Christmas

Christmas came and went in a flash! Like it always does. This Christmas was especially fun this year with our little boy. Everything is new and exciting through the eyes of a little baby, so it was fun to see Thomas's reaction to different traditions and things.
One of our traditions is to go look at the Christmas lights at the Zoo. It is basically the big show in town for lights here in Columbus. Of course we have been spoiled living in Salt Lake and having the lights at temple square. These just cant compare. But it is still a fun tradition. Thomas was not quite sure about this experience though.
Love that little face! He was definitely not a fan of getting all bundled up!
One of our favorite traditions is to go to the German bakery, Jergen's to get some good authentic German Christmas cookies. It gives Clint the chance to speak German and it gives me the chance to eat cookies. Win win! This year the shop owner and everyone in the restaurant thought Thomas was so adorable, they gave him a free cookie! Thanks Jergen's! (Mom really liked eating that cookie)

Clint had to work on Christmas Day, so we decided to celebrate Christmas together on the 29th, which was his first day off. On Christmas day itself, Thomas and I went to church and then went to the hospital to have lunch with Clint. Lucky us, the cafeteria was serving Christmas Turkey and Yule ham! They slopped it on our Styrofoam plate and we had ourselves a grand feast :) It was fun for us to go visit Clint at work. And it made me very grateful that we were only there visiting a doctor, unlike most people who were eating lunch in the cafeteria that day. In fact, one of the family members of a patient later told Clint they saw him eating with his family in the cafeteria. It really put it into perspective how blessed we were, because even though Clint had to work, and we didn't celebrate in the usual way, we had our family all together and well.

It was a bit strange though, not celebrating Christmas on the 25th. The world is so quiet that day, and Thomas and I just went about like usual. On the 26th, I was ready to take down our decorations and stop listening to Christmas music, even though we hadn't even celebrated Christmas yet! So I waited a few more days....
But on December 29th, this little boy just had the time of his life, and he didn't even know that it wasn't actually Christmas! Doesn't he look cute in his jammies with his bed head? Thomas looks pretty cute too! :)
By far the biggest hit of the day was the Christmas tree! The tree had been barricaded off so Thomas couldn't get to it, but we moved everything out of the way so he could get to his presents. He was in complete awe of the tree. In fact, when we brought him in, he just went to the tree and stood in front of it by himself for seriously a minute! It was by far his longest stand! Now ever since then he is a standing pro and looks so much more grown up :) He also stood up by himself on Christmas. Oh Christmas miracles!
Thomas liked taking the ornaments off the tree and trying to put them back on. He also tried to put some of his toys on the tree as well . Silly little guy!
Thomas got way to many toys and presents, but you'd better believe he had so much fun opening them and playing with them. Thanks to all the thoughtful family member for making Thomas so happy!
Here is Tommy with one of his favorite toys wearing some new Christmas jammies. Don't you just want to kiss him.

Clint thought it would be fun for me to make some stockings this year. I had fun making them and I think they turned out pretty cute.

We hope you all had a good Christmas! It is such a fun time of year and there are so many great opportunities to get together with those you love. We missed our families very much, but we had a great time.