Sadly, I am returned to work after some 10 days off at home with Jameson and Brian. It was lovely, and now it’s over, so forgive me as I try to get back into the swing of things.

Hopefully this is not as late as it seems to me now, but I had to share our Christmas fun!

On Christmas Eve, we joined the neighbors for dinner and exchanged a few gifts. Jameson wore his brand new overalls from his aunt and uncle!

Just before we sat down for dinner, Santa and my aunt arrived for a quick visit. However, things did not go as smoothly though as they did for Jameson’s visit with Santa a few weeks ago, and Lily was also beside herself.

Oh well, there’s always next year!

Lily is an expert with the fork and was even practicing before the food was in front of her.

Here is Kelly holding Jameson and Lily was grabbing at his hand. This is why I always leave the camera on so all I have to do is pop off the lens cap.

I made a homemade gingerbread which I used with our mini bundt cake pans (I first used these for Jameson’s birthday you might recall).

It was delicious, and I think that the second day it tasted even better. Brian did the molasses and beer part, and I did the rest. It was actually really easy (just a lot of ingredients) and so rich and wonderful.

Jameson and Lily are really interacting a lot which is adorable. Lily wanted his pacifier, and Jameson offered her his socks in trade for the laptop.

Christmas Day, Jameson awoke ready to open gifts (by now he is an expert!)

However, we only made it through a couple before he lost interest in the opening part and just wanted to play with the new toys that were opened, so we helped him open his gifts.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwPbMUgOSak]

We have decided to adopt the 3 gifts from Santa rule. That is, Santa is only allowed to fill his stocking and bring Jameson 3 gifts for under the tree: something to read, something to wear, and something to play with. This year, Santa brought him a snowsuit, gloves & mittens, and boots which all went together of course; a board book; and a sled!

Midway through opening gifts, we stopped for cinnamon rolls!

Sasha enjoyed some of her gifts as well (some of them are still wrapped up for her later)

But the fun didn’t stop there. While Jameson napped and Brian worked on food, I went to church. Then Jameson woke up just in time for Brian’s parents and sister to arrive to celebrate and have Christmas supper.

He practiced his patty cake with grandma.

And then we dove in with Charlie Brown Christmas in the background (Jameson got it in his stocking along with some snacks and You Are My I Love You board book)

We had a lot of fun and are so grateful for all the wonderful gifts we received. And I think we did a pretty good job this year on the giving. Jameson makes it pretty easy.

Both sets of grandparents got this birth through 6 months digital scrapbook (what do you think I’ve been working on this week? the 6 month to 1 year one… slowly). They also received a family photo on canvas (thanks to Groupon) from Picture It on Canvas. I’ve now used both Canvas on Demand and Picture It, and I’ve been really happy with both results.

I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday as well! I’m sad it’s over, but our lights will still be up through this week to help the celebration continue on!

P.S. If you love my family and adorable pictures of Jameson, here are the rest of our Christmas photos, and a few more cute videos of Jameson ringing bells here and playing with one of his new-old toys here.