This was our first Christmas in our new house, and we were so excited to spend it quietly at home instead of having to do any traveling. Christmas Eve we went to a service at church with Dave's parents, then we had dinner at our house and Tate got to open one present before bed. We introduced Santa to Tate after much discussion about whether or not to do so. On Christmas Day, I made cinnamon rolls and eggs for breakfast, then we opened presents as a family. My mom came over for lunch. We also had family and friends visiting over the next two days as well. All in all, a great holiday!

For some reason, Grandpa M. showed Tate how to do pushups last week and now Tate asks him to do them all the time. That'll teach Grandpa!

Opening one present on Christmas Eve. Tate had been so good about not opening the presents all week, but as soon as I gave him the okay, he tore into this one like his life depended on it. Something every little boy should have, a semi filled with cars.

Tate put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

Mmmm - cinnamon rolls. Who needs a fork when you can just pick up the whole thing and take a big bite?

Upon opening most of his presents, Tate would say "Ooooh!"

I stressed over this bouncy castle - about half the reviews say they spring leaks and lose air. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that ours will be the exception.

More bouncy castle fun. I'll have to try to post the video of the castle.

Opening a great set of blocks from Gramma B.

And last, but not least, Tate's favorite present. A vacuum cleaner. He loves this thing and rarely lets it out of his sight. The last thing he has said to me before bedtime the past few days - "I love you, Mommy?" No - "My vacuum downstairs?" As in - "keep it safe for me while I sleep, Mommy. And oh, yeah. Love you."

First Baking Attempt

I was really excited to bake with Tate. I decided we should make some sugar cookies and frost them. I went to my favorite recipe site, allrecipes.com, and found the best cookie and frosting recipe. It was a three part process. We made the dough Saturday morning, put it in the fridge for a few hours, baked the cookies after his nap that day, then frosted them on Sunday afternoon. Overall, they turned out pretty good.

Mixing up the dough

Rolling out the dough

More rolling, more flour!

Tate got a little bored with all the rolling and cutting cookies out, and at some point picked up a pen from the counter. Only the snowman and the stocking were injured.

Me teaching Tate how to frost cookies. It was hard on the perfectionist in me. I soon gave up on perfect frosting and realized he would have more fun if he figured it out himself.

(Don't look too hard at my hair - it's a good reminder that I'm due for highlights in a couple weeks!)

Me holding the cookie and Tate frosting. He's really into Frosty the snowman right now, and we frosted a lot of snowmen.

Mmmmm - frosting is good!

Tate's finished products - sprinkles and cinnamon candies and all!

Mmmmm - cookie!!

Complete randomness. Tate likes to watch Dave shave in the morning and has created a shaver for himself. Don't tell him it's a heated eyelash curler!

5 Questions

My friend Mandy does a "5 question Friday" on her blog and I thought this one was cute so I thought I'd try it. It's really Saturday today, but whatever.

1. Does Santa wrap the presents he leaves at your house?
I'm pretty sure our presents were wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper when we were kids (help me out on this, Jaci). Actually, I can't remember (sorry, Mom!). Dave's Santa presents were wrapped in red tissue paper and he is pretty adamant that this continues, so that is a tradition we will keep for Tate.

2. When is your "big" Christmas celebration...Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Tell us about it...
When I was growing up, we went to my Aunt LouAnn's for Christmas Eve and my Aunt Donna's for Christmas Day. This has been more difficult during the past few years when we were out of town. This year, we don't have any definite plans. But we are trying to create some memorable Christmas traditions for Tate, so we are planning to have Christmas morning with just the three of us eating a big breakfast and opening presents. We'll see how that goes. We'll probably go to a Christmas Eve service at church as well. Christmas Eve has a lot of significance for us as that was when Dave proposed to me!

3. Are you big on keeping tradition every year?
I do love tradition but am always up for trying new things.

4. Do colored lights or white lights tickle your fancy?
White lights are the best!

5. Do you decorate outside your house for Christmas?
Dave put up a nice simple set of white lights and a wreath on the outside of our house this year. I love that. We didn't really decorate when we lived in our townhouse. I've seen some neighborhoods put white and red lights around the trunks of their trees (like candy canes), which I love, but it would require all the neighbors to join in to look cool. I think we'll have to wait until our trees are more than 1-1/2 inches thick. :)