Our First Family Christmas

Our first Christmas has come and gone. Three days of good family gatherings, lots of food and plenty of presents. We are left exhausted, but feeling very blessed. TheLord has been good to us.

Caleb was as cute as could be. He made the long days without much fussing at all. I am very thankful for that. He didn't really know what to do with the presents. He took off the red bows and pulled on the red tissue paper. I am thinking that my little man likes red. Haha. I love that! Anyway, he really didn't rip into the gifts. Jon helped him unwrap them and he picked and poked at a couple of the gifts as they opened them. He played with his stocking the most. It has jingle bells on it. The items in it were of no concern to him. Next year, I am sure it will be a bit more exciting for him. Santa left him a wagon. He LOVES wagon rides. I have already taken him for a ride twice since we have gotten it.

Our Duplechain family Christmas was great fun. It was one of the shortest, but everyone kept saying it feels like midnight, so I assume we all packed in our fun in that time. By 8pm. everyone was on their way home. We had delicious crawfish and corn bisque, ham, casserole, and green beans. No one went away hungry. We gave mom a desk and table set. Dad got a three piece rolling toolbox unit. He put it together and had to put the top piece on a shelf because it was so tall he couldn't see what tools were in it. Haha. He said that he has plenty of room now. The kiddos seemed very content with their gifts. All went as well as it could. Caleb got,not one, but two Vtech riding trains! We sent one to Memaw's house. She will keep it in the playroom for him and the other kiddos to play on.

The Johnson family Christmas was our last day of celebrating. We traveled to Natchitoches for the day. We had more great food: ham, stuffing, yams.. all the traditional fixings for Christmas. Yummy good. We spent the day playing with our nieces and nephews and visiting with the rest of the family. The kids were so excited with their games. They wanted to open them immediately. However, their dad said no because most of the games had small parts and Caleb was likely to get into it and choke. As cruel as it was, they were not allowed to play with their games. Jon and I will have to pick better gifts next year! We took turns taking pictures with our little man in front of the fireplace.

We waited until Jon got off of work to do our Christmas. It was evening so we decided to spend it in our jammies! Personally, my favorite kind of clothing.

That is not Harry and David items. We just used the box for his deer shaped bath towel.

Who cares what is inside. Mom, it jingles!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Baking and Christmas Tags

One of my favorite memories of Christmas is the baking days we had growing up. Tricia and Victoria would spend every Christmas with us and we would bake all day long as our relatives came by for visits. It was great fun. Now that we are all grown up and they live in Texas, we don't get to do that anymore. In fact, mom has dropped out entirely and the last few years I have baked alone. This year was different. Tricia came with her boys and we baked ALL day long- Thirteen different recipes, if I remember correctly. The only one missing was Vic. Maybe we can do it again with her one year. We made several different cookie trays to pass out the next day. Mom and couple of her sisters had a blast doing that. The picture shows just a few of our sweet treats.

Now, this is our first Christmas as a family. Jon and I are so excited for Caleb to have wonderful memories like we both have had over the years. We hope to create our own little traditions and continue the ones we love so much. What caught me off guard was the emotion attached to filling out Caleb's Christmas tags. I have wrapped presents for years,but this is the first time that I have the honor of writing "Mom and Dad". I wasn't prepared for the rush of sentiment that came with filling out a simple tag. Maybe it is because we waited so long for him to arrive. Maybe it is because I am a GIANT mush pot on any given day. Who knows, but it brought tears to my eyes. I am so proud to be a mother. People used to ask, "What is your passion?" I could never really say. I loved teaching, but I wouldn't say it was my passion. I found my passion in being a mom and wife to my wonderful husband. Nothing brings me more joy and satisfaction. I love them both so much it hurts! Anyway, I look forward to our first family Christmas and see how Caleb behaves with the presents. He has been told "NO" so many times as he continues to play with the bows. I wonder if he will even attempt to open them. We shall see! A few of our Christmas treats!!!

Braxton and Nick had fun playing in the "play center"(mom's kid's room) while we baked.

The boys also went on wagon rides through the neighb0rhood. Yes, it was cold, but they didn't seem to mind.

Tricia and I have many years worth of pictures that look very similar to this one- Head tilt and all!!!

On the Move

Caleb is on the move! Little man is crawling all over the place. It is so much fun and a little exhausting too. He loves pulling on cords. I am constantly slapping his hands and saying, "NO!". He appears to be a very determined little boy. It doesn't seem to phase him. I will not give up though. I have made it a little easier on myself and unplugged his lamp and the cd player for the time being.

He has also gotten his first haircut. I should say half a cut. He got so mad and was crying so loud, that we stopped half way through. Thankfully, his curls disguised the uneveness of his hair. I did eventually get the other half cut. I went back about three weeks later to do my own hair and we finished off his too.

We celebrated his first Thanksgiving this year. He wore the turkey bib in honor of this great day. We had Jon's family over for dinner. Unfortunately, I burned the pork tenderloins and managed to burn the onions. Oops. I can't say that has ever happened before. They are so easy. That is why I made them, in addition to Jon frying a turkey. Caleb has discovered that he likes sweet potato casserole and pecan pie (only the filling). Sweet man is an eater! He seems to enjoy whatever we put in his mouth.

As you can see, we are already taking pictures for the Christmas card. I am so proud to actually have a picture card this year. I secrectly have always wanted to do one, but didn't feel comfortable putting just Jon and me. He smiled so big. He smiles a lot. I accidently posted the pictures in the wrong order, but too bad. I am not going to reload them all. haha. I have a Santa suit he will be wearing in the next couple of weeks too!!

I am so in love with my little guy. I didn't know love could run so deep. It is both the greatest and scariest thing I have ever known. Sometimes I think it is too much for my heart to contain. He is our greatest gift. I thank God for him every day. I love watching him grow. I say that a lot, but it is so true. I don't want to miss any of it. It goes by WAY too fast.
Our Christmas card will have this photo on it. The rocker is from PaPa Dude. It was his rocker as a child. He saved it and painted it red. Caleb has the honor of getting it.

I love that his little teeth are starting to show in his pictures!

We bought him a pair of personalized long John's. I think he is adorable in them.

This is before he started throwing a fit. You can start to see the fear in his face though.