Christmas was a merry and tired event for me this year. I imagined having a newborn would make a holiday celebrating the birth of Christ even more meaningful but, in a way, it made me less aware of the holiday as I was consumed by my own recovery, fatigue and experience. Thankfully, I had finished my shopping and decorating well before my preoccupation with Daniel and my parents and Jay were around to hype it up and party with the older boys.
Christmas Eve was spent at the in-laws and Jay had prepared a delightful program with Seth, Sam and Henry about Samuel the Lamanite and the day and night and a day with no darkness complete with costumes, song and machetes! It was followed by singing carols, breaking open a dinosaur piñata and having a bowl of delicious rice pudding with raspberry sauce.
We came home late and opened our Christmas jammies. I had some super cute ones for Daniel but opted to keep him sleeping instead.
Come morning, the boys oohed and aahed over their Santa gifts and then we all got ready for church. I hadn’t made up my mind if I was going to go or not and was definitely learning towards the not (I had a six day old, after all) but Daniel blessed me with a relatively good night’s sleep and I wanted to help support the ward choir and witness Seth’s first sacrament meeting solo! My mom stayed home with the baby and even though people thought I was crazy for being there, and I was, I’m glad I went.
Once home, we opened the rest of the gifts. As much as I like to think I “kept things simple,” I know I did not. Like usual, we spent too much money and got way too many things but I know the boys loved the day. They were so sweet to each other and I loved watching Seth eagerly give his brothers the gifts he bought for them (which he spent too much of his own money on) and cried when Sam gave Daniel a thoughtful letter and homemade ornament. My favorite gifts were the biography of my grandmother, including pictures and the pen Seth made me with the help of his dad.
Here are some videos of the boys play. They are kind of long and I’m really disappointed with the upload quality (I have the worst luck with video. What are your secrets to getting good video and sharing it???) But, they are pretty cute and if you get to the end, you get to hear some pretty sweet singing. Plus, in video #2, Nephi Prays, all the boys have swords or machetes. Real ones. Jay had a lot of confidence in the boys!
Cup throwing at 1:41! Followed by adorable singing!
Sharp tools enter the scene at 2:27 minutes!
Cute picture of Stephanie, Clark and their boys, Ethan and Caden.
Singing carols with my dad at the piano.
Delanie loves the singing!
Derek doesn’t even pretend to love the singing.
Some bad Nephites.
Samuel the Lamanite
Um...yeah. That is a machete. And me nursing in the background. I hate nursing in public. I can’t believe I am posting this picture except it’s the only one of the boys holding a blade to seth’s neck:)
Derek is such a softie with babies!
It was pretty warm at Grandmas so I kept Daniel in a onesie.
I was a horrible photographer come Christmas morning! Here are all of the pictures I have of that day. Jay reading the letter from Sam to Daniel.
Daniel’s ornament (Heartbreak! It broke later that morning!)
Henry opening up a gift.
My mom and dad with the pens Jay made them.
I really wanted to get a picture of Daniel inside his Christmas stocking but it never panned out. I took this in the wee hours of the morning after I fed him. These are his cute Christmas jammies and stocking I ordered without knowing if we were actually going to name him Daniel. I took the risk because they were on sale!
1 comment:
I can relate to your Christmas. I had Reed on the 23rd and it wasn't nearly the bliss I imagined it would be. I read a letter from Santa that was written by a familiar hand and I bawled the whole way through it. Glad I didn't have every baby that close to Christmas :).
Daniel has grown. How tiny he was!
Love the Samuel play.
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