Christmas 2013

Christmas at age 2 is so much fun!!!!  Last year was fun, don’t get me wrong.  But at age 1, Carter didn’t quite understand much.  Even at 2, he still doesn’t understand that Santa was the one that brought the presents, but he showed so much more interest in his toys this year than he did last year.  I will say, we noticed that Carter doesn’t seem to be interested in opening presents.  He likes getting the toy, but he doesn’t want to open it.  Weird.

We started our festivities by going to the North Pole Express.  It’s a train ride that last maybe an hour tops.  Kids wear their PJs and we take a ride to the North Pole and stop to see Santa.  Santa and Mrs. Clause get on the train and take pictures with all the kids, then everyone gets milk and cookies and then we head back.  Carter and his twin cousins, Cynthia and Celia went together and of course Nana and Papa were there too.

The above picture is when Carter saw the train pull up to the station.  He was SO excited!

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Tuscaloosa to go to my sister’s house to celebrate with my side of the family.  I actually didn’t take any pictures while I was there.  I brought my camera, but never took any pictures.  Carter wasn’t in a great mood (Justin and I seriously think that large crowds may stress him out) and he had to have a nap over there.  So I just never took any pictures.  We had a blast though.  Carter got some great gifts from the family.  Lots of them included one of Carter’s favorite things….AIRPLANES!

We ended up coming home later than we expected.  Carter went to bed almost immediately because we had to wake him up at 10:30pm to go to our church’s 11pm service.  Around 9:45pm, the Hoover Fire Department came down our street with Santa Clause.  I was so sure Carter would wake up to the sirens but he was OUT.  Next year we may wait up to see them….not sure.  We’ll have to see.

Anyway, we got him up at 10:30pm.  He was so confused and kept saying “night night” and pointing to the crib.  We got him in the car and went to go pick up my mom (she came with us to the service).  I was worried about how Carter would do.  Justin and I were convinced that he would get wild and we would have to leave early.  He surprised us all!  The entire service he sat in either Papa, mommy or daddy’s lap.  There was one time where, during complete silence in the church, he spotted Nana in the choir and yelled her name.  But other than that, he was very quiet and just sat there.  I was so happy with him!

We put him down immediately after getting home around 12:40pm.  We were all exhausted!!  Justin and I did some last minute stuff for Carter’s gifts from Santa and then went to bed.  We woke up around 8am the next morning, but it was a little closer to 9am before Carter woke up.  I was glad he slept in a little bit since we were out so late.   Carter was so excited to see all the toys when he came downstairs.

After playing with his toys from Santa for a while, we packed up the car and went to Nana and Papa’s for more Christmas fun!

Train table was a huge success!  Though we’ve had to super glue some parts to the table because Carter kept destroying it.

 

The only bigger success than the train table was probably the basketball goal.  He LOVES this thing!!!

Some fun Elmo music toys and various books.

See what I mean about the basketball goal??

Eating his breakfast (a blueberry waffle) and playing with the train table at the same time.

He loves it!!!

Like I said, we had a ton of fun at home, but then it was time to pack up and head to Nana and Papa’s to meet up with Jen Jen and Uncle Aeron and the girls.  There was also a surprise visit from Gigi!!  Carter was so glad to have everyone he loves there!

Carter got another stocking at their house.  I think his favorite was the M&M’s :)

This fun nativity set spun around and made music and Carter loved it.

Opening presents!!

He is loving this hat.  He calls it his blue hat and he requests it all the time.  There’s matching gloves that go with it and he frequently requests those too.

As if the big train table weren’t enough, we got a Thomas the Train and train track too!!! 

Carter had such a great Christmas.  He got TONS of toys, as usual.  His 2nd birthday is this Saturday and his party is that day too.  Downside of his birthday and Christmas being so close together is all the presents.  He gets so many things and we literally run out of room in our house for places to put his toys!!!  We already are having to transfer several toys to the attic to make room for the ones he got at Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas with your loved ones!