Christmas 2012

Well, here I am again, posting late.  Better late than never, right!?  Christmas was so much fun this year, as Cale loved passing out gifts and opening his presents.  I had always heard that when people become parents, Christmas (and holidays in general) becomes even more fun -- the delight that comes from watching Cale discover and experience these new moments is priceless!!  

The days leading up to Christmas were quite eventful.  I'll do a quick recap.  On 12.22, just a few hours before my sister came over to babysit while we went to Adam's company Christmas party, we noticed that Cale was getting pretty whiny and pulling on his ears.  Thankfully, our neighbor is an ENT at Children's Hospital, so she came to our rescue.  She checked him out, diagnosed him with a double ear infection, and called in some pink medicine.

The afternoon of 12.23, Cale woke up from his nap rubbing his eyes and acting like he was hurting.  We thought an eyelash in his eye, but upon inspection, found nothing.  We were perplexed, and Cale was becoming more and more uncomfortable.  Since it was a Sunday, doctor's offices were not open.  We called our pediatrician, who was on call, and she seemed to believe that Cale had scratched his eye.  So painful!  I asked her if we needed to take him to the after hours clinic and she said "absolutely not!  if we did, we would definitely come home with the flu!"  So, we endured the rest of the day (so sad), but thankfully, Cale slept well that night.  Christmas Eve morning, he woke up and would not open either eye... talk about a scared mama!  I called the pediatricians office and they got him in.  After putting dye in his eye and looking for scratches with a black light (not so fun for a one year old), our pediatrician noticed that Cale had scratched his eye in not one, but TWO places!  Ouch!  She gave him pain medication, and sent us home.  We were so happy when Cale woke up from his nap happy and acting like he was feeling much better.  We headed to church for our Christmas Eve service and then hunkered down to get ready for Christmas day!!

On a side note, as part of our Christmas traditions this year, we did the Jesse Tree with Cale.  It was such a blessing to us, as we had an opportunity to teach Cale about the Old Testament and the major stories that led all the way up to Christ's birth.  Cale loved listening to the stories, and was even more excited about putting the ornaments on his very own, Cale sized tree!  I'm sad that I didn't get any pictures of us in action, but for more information, visit www.thejessetreeproject.blogspot.com.  One of my sweet teacher friends wrote a devotional for children, and I hosted a Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange - so so fun!

Christmas morning, we woke up and fed Cale.  My parents and sister came over at 9am, ready to celebrate Jesus and open presents.  Cale was so excited to have them come over - he didn't know the fun was just beginning!  Brett, Courtney's fiancé, had given Cale a Mr. Potato Head on Christmas Eve.  Cale was thrilled to show Honey how it worked.

Unwrapped and under the tree was a barn and all of the barnyard animals.  Since Cale has become fascinated with horses of all kinds, he could not get enough of this little farm!

After he had explored his farm for a bit, he heard the front door open, and stood up to check out the scene...

Oh my gosh!  He was so excited!  Coming through the door was a monster truck from Honey and Chief!!  He was in heaven.

Prying him out of the monster truck to open presents that were under the tree was almost impossible.  After he saw us open a few of our presents, he started to get into it.  

He was such a helper passing out all of the presents.  It became such a game to him that he started squealing and jumping and hopping over presents - silly boy!

Once we had opened a few presents, we Face-Timed with Nana and PawPaw.  Cale opened a present from them and they were able to watch!  We are so thankful for Face-Time!  We are able to talk to them and see their faces often, even when they are 10 hours away!  Cale loved getting to see them and show them all of the excitement that was going on!

Since it was Christmas, and all rules had gone out the window, Honey gave Cale a cookie - at 10:30am.  He loved the red and green sprinkles...a lot.

(notice the shirt that is over his pj's.  this was a gift he opened and wanted to wear immediately.  

he wore it all morning.  ha!)

Since he wanted to play with every gift he opened, gift opening lasted until 6pm that night.  I loved it.  It won't be long before he will master the art of speed-unwrapping (like most kids do).  I love that he savored each one of his presents and had to stop and play at that very moment.  

Finally, he received his last gift.  Cale now has his very own kitchen.  He absolutely loves it.  Eventually, it will move over to Honey & Chief's house, but for now, it's been a fun addition to our living room!  Cale makes great eggs, pizza, and soup.  And, he loves to serve us milk. :)

A few days after Christmas, we left for Northwest Arkansas to spend a few days with some great friends.  We returned to Dallas and were excited to get back into our "normal" routine, when we were hit with the tummy bug.  By the end of the week, it had passed from Cale to me to my mom and my dad.  Thankfully, it missed Adam, but I think my mom took the hit for both of them - she landed in the ER twice because of dehydration.  We are all up and running again, and we are going through A LOT of Purell!! :)