Holiday Rewind: Part Two

Christmas Eve was very low key for our little family. We have officially started a "tradition" by having our CE dinner at Tony Madola's Gulf Coast Kitchen again this year. Link here Last year it was the 3 of us and Noni and it's hard to believe that she is gone less than a year later... but I digress. It's really a perfect family place for dinner and you can tell that some of the other families there have been doing it for years. A family of 4 was seated next to us with 2 little girls about the same age spread as Turtle and Twosey will be. I couldn't help but look at them and think us... Well, except the older girl fussed a little and they packed up and left. It was a little hard to believe. I bet those poor parents never get to sit through a dinner out. Anyway, we don't have that problem and I sure am glad.

This is us before heading out. Turtle is giving his best "Say Cheese" face with Dada! With Mama, he was too intrigued by the necklace to look at the camera. It was probably a bit weird for him to have Dada behind the camera anyway since he is so used to the Momarazzi.

Speaking of Mamarazzi, I was having a blast the whole day with my new camera. The fact that I couls actually take pictures close up and have them come out was an awakening for me. I can't wait to take my classes and actually know what I'm doing. Then how much fun will I have?

After dinner, we finished wrapping all the gifts and readied the house for morning. Not that we explained it much, but Truitt was still pretty lost of the concept of Santa. Still, it was fun for us to bring out his presents after he went to bed and have them out in the morning. He was definitely surprised to see a stack of presents on the coffee table when he woke up. This was also the 1st time he really got the concept of presents- opening the paper and there is a treat you'll like inside! Believe me when I tell you it only took one present for him to get that!

Dada gets his wrap on. If you don't know this, Ray is an expert wrapper, known to use a ruler to get pricision paper and perfect corners! I have to admit I just love the sandwich on tv. ha!

Truitt's "what the heck" moment

Stocking stuffers galore!

Santa loves to bring Mama CDs and somehow he always knows exactly what she is going to like!

Turtle got enough videos and books to last him until next year. The newest phrase in his vocabulary: Train Video

On to the big stuff

It was a transportation themed Christmas for sure

Truitt also got a huge bag of goodies from Sue, Ray's secretary. As they opened the bag, Tru had to come over and show Mama all the pieces. He recieved 3 of these really cool sound puzzles (2 from Sue and 1 from Sarah&Andy) and he loooves them. In fact, we are going to need to start hiding them at dinner time because he won't eat unless we are playing with them!

Dada was the big winner this year, though! He got a bike from Mama and a bike trailer for two from Turtle. Of course, Mama didn't really have the time/energy/strength/cargo space to get these gifts home. So Dada has to settle with some art work from Mama in gift certificate form.

At least it was memorable and we got a good chuckle. It was actually better this way because Ray has been able to do some research on the trailers and has gotten a lot of good info. Also, I think he really needs to pick out his own bike, so good call when it was all said and done.

One last Christmas plug for myself: I am oddly particular about wrapping paper. I only pick colors/patterns that go with our decorations, so it's always some red/white/silver combo. I also adore fabric ribbon and even better if it's wired. This year, I went with something a little more fun for most of the gifts. Since 95% of the stuff under the tree was for kiddos, I went with this fun Target paper rather than something too swirly or elaborate: