~Hawkins Family on Christmas Eve~
~Hays & Hawkins Families on Christmas Eve~
Well, it is now Friday the 1st of Jan (more on that later), and my sister just left this afternoon....so we have had family at our house for the past 1o days. It has been great. I wasn't sure how it would go, since we've never hosted a holiday and since we were trying to not spend a bunch of money going out to places = tons of family time at the house. But it was okay. (We had only a handful of incidents. ;-) Thankfully, we have two "living" spaces, if you count the playroom, so people could always retreat to the upstairs if they'd had enough of what was going on downstairs. And we did, a few times. Mostly we just hung around and played games and cooked together. The guys went to 3 movies in a week's time (I went to two) and Sherlock Holmes was a VERY good choice for our Christmas Day movie. They also saw Avatar in 3D and Invictus. I watched the Blind Side for a second time with those who hadn't seen it yet. Here's some pics of everyone hanging out with Noah. 
The best thing of all though, was probably the playground set you can see below, that Matt and my brother Brad put together for Noah the day before and the day after Christmas. Some good friends from church have given it to us for Noah, since their grandkids moved out of the house and Noah is always playing on it at their house (once a week we go there for Bible Study.) It took a full two days to take it apart at their house, drive it across town to our house, and then restructure it together. The rest of us helped minimally, but both of these guys spent the whole 6 hours each day on it. I am so greatful! Noah loves it, and although it has been raining nearly every day since, I know we will get TONS of use out of it as it warms up.
We went to the Christmas Eve service at church, which is where we got some of the good family shots above, and although I spent the evening in the nursery with Noah and 3 other little ones, it was a good evening. We found a place open to order our Pizza Hut, and although we had to take it to the youth room to eat it, it was okay. We read the Christmas story with one of Noah's books when we got home and opened up our pajamas. Then a game or two of Rook and a present-wrapping marathon. We tried to watch the Muppets Christmas Carol, but nobody really made it all the way through. I was in and out doing gifts. I think I finished after 1:30 a.m.! Whew!
Noah LOVED Christmas this year, needless to say for a 2-almost 3-year old. But he really did. He loved opening up gifts, but he was very patient in doing so. And so very thankful for each gift. The family brought wrapped gifts when they came, so for 3 full days Noah watched those things under the tree and only occassionally brought gifts to us, asking if he could open them. And he was very good when we said, "Not yet, TWO MORE DAYS till Christmas!" My favorite response was the first gift he got to open on Christmas Eve, his jammies. I told him as he was opening them, "Now Noah, this is not a toy, or a game, but a special gift for you, okay?" And when he opened them up, he cheered, "Ooooh! THANK you Mommy! THANK YOU!" And held them close to his face. We asked, "what is it, Noah?" "CLOTHES!" It was pretty darn cute.
We also played the Santa thing up with him for the first time. . .we did not take him to the mall to meet Santa, but talked about what he wanted to get from Santa and how Santa would bring him toys if he was good........but we really didn't have to say much because apparently they had talked ALL about it at day care. He did not know what the "chimney" was, but knows all about the sled and the reindeer. We made cookies together---peanut butter blossums, this year--and put them, milk, and carrots out for Santa and the reindeer. It was pretty fun. He woke up Christmas morning, telling me that Santa had not come, so apparently we neglected to tell him that Santa would not actually wake him up and he wouldn't get to SEE Santa. Thought we had covered that one, but maybe not. Next year, we will have more set out for Noah to play with he wakes up--this year, we wrapped his Thomas the Train set, but should have already had it put together for him. He got a ton of things given to him, so each gift he of course wanted to play with right away, instead of opening up more gifts. I think next year we'll do one gift a day, like Hannakuh. That way he can really appreciate them all equally. His favorite gifts are probably the train set we got him, a set of blocks (that look just like some my brother made and had let him play with the first couple of days) and the game Memory. He is a pro at that already.
We also played the Santa thing up with him for the first time. . .we did not take him to the mall to meet Santa, but talked about what he wanted to get from Santa and how Santa would bring him toys if he was good........but we really didn't have to say much because apparently they had talked ALL about it at day care. He did not know what the "chimney" was, but knows all about the sled and the reindeer. We made cookies together---peanut butter blossums, this year--and put them, milk, and carrots out for Santa and the reindeer. It was pretty fun. He woke up Christmas morning, telling me that Santa had not come, so apparently we neglected to tell him that Santa would not actually wake him up and he wouldn't get to SEE Santa. Thought we had covered that one, but maybe not. Next year, we will have more set out for Noah to play with he wakes up--this year, we wrapped his Thomas the Train set, but should have already had it put together for him. He got a ton of things given to him, so each gift he of course wanted to play with right away, instead of opening up more gifts. I think next year we'll do one gift a day, like Hannakuh. That way he can really appreciate them all equally. His favorite gifts are probably the train set we got him, a set of blocks (that look just like some my brother made and had let him play with the first couple of days) and the game Memory. He is a pro at that already.
The best thing of all though, was probably the playground set you can see below, that Matt and my brother Brad put together for Noah the day before and the day after Christmas. Some good friends from church have given it to us for Noah, since their grandkids moved out of the house and Noah is always playing on it at their house (once a week we go there for Bible Study.) It took a full two days to take it apart at their house, drive it across town to our house, and then restructure it together. The rest of us helped minimally, but both of these guys spent the whole 6 hours each day on it. I am so greatful! Noah loves it, and although it has been raining nearly every day since, I know we will get TONS of use out of it as it warms up.
So, here we are, after the holidays, resting and recovering. We had a very relaxing first two weeks, but it's a different kind of quiet now. I have tons of papers to grade and lessons to plan for next week, laundry to do, but at least I have my holiday decorations put away and a rather clean house. We are having company over tomorrow, in attempt to break our un-hospitable track record early in the year. Plus, if we don't do it soon, Jan. will get VERY busy, quickly. Coming up this month: Winter Retreat (100+ teens and 4 days) and the arrival of Baby Emory (trip to Nashville).
And today marks our ONE-YEAR anniversary of being Houstonites. We have lived here ONE FULL YEAR!
And a few pics from Sunday church.
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