We spent Christmas at home in Alaska this year, cuddling with our new baby girl and running around with our wild man. It was fun getting to spend the time at home and not have to travel.
Aaron's family came up to spend the holiday with us and to meet Kelsey. Ethan loved having a week of all of Gigi and Grandpa's attention...
...and of playing with Uncle Curtis.
Gigi came with presents, even before Christmas Day. The rolling carry on was a big hit.
And even cooler when Grandpa showed him how to wear it on his back like a serious traveler.
Ethan showed Gigi all his favorite games at the house and we even took her to one of our favorite in door playgrounds in town to play.
And he joined her in the kitchen to help her cook. His specialty in cooking is being the taster.
Ethan also read to Grandpa a lot during the week and bossed him around while they colored together.
Ethan got a pretty big kick out of his Uncle Curtis. He laughed and laughed at all the funny noises Curtis can do and even learned a few football drills along the way. Ethan's gotten pretty good at fast feet!
It was nice for Aaron to have his brother around for the week as well.
It snowed almost everyday of the Christmas week, which made it perfect sledding and playing outside.
And since Aaron had the week off work, Ethan got lots of play time outside with his Daddy.
And now for the fun part - Christmas Day:
We let Ethan open one present on Christmas Eve, just to give him a little taste of what was coming the next morning.
He loved the little train book he got from Gigi and Grandpa, and wouldn't have cared if that was all he got.
The next morning Aaron and Ethan made us a Christmas breakfast. The great thing about Ethan's age is that he is old enough to get excited about opening presents and playing with toys, but not old enough to wake everyone up early to do it! We got to sleep in and have a leisurely morning before he noticed all the presents under the tree.
And then we showed him what Santa brought! Ethan had a great time ripping the wrapping paper off all the boxes. Most of the time he didn't even bother to open the box after the paper was off before he moved onto the next present.
When we did slow him down to show him the new toys, books, clothes and games he got, he was even more excited.
He helped his sister out by opening all of her presents for her, since she slept through most of the excitement that day.
Ethan started to slow down on the excitement level after a while, so we decided to spread the present opening out over several days so E had time to play with his new gifts and appreciate them.
He loved playing with everything he got AND all that Kelsey got as well. It's going to be rough on him when she gets old enough to realize some of those presents are for her too. :)
After present opening, Grandpa took on the fun job of assembling all the little pieces of the toys the kids got while Gigi made us a fantastic Christmas dinner.
Kelsey seemed to really enjoy her first Christmas - she peacefully slept through all of it. She didn't even wake up for her usual 30 minutes of being alert and looking around.
We had a wonderful Christmas week enjoying all the family time and appreciating all that we have in this life. Hope everyone had just as happy of a holiday and thanks for showering us with so many presents and love!
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