Christmas('s)

I really should've been posting about each of these as they happened, because we celebrated Christmas with 6 different families this year!

We started by having a baking day at my parent's house. My mom and I made what felt like so many goodies, but they were gone pretty quickly as we filled tins to take to our neighbors. Bennett got to help my mom cut my dad's hair that day too. He loves helping with anything he can!

Then, we got together with my dad's extended family. I forgot to take any pictures, but we had a really great time! Bennett got some neat presents including a couple of "diggers", a book about the Little Drummer Boy, stacking toys, &a sock monkey that my grandma made for him!

The next weekend we went to my mom's parent's house to celebrate Christmas with that family. My cousin has a daughter who is just about a month younger than Bennett & it was so much fun watching them play together this year!

Some ladies at our church had a cookie exchange and I made 13 DOZEN cookies! It was quite messy!

On Christmas Eve we spent some time with Matt's mom's extended family before we headed to our church for a short Christmas Eve service. Then it was time for Christmas with Matt's family. When we go to their house, Bennett immediately heads for the toy cupboard to play with the little cars, some of which were Matt's when he was little. The only way we pried him away from the old cars was to tell him that Grandma had got him new cars. The first present Bennett opened was full of clothes. He threw each article out of the box, over his shoulder. When he got to the bottom of the box and saw there were no cars, he put his hands in the air and said, "Where are the CARS?!" and walked back to the old cars. It was hysterical! We finally convinced him to open the package that had the cars in it, but that was about the extent of him opening presents. I had to open the rest for him!

We went to church on Sunday morning and then to my parent's to celebrate with my family. My mom crocheted Bennett a monster hat that he wore the whole time we were at their house! He also got a Melissa & Doug brand semi truck with a car trailer which he calls "Matt". I think he means "Mack" from "Cars", but he also knows his daddy's name is Matt, so who knows?

We let Bennett open his presents from us Sunday morning, but we had to leave for church pretty much as soon as we were done opening. When we got home from my parents, Bennett was so excited to finally be able to play with his new toys! We got an awesome (free) hand-me-down kitchen set that he loves! He really loves peanut butter &honey toast/sandwiches &he found the play honey, peanut butter & bread &was pretending to make some toast. It was so cute!

Well, as you can see, we had an awesome Christmas! I hope you all enjoyed time with family and celebrated the birth of Christ!

Oh Christmas Tree!

 Bennett helped us put the Christmas tree up this year! He got into the ornament box and broke two ornaments before they got the the tree. One was a homemade reindeer from a glass ball that I made when I was younger (they must not have had shatter-proof ornaments back then...who in their right mind would make something out of a  glass ornament with a little kid?) and one town memorial ornament from Matt's childhood. We quickly decided that our pretty glass ornaments would stay in their boxes and just the fun ornaments came out this year.

One of My Favorite Things

Even though I didn't grow up in the town that we live in now, my grandparents (my dad's parents) have lived here for years. Most of my young childhood memories of Christmas with the Stewart's involve driving several hours to the small town my grandparents lived in at the time. One year, my uncle was Santa at a local mall and he borrowed the suit to come to our family Christmas. I was old enough that I didn't believe & knew who he was, but my brother &cousins didn't know any better. That's one of my favorite Christmas memories,,. anyway, back to the original story...at some point, my grandparents moved several hours closer to the town that we live in now. So, from that point on, I remember driving to their house to celebrate Christmas &driving by the courthouse that was brightly decorated for Christmas.

(Not my picture...obviously)

It is gaudy, it is awful & it is one of my favorite parts of living here. I don't think there is a cross there anymore, but there are still neon lights above each door that say "Merry Christmas".

A few years ago, there was talk of not being able to light the courthouse due to lack of funds, but people from the community stepped up and donated so that the tradition could continue on. It's pretty neat that the community cares enough to keep it going.

Every year, the evening after Thanksgiving, they light the courthouse and have a lit parade just after. There are food vendors and a chili cook-off. This is our fourth year living here, but this is the first year we've made it to the lighting. It was so much fun & made me love the lit courthouse even more. 

We got there early, in time to catch some chili before they ran out. We ran in to a few people we knew and then we decided to buy tickets to go on a horse-drawn carriage (or wagon in our case) ride. They were supposed to be doing rides from 5:00-5:45, stop for the parade, and then continue afterwards. As we stood in line, I realized that we were getting closer &closer to 5:45. By the time we got to the front of the line, it was 5:50. I was starting to get bummed that we may have stood in line for so long and then need to get out to watch the parade and lose our spot. Luckily, we got in the wagon just in time. As the driver pulled away from the curb, he looked over his shoulder and said, "So, it's time for me to line up for the parade, so you all get to be in it!" 

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them light the courthouse or see much of the parade, but we did get to be in it, which was a treat. I was super glad that I'd decided to shower and clean up after all the late night shopping I'd done the night before!

Waiting for the wagon to get going.

I love the squinty face, but would like some normal pictures sometime!

Bennett was mesmerized by the lights.

Bennett waved to everyone for nearly the whole parade. When he wasn't waving, he was dancing!

After the parade they had "Group Karaoke". Basically, they set up a karaoke machine and everyone gathered around it to sing together &they passed around the mic. Pretty much the best thing ever.

Annnnnd then this happened....

Ah-mazing. It's things like these that are going to make me miss living here a lot once we move.