germany (who are so generous to my sweet boy.)


He had an absolutely great day.  And oh my goodness it's like he knows that the pacifiers are on the way out.  Every time he got upset, which was most often when he couldn't get his trains to work right...he gets so frustrated...he would run off to find his sue-y and his hippo.  And that breaks my heart because he finds such comfort in those two and that combination.  I keep trying to remind him that he's going to keep his hippo, but I don't know if he understands that.  And yesterday as we were leaving church and he was crying because he didn't want to he put his two fingers in his mouth to help soothe himself.  If he continues with that in place of the pacifier I'm going to have to go back to the pacifier and try again in 4-6 weeks.

Later in the morning we decorated the birthday cake for Jesus.  Tate loved loved loved my homemade icing :)  We got the cake iced and in crude writing got it 'addressed'.  I let Tate go with the sprinkles.  He had an absolute blast!

We didn't get to have any today, so I'm looking forward to tasting our creation tomorrow!

My sister and her family came over while Tate was napping.  Her 4 1/2 year old son and Tate usually have a great time together.  Today, S (my nephew) was just all over the place like all good 4 year olds tend to be on Christmas, while Tate was just his mellow self as Christmas just doesn't hold that big thrill for him.  Yet.  

 

My mom prepared an amazing meal as always with all of us pitching in with our favorite dishes!  (not counting the small kitchen fire...yikes!).

This was Tate's favorite position all day....

What a wonderful Christmas.  I always hope to keep this feeling of love and joy with me the entire year, sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don't. But that's life I suppose in this human form.  Christ understands and that's why He has this birthday to celebrate...to be there for us certainly when we don't succeed as well as when we do.  I hope He has enjoyed this day and knows how very much Tate and I love Him.