Jackson’s First Christmas

I know, I know.

Christmas is over and done with.

Trust me, I’m just as over it as you are. I normally have all of my decorations down by now (as much as I adore the holidays, when they’re over I want my house clean NOW!), but Corey’s dad was visiting this weekend so we left them up. But today? Game on – my house is getting back to normal!

But first… I have to tell you about Jackson’s first Christmas. Because I need to jot down all of these wonderful memories and reflections before I forget – and because you need to see all of the adorable pictures.

I wasn’t sure how Jackson would do with the gift aspect of Christmas. We originally planned on skipping any “real” presents for him and just doing a stocking, but he was so interested in the presents under the tree that we felt bad and ended up spending about $40 to snatch up a few gifts for him. I’m so glad we did because apparently my child is a natural-born present opener.

He got to open his first gifts (ever!) at my grandmother’s house the weekend before Christmas. She passed away last month and my extended family all got together at her home for one last Christmas there before the house is prepared to be sold. I’m heartbroken that this home that I practically grew up in won’t be in our family anymore and I will miss it dearly, so it was so incredibly special to me for Jackson to be able to partake in the traditions I grew up with in that house at least once in his life.

Once he got his first taste of opening presents, he could not get enough. As soon as he finished with what was in his stocking, he took off for the tree to try and steal some of the presents under there. Once he finished opening his actual gifts, he kept crawling around to everyone else in the room to try and help them. We joked that his entire world has changed now that he knows the joy of opening gifts!

Since Corey and I are both teachers we had the entire week of Christmas off (and this week as well), so we got some wonderful family time in before the holiday. We went out to eat at one of our  favorite restaurants (a new Christmas break tradition!), did some last-minute shopping and preparing for the big day, and spent a lot of time just hanging out at home as a family – quality family time had been in short supply the last few weeks of school, so it was much needed.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents’ house. It was the first time in my life to spend Christmas Eve there – we usually spend it at my grandmother’s, but since we did that early, our traditions were shaken up a bit. We decided to serve Cajun food and it was an absolutely brilliant idea – we had jambalaya and dirty rice and cajun pork and shrimp brochettes and so many other wonderful things. It was an absurd amount of food and it couldn’t have possibly been tastier. We played games, sang Christmas carols (Jackson even got in on the fun with some “fa la la la la’s”) and read the Christmas story. It was wonderful.

That night, Jackson got to open his first pair of Christmas Eve pajamas. As he gets older the Christmas Eve gift will probably also include a book, maybe a movie and even some treats, but for this year the pajamas were enough.

Christmas Day itself was just about perfect. It’s pretty incredible how much more fun the holidays are with a baby around. Jackson had breakfast before opening his presents (probably the only year we’ll be able to get away with that!) and then he got to dive in – he actually got the concept that there were real toys in the boxes and that the fun extended beyond ripping up the paper, so he loved to pause and play with each thing as he opened it. We did a pretty good job picking out gifts for him – he was thrilled with all of them and even gave his new Ugly Doll a giant kiss as soon as he opened it.

Our family came over for brunch and it was, once again, way too much food…but it was oh so good. We spent the day hanging out, opening (yet another round of) gifts, and eating more than we ever thought possible.

I know I keep saying it, but Christmas with a child is so much better. I loved watching everything through his eyes, and I can imagine that it will only get more fun as he gets older and understands it more. Is it too soon to start counting down the days until next year?

How was your Christmas this year? I know some of you were also celebrating the first one with a baby – I want to hear about it!!