Christ the Savior is Born!

We had a great time celebrating Landon's first Christmas!  Yes, we enjoyed it much more than he probably did.  Even the wrapping paper and boxes weren't that interesting.  For him, it was being around family that he loves.  Can you blame the guy?  He's definitely not starved for attention and that makes him a lucky boy!  

Landon visited Santa a couple different times.  The first time we went with Karin, Georgia, and August.  The Santa was a great one, but the picture turned out a little blurry. Since it was Landon's first visit with him we had to buy the picture (no matter how poor of quality and how expensive the thing was).  We then went again with Nonni to a different Santa and he had a little less of a personality, but the picture was much better.  Landon did great both times.  Everyone warned us how scarred he probably would be and how to set him so he wouldn't see Santa.  Landon could have cared less.  He just smiled at Santa and held onto his hand.  The second time he even turned towards Santa and pulled on his beard.  John was sad we didn't buy that picture, but it was hard to justify paying for a picture that you didn't even see Landon's face.  Looking back on it now, it was such a precious thing we should have paid the extra $8 for that pose too.  Oh well! 

On Christmas Eve we woke up, dressed (not) to impress, headed to coffee, and then to take on the mall.  Yes, the mall...on Christmas Eve!  We are strange. We really enjoy the mall during Christmas time as long as we don't have any urgent needs.  The spirit of the season and all the people joyfully (sometimes) looking for gifts for loved ones is much fun.  We hadn't had the chance to shop together so we decided to walk the mall on Christmas Eve.  We had a great time and didn't get overwhelmed by all the people.  It also helped we had no trouble finding a parking space!  We then headed over to Auntie Kim, Uncle Josh, and Cousin Morgan's house to have our Christmas.  Unfortunately this year Grandma and Grandpa Mac didn't get to join us.  It would have made the day complete if they could have been there, but next year...hopefully!  Morgan did a great job being patient as we ate lunch before opening presents.  Auntie Kim made Landon a beautiful quilt.  A first (and she says maybe last) for her.  It turned out so amazing and is very precious!  After we opened gifts we headed to Nuyo for dessert and on our way home for Landon to nap before Christmas Eve service.  

 

Our tradition is to enjoy Christmas Eve service with Shani's family at Bayside.  We were a little nervous about taking Landon as the music is extremely extremely loud.  Last year, while still in Shani's belly, he was kicking around like crazy because of how loud the music was.  We weren't sure how he'd handle it on the outside.  We had Papa bring his mowing earmuffs to help with the loudness.  Landon kept them on the entire time and even fell asleep during the service.  Yay it was a success!  We got to enjoy the service as a family without being the ones with the screaming child!  It was then home to bed...for Landon.  We for some crazy reason decided to watch a movie, something we haven't done in months, which ended at 1:30am.  Not the greatest idea since Landon is still not sleeping well and gets up often. More importantly, we couldn't sleep in the next day because you can't sleep in on Christmas morning! Oh well, we enjoyed the movie and the time to snuggle on the couch with each other.

So Loud!

Enjoying the service

Christmas morning we opened our stockings with Landon, then headed over to Nonni and Papa's house for waffle breakfast (another tradition).  We hung out while we waited for Uncle Chris and Auntie Kat to arrive.  John was about to jump out of his pants waiting for them to show up.  The Kelley house is quite a bit slower in the gift opening than the McIlnay side.  He survived the wait and once Landon woke up from his nap we started opening presents.  We were once again spoiled with wonderful gifts that people picked out for us.  The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the house before having an early dinner with the family.  It was such a nice and relaxing Christmas this year which isn't always the case. We look forward to many more with Landon and watching his face light up on Christmas morning!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with friends, family, and loved ones.  We are so thankful for all of you in our lives.  Bless all of you as we celebrate Christ's birth and the end of 2011!  Merry Christmas!