As in past years, we spent Thanksgiving at Babcia and Dziadzia's house. Grammy and Gdaddy came with the girls and we all enjoyed some delicious food. Both Katie and Jacob loved eating turkey and potatoes.
Then on Saturday we went to a Lowe's build clinic where Jacob assembled a Christmas train. Our little engineer got to hammer some nails and really channeled his inner Uncle Paul.
We also attended the Christmas parade in town. The fire trucks were loud so we only stayed long enough to eat all the goldfish crackers we brought. And then we knew it was time to go home. We also got a few great shots of Jacob and Katie in front of the big town square tree.
Christmas was very fun this year. In the weeks leading up to the big day, Jacob watched the calendar like a hawk and every morning alerted us to the date. He talked about Santa and even brought us some presents from preschool. For the record mama got a puzzle, dada got a flashlight, and Katie got a lamb!
Jacob set up a train around the tree and it was beautiful despite the countless derailments and constant track reconfigurations.....it was like the highway projects around middle Tennessee. Katie was also a big (if not slightly chaotic) helper in her constant decorating and redecorating of the tree. The lower portion of our tree was beautiful since almost all the ornaments were on approximately 15 branches at the height of an 18 month old. Also both Katie and Jacob loved GG's white ceramic tree since the 'bulbs' were removable and could be rearranged. Katie set up her step stool by the tree and spent most of Christmas there. I am sure that months later we will be finding those tiny bulbs around the house (since Katie would load them into small toy trucks and drive them around).
On Christmas Eve we went to the Children's Mass and it was standing room only. We might have been breaking some fire code rules at church! And we stood right next to Jacob's preschool teacher. Needless to say he was VERY shy and on his best behavior. We are hoping to run into her at Mass more often. Then we went to Babcia and Dziadzia's to start the Christmas Eve festivities. We arrived and Jacob had the very important job of turning on all the lights - inside and out. Jacob immediately checked under the tree and was disappointed that Santa had not made it to drop off any presents. However, after dinner Santa could be heard around the house. Everyone got a present!
Christmas Day we opened presents and then traveled to Grammy and Gdaddy's house for more present opening. Needless to say, there was some assembly required.
We had a wonderful holiday season and then we ushered in 2016 by staying up until 9PM!!!!!!!!
We are looking forward to a wonderful 2016.
