Christmas

Merry Christmas! We had a pretty good day today...as good as it could have been without Dave. Of course it would have been a million times better if we could have spent today (and every other day!) as a family.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took after Santa had made his stop at our house...


Not all of it would fit "under" the tree...


I bet Santa about passed out as he was blowing up that ball pit! *lol*

We woke up this morning and had breakfast and then we started opening presents. Dawson opened half a present and then he decided he didn't want to do anymore. So I unwrapped everything as he played with all of his new toys. As soon as I would get something unwrapped I would take it out of the box and hand it to him and then start unwrapping the next present.

Dawson loves his ball pit! He is so cute in it. He'll throw the balls around and sometimes throw some balls out of the pit, but then he climbs out to pick them up and then climbs back in.


He loves his new pillow with a picture of Daddy on it, too. He sleeps with the daddy doll that we got a few months ago. I'll probably sleep with the new pillow but I'll bring it out into the living room so Dawson can play with it during the day.


We stopped by my dad's for a little bit this afternoon to exchange presents and just hang out. (Ha! I wish I could just "hang out" when I go to visit family. I usually spend the entire time chasing Dawson around because he gets into EVERYTHING. Being at other peoples houses is really stressful and overwhelming most of the time. It takes everything that I have not to break down and start crying and we usually always leave early. I can't wait for the day that Dave is here and can help with Dawson so I can actually sit and visit with people. Of course when Dave gets back we'll be moving back to San Diego where we don't know anybody to visit!)

After we left my dad's house it was nap time for both of us. Then we woke up, ate dinner and headed over to my mom's to exchange presents and "hang out."

We both got pretty spoiled this year. It was hard to spoil Dave because there isn't a lot we could send to the ship. He did get packages from me and Dawson, my dad and Carrie and my mom and dad. He got some hand held games, jeans, shorts, a hoodie, a shirt, a pillowcase with a picture of me and Dawson on it, 3 seasons of Scrubs, mac and cheese and bacon bits, some sweets and other junk food... I'm sure I am forgetting some but he is extremely happy with what he got. :-)

I got a BEAUTIFUL KitchenAid stand mixer, a bread maker (I am totally making bread next week!), a cook book, a winter coat, a couple of cake/cupcake caddies... and again I am probably forgetting a couple of things!




Dawson got a ball pit, a chair, Fisher-Price laugh and learn vacuum, Cars ride-on toy, hooded towel, SpongeBob pillow and blanket, SpongeBob coloring book and crayons, V-Tech laptop, V-Tech hammer pad truck, Elmo cell phone (I was able to hook his cell phone up to the computer and program it to say his name, it's so cool! Elmo says "what's up, Dawson?" along with many other phrases), Elmo TV remote, barn shape sorter, an outfit with a cute matching coat, Elmo and Sesame Street look and find books, some little cars and trucks, LeapFrog learn and groove radio... I think that is all that we have at the house. We didn't bring any of the toys home from my mom's house because I wasn't able to carry them all in by myself, so they are going to drop them off tomorrow. (I wasn't able to carry in all the stuff we got from my dad's either, but my sisters were nice enough to stop by and drop everything off on their way home.) I'll have to write another post tomorrow and include a picture of all the toys he got from my mom's. Then Dave will know everything he got. :-) I meant to do a post like that after his birthday, I know I posted about some toys but not all of them so I don't even think Dave knows everything he got from his birthday!

I am going to have to spend a few days organizing all of Dawson's toys. I need to box up all of his toys that he has outgrown and make some room for the new ones. I was thinking about getting a toy box for his room, probably this one:


I want to keep half of his toys in there and half of them out in his play area (the living room) and then switch the toys out every couple of weeks or so. He doesn't play in his room so the toys will just sit in his toy box for now, but I will make sure to keep rotating them so he still has a chance to play with everything. This will keep down on the clutter in the living room and he won't get overwhelmed by having so many toys to choose from.

That is it for now. I hope everybody had a great Christmas!