Life, Love and Parties: Twas the Night before Christmas

I have to say, I LOVE our holiday traditions. The first Christmas that Jasper and I were together, we were actually already engaged. We were so lucky that we were able to pretty seamlessly merge our family holiday traditions and not miss anything. We were also lucky that we never seems bombarded by so many family obligations that we couldn't breathe and actually enjoy the celebrations. Christmas Eve is always the same for us with Jasper's mom's family getting together in the late morning and us doing Christmas with my parents and brother in the evening after going to the Christmas Eve church service.

We have laughed many times at how completely different our families are when it comes to holiday celebrations. Jasper's family is big. Their celebrations are filled with lots of laughter, kids, wine, more laughing and, well, more wine. Jax gets startled pretty easily and we weren't sure how he would do with these functions but he must have a lot of Heavrin in him because he did great and I honestly barely saw him while we were there! Of course with so many people in our house it can be a little chaotic and I didn't get a single picture! If I even attempted they would probably be mostly of a blur as someone walked across as I was taking a picture so instead of photographing, I stuck to enjoying. :)

We headed down to my parents so Jax could grab a quick nap before the church service. While jax wasn't fussy during the service he was "vocal" and I opted to spend some of the service in the nursery so we wouldn't distract others. After the service it was back to Madre and Papa Bears for Christmas! Jax loved all the presents under the tree. I wonder if any had his name on them?

Looks like we found one!

He is really on the move these days.

After seeing these pictures I have decided that Jax is no longer allowed to wear shirts and pants, it will be onesies until he is two. He looks WAY too grown up for my liking. Seriously, where did this big boy come from?

Jax decided he had enough of being in my lap and crawled over to Papa Bear.

Trying out one of his new toys!

Mom loved her frame with both grandfathers in their sheriff uniforms along side Jax in his sheriff costume.

After Jax's presents were done he was changed and ready for bed. It was too far past his bedtime for him to stay up for dinner with the adults.

Maybe next year.

Before bed, however, Jax had one last present for everyone.

We made ornaments for all the family members with Jax's hand print on them.

I think they were a big hit.

After Jax went to sleep we had a wonderful dinner and finished opening up the rest of our presents. It was a wonderful evening and Jasper and I could have stayed late into the night. We had a sleeping baby that had to be taken home to put in his crib though. We needed to make sure he was there on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought!

Speaking of Santa, Jasper and I were just about to go to bed when we heard Santa come in our house. Since we were still up he asked if we could give him a hand with all of Jax's presents because it is a very busy night for him of course. :) So Jasper and I stayed up late to assemble all of Santa's presents.