Merry Christmas!

Hey- I'm only a month behind!

This year - 1 year, 10 days old

First Christmas - 9 days old

Hands down, this Christmas was my favorite Christmas that I can remember, and it's all because of Owen. I was SO excited to see how he would react to all his presents and if he would open them on his own or not. Also, I am always excited to hang out with family and, of course, show of my handsome little man! This Christmas was very busy, and is the first one in a few years that we were able to get all of our Christmases done in one weekend.

Christmas with Ryan's side


On Christmas Eve, Ryan, Owen, and I packed up and headed down to Muscatine to celebrate with Ryan's side of the family. That night was just hanging out with his mom, stepdad, sister, nieces and uncle at his mom's. We had a blast. There was food, drinks, laughing and lots of DANCING! Owen has liked to dance for a while now, but it was always in short bursts and was mostly just bobbing his head around. That night was like a dance lesson for him. Now he shakes his whole body and stomps his feet and really gets into it. More about that later.

Owen with Dad at Grandma Angie's

We spent the night at his aunt and uncles house, and woke up bright and early on Christmas morning so they and their two kids could open presents. It was fun to watch them because their kids are 2 and 5 and really get into it. After that, we headed back to Ryan's mom's and opened presents. Owen got a pop-up tent, a bike, a toy, an activity table and some clothes, and Ryan and I both got Vikings jackets, and I got a bracelet. There might be things I'm forgetting, too!

Then it was time to head over to Ryan's Grandma's house, where all the family was gathering. Lots of food, drinks and laughing there, too! We opened presents in the early afternoon - Owen got a stocking cap, a little puppy that walks and swims (which it turns out, he's pretty terrified of!!) clothes, and I can't remember what else! Ryan and I each got a North Face sweater, and I also got a charm for my bracelet. After we got our loot, it was time to head to Elkader!

Christmas with my side


When we got to Elkader, it was time to eat, and then more presents! Ryan and I had to frantically do some AWFUL last minute wrapping with whatever wrapping paper we could find before we took our family picture.

Then it was on to open! My nephew Ian was given the job of handing out the presents, which he did an excellent job at! :) Owen (and everyone else!) got lots of great stuff: a cell phone (which he grabbed out of my hands as soon as I opened it), books (some in Spanish! Yay!) a barn with animals and a farmer, a See-n-Say, an activity table (number 2), and some stuff in his stocking. He wasn't into opening the presents by himself, or maybe I just didn't give him enough time, so I opened them for him. I'm sure next year I'll have to be holding him back! He was actually more into playing with stuff I got in my stocking than opening presents!

I got a new pea coat, scarf, and gloves, and Ryan got an array of Vikings stuff! He joked that since the Vikings weren't good this year, he should switch teams, but now he can't because he got A LOT of Vikings stuff for Christmas! 

The next day was Christmas at my Grandma's with extended family. As always, we had delicious food, played fun games, and then it was present time. Owen got a tractor with a farmer and animals that makes noise. He loves to push the noise buttons on it and throw the animals and farmer around. He spent most of the day playing with a balloon my grandma had left over from her birthday party.

All in all, we had a really good weekend with family. We got the pop-up tent out when we were at my parents' house, which took 5 people and about 20 minutes to try to figure out how to fold it back up, but we finally got it! We were pretty packed into our car on the way home - lots of new stuff, plus our luggage, our dogs and ourselves! It was nice to get back home and get most of Owen's presents out of their packages and set up. Now if we only had more room in our house!