The Christmas season: part 2

Vacation. It began on Wednesday evening, December 23. My SIL arranged for a professional photo of all the cousins. The evening started out pretty poorly, with both Paul & mommy having temper tantrums at the studio.... but eventually things turned around and the pictures turned out pretty cute. Paul actually smiled this year!

For Christmas Eve we travelled to my sister's house and enjoyed a fun day of food, laughter and gifts. Paul enjoyed spending time with "My Mitch" - playing video games, acting goofy and having guitar jam sessions. Despite the fact that he enthusiastically announced, "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT" when opening his first gift (socks), his favorite gifts were a guitar and keyboard complete with microphone and recordable "Ipod". What can I say? The boy is a rock star.

From my sister's house we rushed back home to go to our church's Christmas Eve service. It was very nice. We enjoyed singing Christmas carols and had to laugh when Paul belted out the first line to "Joy to the World" before the rest of the congregation. After church we headed to my aunt and uncle's house for a quick visit with my mom's family. Paul was a bit overtired at this point and in all-out goofball mode. He entertained my cousins with rounds of "Jingle Bells" and his over the top reaction to a gift: "IT'S WHAT I WANTED - A DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT!" (Pretend doctor's kit) Thankfully we were able to use the lure of Santa's late night visit to quickly coerce our overtired boy into sleep mode.

Christmas morning was spent unwrapping more gifts and enjoying a second year tradition of Belgian waffles with Grandma & Papa. Then it was off to celebrate with CJ's family. Paul had a great time with his cousins and the older crowd enjoyed staying up late playing board games.

The whirlwind did not end there!! The following day we got to connect with an old high school friend and on Sunday we hosted a party for my dad's family. Phew!!