Christmas Day

Christmas Day....we made it through the holiday season without many tears. I only cried once on Christmas night! It was different to be away from family, but like I've said many times before, we had new traditions we started. Anyway...enough of the sentimental stuff. :)

Jarrod actually slept in until 6....he has such a hard time sleeping in, especially since he's up so early most days for work. So, he turned the TV on and we laid there watching TV. We got up and got the cinnamon rolls started around 7, since surprisingly, Gavin wasn't awake yet! This is what we saw out the front door. What a beautiful sunrise! And this is what we saw in the living room! Santa set the presents up so nicely for Gavin :)

So, these cinnamon rolls that I thought would become one of our traditions....now I'm not so sure! First of all, the recipe I was using (from the Creating Post It Notes blog) was a bit confusing. I didn't notice until half way through that the steps on her blog and the print out recipe were different. So, I don't even know if I did it right. We definitely would need more cinnamon and sugar next time, and we would probably cut the recipe in half. We ended up with like 32 cinnamon rolls.

They were good, and the icing was so yummy that I decided I'm going to start making my own icing for cookies, etc. But, they weren't blow-me-away great like I was expecting. Plus, they whole process took about 3 hours (because we had to wait for the dough to rise, etc.) and it definitely would have been easier if I had a Kitchen Aid mixer.

So, on to the presents. Gavin woke up around 7:30. Jarrod laid with him on our bed until I was at a good stopping point with the rolls, and then we brought him out into the living room. I don't have any pictures of him opening gifts. We set the video camera up and just enjoyed the time opening gifts with him and not worrying about the camera. After all was opened, I took some shots.

It was so cute when we walked out and saw the table and chairs. He went right for them, saying, "Wow!" They belonged to Megan and me as kids, and then they were in my classroom for the past 4 years. He loved them! We sat him down and started opening. He did a really good job getting through the paper.

He liked the nesting blocks a lot. They have the alphabet on them, so it will be great for mommy to work on his ABCs with him!

This was definitely a favorite. Santa must know that Gavin had been playing drums on mama and daddy's mixing bowls and got him his own drum. He LOVES it!

And yet another musical instrument. He really like this, but I think the drum was liked a little more than the keyboard.

Taking another break at the table!

Yay! Bert and Ernie! Gavin's been walking around for weeks now saying, "Bert....Ernie....Where are you?" I guess he found them! :)

For those of you that know Jarrod well know that keeping surprises isn't something he's good at. Well, I'm very happy to say that he totally surprised me with two gifts this year. I told him many times not to get me anything, because of the camera he bought for me in November. So, I hadn't given him any ideas of what I wanted. He surprised me with a new grill pan (which I had said many times I'd like to have one day) and new dishes. Here's Gavin showing off one of the mugs.

Jarrod taking a Christmas afternoon nap with Shirley and Duncan (John and Erin's dog....we were dog sitting while they were in Long Island.)

Gavin picked this nutcracker out for Daddy at the store, and he loved it even more once Daddy opened it! He carried it around all day, pushed it around in his grocery cart, and just kept taking it off the shelf. We love it because it looks like a Buckeye football player. By the 26th, I had to do some minor surgery and super glue the football back on because Gavin had pulled it off, but it looks good as new!

We didn't cook at all on Christmas Day. I'd prepared a lot of snacks in the days before, so we just snacked all day - Beer Bread, Garlic Bacon dip, salsa, pinwheels, etc. It was around dinnertime, when things settled down, that I started to get homesick. Jarrod could tell I was getting upset, so he distracted me with two games of Rummy. We had a great time! And it was nice because it felt like home.

When it came time to put Gavin to bed, he tried to put the drum into his crib....um, sorry, honey! That's not going to fit between your crib slats.

So, one more rockstar song! :)

Then, he tucked into his bed easily, all snuggled up with Ernie on one side, and Dog Dog and Bert on the other. :) Sweet dreams, Bug!