Christmas Festivities and 13 weeks!

I love Christmas!  I love my Christmas tree and getting to decorate the house with anything red and green.  I love my cinnamon candle that I light at only this time of year.  I love neighbors decorating their houses and front yards with twinkling lights and inflatables.  I love the anticipation of watching people open the gifts you picked out for them (even though over half the time they already know what is in the package before they open it!).  I love how everyone is off work this time of year so you get to hang out with your loved ones stress free.  I love attending Christmas Eve service and how it reminds you of exactly why we are all gathered together and to forget about all of the craziness of crowded malls, traffic, and the ton of cardboard boxes junking up my house after the UPS man graced us with his presence everyday since Black Friday. 

I'm now extremely excited we have a little one to share the magic of Christmas.  It's like Drew and I can go back to the time when we were little and couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve because we were listening for the sounds of Santa's sleigh and because we were so excited to see what Santa left in the living room!  We can share all of our favorite things with him - decorating the tree, Christmas lights, Christmas cookies.  Oh, too much fun.

This Christmas, Chase was still a little too young to know what was going on, but we still made the most of it.  We started our Christmas festivies the morning of Christmas Eve.  We all went to my parents house, ate sausage balls (yum!), and exchanged presents.  This is a new tradition for us and I thought it was really fun.  I really enjoyed getting to see my nephews open their presents and have some quality time with my immediate family.  Chase received a ton of presents - here's an activity table Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Patrick gave Chase (excuse my exposed brazier in the picture!).

Here's Chase cuddling with his GiGi on Christmas Eve and then taking a short little nap to recoup from all the excitement!

Later that night we went to Christmas Eve service at BUMC and Chase was a perfect angel.  He was awake for the first half of the service and enjoyed looking around at the folks surrounding our pew and listening to the Christmas hymns.  Sometime around Joy to the World, Chase fell asleep for the remainder of the service.  I may need to keep that song in my arsenal when I need help putting him to sleep at night!  After the service, we had our annual Christmas Eve celebration with my side of the family.

On Christmas morning, we woke up around 7 and got ready to go to Nini and Papa's house!  He got to play around with Aunt Mel and Papa.

He checked out the penguin that sings "Blue Christmas" with Nini.

Chase got counting lessons from Uncle Trey.

And check out this awesome gift from Uncle Trey and Aunt Angela.  This carrier lets me carry Chase, eat a sausage pinwheel, and drink a Diet Coke all at the same time.  Amazing!!

After Papa and Nini's house we went to my grandmother's for Christmas lunch and then home for a much needed Christmas nap.  All these festivities made for a sleepy, fussy baby!  Once we recouped from the days activites, we opened up our gifts to each other that night and opened up Chase's stocking from Santa.  He got some bibs, pacifiers, and these oh so cute stuffed animals.

So today Chase turned 13 weeks old (3 whole months!).  He's getting so big.  Next Monday is his first day in daycare and my first day back at work.  I'm very sad about this, but I know he will be in great hands, just not my hands...boo hoo!!  Anyway, on to the pictures...

And one final picture for the week - this is one of my favorite faces of Chase.  He always has this face when passed out in my arms.  I can never resist giving him little kisses on those oh so cute lips!