Christmas and Kalin's Birthday "North"

We have had some crazy, crazy days. On Wednesday, we prepared to leave our house for 11 days...the longest time we've been away from home with Kalin. We spent our first 3 nights in Aromas with my parents, sisters, brother-in-law and niece. We ate our somewhat-traditional Christmas Eve dinner (Missouri Soup and Corn Chowder) then went to the Christmas Eve service at my parent's church in Watsonville. It was fun to be together as a family again...especially during the holidays. My sister and her family were sleeping in the apartment above my parents garage (where Kasey and I lived for 3 months) and Kasey, Kalin, and I were in my parents wonderful trailer. It worked out really well for putting the babies to bed. Once they were down for the night we would turn our baby monitors on and go back into the main house where we could spend the next few hours playing Wii, laughing, and in general - just being LOUD.

We woke up Christmas morning and took some pictures of the babies in their matching pajamas while trying to get them to be interested in their stockings. Stockings, for me, have always been an important part of Christmas. They've always been filled with lots of fun stuff and are sometimes better than the actual presents. The next part of our Christmas Day was spent at my Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt and Uncle's house in Watsonville for Christmas brunch. As expected, the food was delicious!! We opened some presents here then headed back to my parents house to get Christmas dinner ready and open all the other presents. I love this stage in Kalin's life because any present for him, is really a present for me. He gets clothes, that means I don't have to spend the money to buy them. He gets toys, it gives me more ways to play with him and watch him learn and grow (not to mention they entertain him). I can say without a doubt, that I was way more excited about his presents than he was (did we really expect anything less?). He did enjoy playing with the tissue paper (well, he enjoyed eating it).

Kasey was excited because Kalin got his first toy that required his dad to put together for him. Kasey saw it as a rite of passage for him as a dad to be able to do this for his son. I'm glad he saw it that way because I'm sure at some point his first thought will be, "Oh great, something else for me to put together."

After a fun afternoon of playing and a stressful afternoon/evening trying to get dinner on the table, we sat down to a most delicious Christmas dinner. Yummy!! Kalin was so tired by this point (he wasn't able to have a decent nap all day) that he almost fell asleep at the table. So he went to bed early leaving Kasey and I free to visit and play with my family.

Day after Christmas. We have a family reunion to attend for my dad's immediate family. It's not very often that we all get together so my Grandpa really wanted to do something. With my Grandma's health and mind not doing well (I don't think she knows who any of us are, she just kind of goes along for the ride) it was really important to everybody to have this time together. My grandma had a great time watching the babies and just couldn't believe (no matter how many times she was told) that all these people belonged to her!! It was truly a wonderful time. Funny story...Kalin again got really tired while we were eating, but this time he actually did fall asleep in his high chair.

Friday night, after our reunion, we decided to have an early and mini-birthday celebration for Kalin. It wasn't anything big but it was fun. He had his first cake and got his first birthday presents. He loved having everybody look at him and sing Happy Birthday to him. I almost started crying as we sang. His 1st birthday!! Can you believe we're already here?!?! It doesn't seem possible that this year has gone so fast and that he is so big already.

Saturday morning, we packed everything up again (leaving our presents at my parents for lack of room in the car) and headed down Hemet. We're tired but having so much fun. The festivities of Christmas and Birthday "South" will have to be another post.

Oh, my favorite present? A touchless trashcan. I'm hoping it will make it easier to keep Kalin from getting into it if he can't just open it and reach in. I'm so excited to get that home and try it out.