I must say this Christmas with Clay at 2 and a half was just AWESOME! He LOVED every single detail about the holiday season....learning and singing Christmas carols {Santa Claus is Coming to Town is our fave!}, the decorations, learning new traditions, the crackling of a fire in the fireplace, decorating Christmas cookies, tasting his first sip of yummy hot chocolate, Santa Claus...and the list goes on! I treasure the cold nights we piled into the car in our pajamas {okay, Daddy was in his "warm ups!"} with hot chocolate in hand, listening to Christmas music and looking at lights. Just to hear Clay's sweet little voice say, "Ohhhh, look at those decorations! The candy canes are my favorite, Mama! Daddy, go down that street...look at ALL those lights! Daddy, turn up the music please, this is my favorite Santa song!" Just PRICELESS!
Here are some pics of Clay the night we decorated our tree...
Grandpa came to join in the festivities...getting warm by the fire.
adding some ornaments
Clay would say, "Isn't this one sooooo beautiful!" to almost every ornament he hung!
Mama giving him a lift
Daddy placing his favorite ornament in the perfect spot. No, it's not the one of the year we got married or the year we had Clay...if you look closely you will notice it is a Texas Longhorn ornament from the year they won the National Championship in '06! :)
Clay discovered he could "take the tops off the ornaments, Mama!"
Luckily, Grandpa takes over and covers up for Clay! :)
Clay sitting on "Santa's" lap! Ha! This is the only Santa he would get near this Christmas. Every time we went to the mall I would ask him if he wanted to sit on Santa's lap and every time he would sweetly reply, "No, thank you!"
The next morning, we had an early Christmas celebration with Grandpa! {Christmas #1}
Clay tearing into his presents!
What's this one?!?!
A Super Why computer!!!
Thank you Grandpa!!! Obviously, more gifts were shared but for some reason, Mama did not capture any more picture taking. In fact, during all of our Christmas celebrations, Mama took a few pics, then went right into assisting Clay open or putting together some of his gifts. :)
Since we leave early for our Christmas travels, Mama and Clay wrote a letter to Santa Claus to ask him if he would please come to our house early. Mama did this when she was a little girl and told Clay that Santa always got her letter and granted her wish. We know the postman that delivers our mail, so one day while he was filling the mailboxes, I had Clay walk over to him and hand him our letter. I asked him if he would please mail this letter for us and when he looked down at the envelope and saw that it was addressed to "Santa Claus, The North Pole" he smiled at Clay and said, "Sure thing!" Gotta love how everyone gets into the Christmas spirit!
The Friday before we left town, our friends Kristen and Connor invited us over to decorate some Christmas cookies. Thank you, Kristen and Connor for opening your home {and kitchen!} to us! We had such a great time and would love to make it a yearly tradition!
decorating!
Connor & Clay
concentration!
looks yummy, boys!
That Friday night was the night that Santa was coming to our home, so we left him some of the cookies we decorated that morning!
his set up for Santa included his gumdrop Christmas tree craft {thanks, Mick!}
the note Santa left for Clay
Getting ready for bed that night was so precious! We read, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" {which we've read so many times that Clay has some parts memorized!} and Clay knew that Santa was coming to our house when he slept. The next morning, he woke up and wanted to rush into the living room to see if Santa ate his cookies. I will NEVER forget these words that morning...."Mama, Daddy look!!! Santa ate ALL the cookies and just left a few crumbs!"
Daddy reading the note from Santa! Gotta love the bed head! :)
Santa brought Clay his very own Thomas table!
When Clay saw this sitting in front of the Christmas tree his eyes lit up and I think he was in a little bit of disbelief! He kept saying, "That's not my table, Mama." It took him just a little while to realize that Santa really left this gift for him! ;)
Clay immediately started putting his trains on the tracks and now his favorite saying is, "Mama {or Daddy} let's play trains!" and he will proudly tell anyone who asks what Santa brought him "a Thomas table. It's so cool!" Santa also stuffed his stocking full, but it just couldn't compare to his Thomas table! :)
Next up...on the road again! Christmas in Ingleside, Aransas Pass & San Antonio!
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