Christmas

Luke's first Christmas was just like any other day to him.  As usual he is the first person in the house to wake up in the morning and a diaper change and bottle had to occur before any Christmas festivities could continue.  When it was time to open presents Alyce always the considerate one helped Luke open his presents.  Like most babies of 8 months he could really care less about the presents he just wanted the wrapping paper, boxes, and tissue paper.  Luke grabbed handfuls of wrapping paper and would shake them furiously enjoying the noise, texture, and visuals.  Once he got bored of the paper he tried to eat and then moved onto something else.

By the time we made it over to Grams and Papa's house it was well past Luke's nap time and the first thing we did was put him down.  After breakfast was finished and the presents mostly opened Luke decided to grace us with his presence for a while.  Like earlier he liked the paper more than the presents.

It was snowing on Christmas this year and travel in the morning was treacherous.  We waited as long as we could to travel to Grandma's house and I'm glad we did.  The roads were much improved and it took about 15 minutes longer than normal.  Luke didn't take a nap on the trip out and it might have been a good thing he didn't.  We were going to be staying out pretty late and an early nap would mean an early bedtime.

At Grandma's Luke had a good time.  Rolling around the house and meeting his new cousin Ryan.  When we first placed them across from each other sitting up they just stared at each other.  Perhaps there is some silent baby language they speak ala Look Who's Talking that we can't hear.

 When we finished unwrapping presents Luke was past due for his nap and starting to crack.  We plopped him down for his second nap and didn't wake up until after we had eaten Christmas dinner with the extended family.  When he went to bed there was a grand total of 5 adults in the house.  When he rejoined the family there were 17 adults present.  I was thinking he might have been overwhelmed by the chaos and numerous new faces but he didn't have a problem and was his usual happy friendly self.

When the last event of the night, the White Elephant Gift Exchange was finished everyone with kids knew it was time to head home.  For the last 30 minutes of the party there was always at least one child crying.  All kids in attendance had been overstimulated and overtired. Everyone warmed up the cars, bundled up their kids, set them in car seats, and headed home.  Luke was fast asleep before we reached the highway.