And here it is at home!!!
Alright, so picking up Sunday.....
What a crazy few days it has been! Sunday began the Christmas festivities. Per Nicolas’ request, we held off on going to
church this week. Instead, we decorated
our Christmas tree, worked on organizing the tornado we had created in the
house, and Nicolas worked on perfecting his driving skills on Mario Kart for
Wii. We made a pit stop at Menards for
some hooks for the bathroom to hang his towels on and got detoured after seeing
another shopper purchasing a sled. A
sled? YES! We need one of those! Thank you random Menards shopper for the
reminder. J After Menards, we headed to Grandma and
Grandpa Longstreet’s house for the first of our Christmas parties. We expected Nicolas to be shy for a while,
but he warmed up very quickly to everyone and, in no time, was downstairs wrestling
and playing games with his uncles and cousins.
When it came time for presents, Nicolas was a little uncomfortable with
the family tradition of opening gifts one at a time in front of everyone, but
compromised that he and his cousin Andrew could open their gifts together. As we suspected would happen, he and Andrew
(who is 9) are going to be best buds!
After staying later than we should have, we said our goodbyes to the
family and headed home for the night.
Before we knew it, it was B-day!!!! We had intended to wake Nicolas by singing him
happy birthday, but at we were about to head down the stairs, there he was
walking up! He said, “I looked at my
clock and it said it was 6:43, is it time for me to get up?” We said “Yes!” and got breakfast ready. He walked over to the dining room and turned
on the light. He looked at the table and
said “Ooooh, look at this!” His presents
were stacked there. Unlike most children
who would tear in, Nicolas looked at them and then got ready to eat. At breakfast, we actually sang him happy
birthday twice which he seemed to enjoy much more when it was just the three of
us. After breakfast, he opened his
presents from us. We played and
continued to work on cleaning the house.
Nicolas wanted to take a long bath, so he jumped in while I cut Kevin’s
hair (which was SO LONG!!) I got in the
shower after that and I take about an hour to get ready. When I was just about finished, I went over
to see if Nicolas was ready and he was still in the tub! Once he knew I was going to beat him, he sped
up. J What can I say? It’s his birthday, he can play if he wants
to! Once we were all ready, we headed to
Grandma and Grandpa Peterson’s house to celebrate Nicolas and Grandma’s
birthdays and Christmas. Once we
arrived, Grandpa showed him around the house and gave him quick lessons in both
pool and ping pong. Holland still had
snow on the ground (we had none in GR), so Grandpa and Nicolas went out for
Nicolas’ first sledding adventure! He
thought it was AWESOME! He tried both a
long sled and a saucer sled and definitely preferred the longer sled. He was not a fan of the saucer spinning him
around. After several runs, they came in
and we had a delicious dinner. We sang
Happy Birthday and had ice cream cake and presents. Continuing the festivities, we went into the
living room to open Christmas gifts.
Nicolas thought it was pretty cool that Santa had filled his dad’s
stocking with presents for him! He
helped Grandma find the presents under the tree with his name on them and
opened them one by one. Kevin and
Grandpa kept telling him that Grandma liked to give underwear for Christmas and
it was an ongoing joke while he opened his gifts. Don’t worry, he didn’t get any underwear! J That might have been embarrassing! Uncle Kyle and Jules were on their way over,
but had gotten held up in bad weather, so we looked at some of the pictures
from our trip while we waited for them to arrive. We opened gifts with them and then had to
leave soon after in order to get Nicolas in bed. He needed to be asleep before Santa came!
Make a wish!
His reaction when Dad and Grandpa teased him about getting underwear :)
And the fun just kept coming!!! Christmas morning! We went down to wake him up around the same
time he normally gets up and he asked if it was morning. We told him Merry Christmas and asked him if
he wanted to see if Santa had come. He
was sleepy, but came upstairs and checked the counter to see if Santa had his
snack. Indeed he had. He left only crumbs and a thank you
note. While we got breakfast ready,
Nicolas took a peek to see what Santa had left under the tree. Such self-restraint, he came to the table for
breakfast. Before opening presents, we
sang happy birthday to Jesus (Nicolas’ idea – love his heart!). Then, it was time for presents. He must have been a very good boy all year
because Santa even brought him special candy that he so desperately wanted from
South Africa! After presents, he played
for a bit and then we all got ready to go to Auntie Beth and Uncle Ryan’s
house. He was so excited to see Sophia
and Stella again and Stella greeted him at the door inviting him to their
private dining room. It was so cute! They ran off to play while we caught up with
family and friends. When it came time to
open gifts, Nicolas could hardly believe how many gifts were under the tree and
how many were for him! He, Sophia, and
Stella had a ball opening all their gifts.
When they were done, you could barely see the floor! We had dinner and then headed back to GR for
our last party. After dropping the dogs
off at home, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa Longstreet’s house. We ate and then opened gifts. Again, Nicolas couldn’t believe how many
gifts he got. Sensory overload!! He did so well on such an overwhelming
day! By the time we got home, it was
after 10PM, so it was straight to bed for our tired guy. Words don’t begin to describe how the look of
joy on his face made us feel. Thank you
God. He is amazing and so are You!
Our first Christmas together
Wednesday was our first shot of reality. Enough loafing around, it’s time to get back
to being adults. Bummer!!! Kevin went into work first thing in the
morning. Nicolas and I took Penelope to
the vet before heading to work with me to meet my coworkers. After he received way too much candy, I
dropped him off at Grandma’s for the afternoon and I headed back to work. He had a blast at Grandma’s watching the
Polar Express with Grandma and Jules, playing ping pong and sledding. He was in awe on our way home as we drove
into his first snowfall! He told me “Now
this is what Christmas is supposed to look like!” He and Dad had to take advantage of this
fresh snow, so they went out to try out our hill A.K.A. our driveway. J Our road is pretty quiet, so after scanning
for cars, he zoomed down the driveway yelling “Merry Christmas to all!!” A happy ending to another awesome day!
This morning, we all got around and headed to work in the
morning and Nicolas spent the entire day with Grandma. When I asked him if he wanted me to come for
lunch or if he wanted to stay with Grandma, he chose Grandma. While I wanted him to ask me to come for
lunch, I love how quickly he has grown to love his grandparents. J He and Grandma did one of his favorite things
– they got petrol (gas)! He even got to
help and I think it made his day. He and
Grandma also went on adventure in the woods and had sled races. And all I got to do all day was work…… J
As we start to try to get into some semblance of a routine,
Kevin and I are realizing how little time it seems we have in a day. We knew it would be this way, yet it is
difficult. Going from spending all day
with him to feeling like all we do is eat and put him to bed is tough. We’re all adjusting. I still can’t believe how well he has handled
all the changes, the chaos, the multitude of new introductions and
parties. He is a rockstar and we are the
luckiest parents in the world. J
WeLcOmE HoMe!!!!! With all the Christmas craziness I totally missed your re-entry. So happy to see you celebrating your first Christmas as a family of THREE. He is a remarkable little boy. Can't wait to meet him someday.
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