Christmas 2012

Ok, let's think back to the end of December, shall we? Christmas. 2012. Max's last Christmas as an only child. Max's first Christmas actually understanding what was going on. As cliche as it sounds, it really is magical watching a kid's eyes light up at Christmas. And Max has such an exuberant little nature, anyway...he did not disappoint!

On Christmas Eve we debated back and forth about even going to church. The flu season was in full effect..the worst flu season in a decade, apparently. And I was, oh, 39 weeks pregnant...and pretty miserable. But in the end, we decided to get dressed and go to church. I'm glad we did. Max really enjoyed the candlelight service...and really, it just seems wrong not to go to church on Christmas. It kind of is the point of the whole thing, right?

 

 

So then we got home to discover that Max's own personal Elf (Buddy) had delivered a gift for him! There it was, sitting on the porch; Max's very own little Christmas tree, complete with ornaments to decorate with. He was SO excited and spent quite a bit of time decorating it while Chris was busy in the kitchen.

 

 

Speaking of Chris in the kitchen, this was the first Christmas that Max was big enough to enjoy our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Weinerschnitzel and German potato salad with us. Last year, Chris did make him his own portion, which he ate before we went to church, but this year he got to sit with us at the table like a big boy!

 

And then, it was time for presents. Max stalked them like he was hunting prey:

 

 

Our boy was pretty happy with his loot. But what we didn't consider was how we were going to get him to go to bed after opening all of those toys. We also will have to come up with some kind of system in the future to decide which presents we open on Christmas Eve (German Christmas) versus the traditional Christmas morning present opening of American Christmas. But for now, this works.

 

 

Christmas morning, Max got to open several more gifts, and got to play some more with his presents that he opened on Christmas Eve.

 

 

And then we headed over to Mimi and PopPop's for Eddy family Christmas. It was, as usual, loud and chaotic, with way too many gifts. In other words, a kid's dream. Max had a blast with "Nanny" (aka Nathanael) and Sam and all the new toys. I, however, was definitely feeling 39 weeks pregnant and was extremely exhausted by the end of this shebang.

 

 

 

All-in-all, a great Christmas. Happy Birthday, Jesus!