Christmas

Whew! Caleb's first Christmas sure was a doozy- but a boss awesome one at that.

We were opened for half a day on the eve of Christmas eve. I was SO jealous Dave got to be off that day, and practically raced home to get back to my boys. I don't think it helps when other people are off and I was able to get to work in under 10 minutes. Sometimes traffic gives you reassurance that you're not the only one working like a chump.

After I got home from work, the three of us spent most of the day together and then my parents came over to visit and go out to eat. It was Dave's 31st birthday the week before so they wanted to give him his gifts and of course see our little man. It's amazing how well behaved he is in restraunts. Either he is well behaved or we're smart enough to make sure he's good and fed before we run out the door. The day before, Caleb had a Christmas party with Pamela's clan. We bought gifts from him to give to the other little girls that are also being watched by Pamela and they in turn gave Caleb gifts, Pamela gave him gifts and us gifts. The gift that really did it for me was the gift Pamela gave us but it was REALLY from Caleb. It was a Christmas tree magnet made all up of Caleb's hands along with a sweet note she wrote on his behalf. It was PRECIOUS...one of my favorite gifts by far and GREAT keep-sake. She also got him some outfits and a toy or two also. I guess paying her $500 a month is good for something...no, she's an amazing bargain and loves our little boy, that's all I can ask for.

That night after I put Caleb down, I went to the store to get baking stuff for buck eyes and oreo balls. It was around 10:30 at night when I went and there were PLENTY of people there already. I was sure glad I didn't go on actual Christmas eve to get supplies. Usually the stores are dead at 10:30...

Christmas eve was a lot of fun: we went to my parents house where they were having a party with my dad's sisters. Of course Caleb wanted no part in taking a nap when so much is going on around him. Everyone passed him around and went gaga over his obvious cuteness... He got so many cute outfits and toys- it's amazing how many love him- we aren't even that close with my dad's sisters but I surely appreciated them giving gifts to my little boy. That was what we asked people to do for Christmas: don't worry about us, just shower the baby with gifts. Of course, not everyone did just that... The rest of night everyone talked, ate, my dad read the Night Before Christmas to all 5 of the grand kids, which we got on tape. I'm sure Caleb was REAL tired of having a camera in his face all the time, but like Dave says "He only gets one first Christmas.." The drive home was pretty trecherous because it was snowing, but we finally made it and did a quick rush to get Caleb ready for bed since Santa was circling the neighborhood and would have skipped us if he knew our little boy was still up...

Christmas morning was of course a tiring blast! It wa so cool that it was his first Christmas and it was a white one! Caleb got up like normal at 6:30 AM, ate, went back to bed for almost an hour and then was up for good pretty much. We made cinnamon rolls, got him dressed in his cute Santa outfit and begin opening his gifts from Santa and from Dave's family in New York. Of course he talked to his presents a lot and had no idea what was happening but he still gave us lots of smiles and was very happy! He got a few dollars and lots and lots of toys and cute clothes. I'm actually glad everyone bought bigger sized clothes so he has cute things to grow into.

Dave's dad came over later that morning and was a pretty big drag. He was nice enough to give us some money as a Christmas gift, but man did he complain! For an hour, I kid you not, he just bitched about his dad. Dave pointed out and I saw it too, that he just was not in the Christmas spirit at all. I find it sad, he has so much to be thankful for- including what Dave's mom and step-dad don't have: seeing Caleb in person on his first Christmas. Geez, let's get our perspective in line here, Bob.

After he left, we headed back over to my parents house and there we exchanged gifts from our immediate family. My mom likes to give the grandkids their gifts on a seperate day so it's not so dang overwhelming. Which means lots of back and forth trips to Versailles, but it's ok I love spending time with family on Christmas. Of course my parents went over the top with gifts for Caleb and us- but we loved everything!

Dave and I got ourselves in a pretty heated arguement towards Christmas evening. He had been working on doing a Christmas video, and because of so much going on he hadn't gotten to work on it. He was having a hard time anyway being away from his family on Christmas, but it was really hard on him that he didn't get to really share Caleb's first Christmas with them. He said, the only way he could share or have a connection with his family was with his videos. He just abolutely HAD to get the video done on Christmas- and was fairly rude about leaving in front of my parents. The whole 30 minute ride was pretty heated while our little angel slept in the backseat. I did understand how hard it was, but I didn't want to cut my family time short because he wanted to work on a video, and he could've let me know he wanted to go in a better and more private way. Another thing, his step-dad is jewish..I know he cares about his grandson but c'mon- he's jewish. He wouldn't have been that torn up about it... It pretty much ended with him crying on my shoulder and us apologizing to each other. That's usually how our fights end- and thankfully he knows me well enough to be the first one to break the ice. We don't fight very often and even when we do, we grow from it and just get stronger.

Sunday, we spent putting away gifts and just being lazy. Dave then of course finished the video and all was well with our world. We're looking forward to New Years break. Dave gets to be with our little guy all day tomorrow, and I have to work all day, but I get new years eve off- which is Friday. It'll be nice to have a three day weekend.

We're planning on getting over to the car place early to get my breaks done and my oil changed. Whilst that getting done, we're going to return some christmas gifts that don't fit, and go grocery shopping. Caleb has really really taken a liking to baby einstein (except for when he's tired or hungry) and a friend of mine mentioned a baby einstein exersaucer. I saw one was in stock at our Walmart and it looks so COOL.  He loves looking at colors, and it's full of them with lots of little things for him to play with- we HAVE to get it- so we're planning on using a gift card that was given to him, to buy that. I know he'll love it. Now, what to do with the boring old exersaucer...

I always get so antsy when I know I have a few days off coming up...days off are so much more important to me now that I'm a mom than before. I feel so blessed to have the perfect family. I knew from the start I wanted to be a mom, but I'm glad I am blessed with such a good baby and understanding husband. It's amazing how much Caleb is growing up too. Him and Dave had a conversation yesterday- he's really babbling and telling you what's going on. I love the look on his face when he's about to smile at you, it's so heart melting...He sure is eating us out of house and home. He eats 6 oz each feeding! I love our time together when he breast feeds and I love that I'm giving him exactly what he needs but he's been mostly a part time breastfed baby and mostly supplemented with formula- I can't keep up! I know he's going to be a tall boy, so I might as well get used to his big appetite. I'm so glad he is healthy and I feel that God has blessed me in so many ways!

See everyone in the New Year! Happy 2011 :)

-Caitlyn