Christmas Recap

Happy Wednesday!

I know this is super overdue, but since this blog is supposed to document my life, I wanted to be sure to blog about Christmas.

We had such a blast celebrating this year. Cooper was at a perfect age to begin to participate in Christmas activities.

Cooper loved Santa. LOVED. We took him to see Santa, and he saw Santa three other times at various events. He’s the only child we know of his age that wasn’t scared. When Santa came to daycare, I’m told he was the only one in his class to run up to Santa and asked to be picked up.

Terrible pic of a pic

The Elf On The Shelf was a huge hit. Ollie (thanks for the name suggestion, Brandy!) ruled the roost in our household! Cooper would wake up each day, and as soon as we walked downstairs he would start searching for Ollie. As I mentioned here, I think next year I will separate Ollie and the book advent calendar. Cooper was very sad that Ollie left on Christmas Day, and he has asked for him a few times since.

We did pretty good on our Christmas traditions, although there were a few that didn’t get done this year. We did not go see a Christmas musical at church, decorate a gingerbread house, or make a birthday cake for Jesus. (I feel bad about the last one.) Not too shabby!

Now onto the pics!

My dad’s work threw a children’s Christmas party early in the month. This was the first time Cooper had ever seen Santa, and you can see his reaction. He didn’t quite know what to think, but he perked right up once he realized Santa had a present!

This year we decided to try something new and see the Lights of the South, which is held at a huge farm. You can walk through or ride on hayrides and see all the lights. It was freezing that night – it really made the whole experience less than enjoyable.

I hosted Christmas Eve this year, and I had about 20 people over for dinner. Cooper had a bit of a meltdown mid present opening and I had to take him upstairs and put him to bed. He refused to take any pictures.

We attempted to do a White Elephant gift exchange with my family on Christmas Eve, and it was a disaster. My grandparents just didn’t get the point, and people were more concerned with getting a “good” gift than just having fun with the experience. I was really disappointed in the whole thing.

My parents spent the night on Christmas Eve so they could be there when Cooper woke up and saw what Santa brought him! He got some good gifts.

His big gift was the train table, which he has absolutely no interest in. I am hoping he grows into it. All he has done with it so far is destroy the tracks my mom so painstakingly put together.

He does love the Mini Cooper, though!

Mommy got a new camera lens and this was my first shot.

I got Jason a Roku, a Dremmel tool thingamabob, the ESPN documentary set 30 For 30, some Elmo pjs, a laptop, some clothes, and a digital picture frame for his office. Funny: I picked up Tim Tebow’s book at Barnes and Noble and didn’t notice until Jason opened it that it was a YOUNG ADULT book! Haha! The pictures should have clued me in.

Jason did so well with my gifts this year! Apparently he took his phone to Sephora, pulled up my wish list, and told the girl to get the items on my list. Yay! Y’all know how happy that makes me. He also got me some cocoa from Williams Sonoma as well as a few stocking stuffers. He said he went to the Apple Store (he shopped on Christmas Eve) to get me an iPad but turned around once he saw the line. Haha!

I know I’m late asking, but how was your Christmas?