Grant having his christmas breakfast
My sisters and I being silly with our champagne
Grant with his Grantpa and 2 Great grandpas
Grant and my parents 12 foot Christmas tree
We had such a wonderful Christmas. This year we in Pleasanton for Christmas with my family. Our day started around 7:30am when Lance,grant, and I went downstairs. After we woke up, everyone seemed to quickly trickle downstairs. My grandparents always come down from the mountains and stay at the house for the days surrounding Christmas, so they were there as well.
I made 2 trays of quiches the day before Christmas, so we all enjoyed some delicious sausage, egg, cheese, and chili quiches on Christmas morning. Of course Grant got a special order of cheesy scrambled eggs! For drink choices there was coffee, Orange juice, and my Grandma's special Christmas punch. We keep it on the stove during Christmas season so you can enjoy a cup whenever you please. It is apple juice, pineapple juice, orange juice, with slices of oranges and sticks of cinnamon. It is served warm and is so good!
After breakfast was over the fun began! Grant opened his stocking first. Lance and I agreed that the stocking would be small toys and some toiletry items. So he got a few small toys, some crayons for the bath, and a tooth brush and tooth paste. Low and behold, the tooth brush was the best gift ever! Grant walked around with it in his mouth for about 2 hours! Then we all went into to the front room where the tree and the fire place is. This is where Grant got to open his Santa gifts. Lance and I wrapped them in tissue paper so they were easy to open. We learned that trick from his first birthday! I think Grant had more fun opening the gifts than caring about what new toys he got.
At this point my sister and her husband had arrived at the house so we opened our stockings. Yes, my mom still does a stocking for my sisters and I. there is a funny story with our actual stockings, but I will save that for either a later post or a post for next year because I don't have a picture of it right now. Anyhow, we always love our stockings because my mom does great toiletries, everyday items, and cute little things.
Shortly after we opened our stockings my mom's uncle, Uncle Carl, arrived. After everyone got a refill on their drinks, we began our Christmas morning. We all got spoiled as usual. My mom and Dad love giving gifts and there are always a ridiculous amount of gifts. We all love giving gifts as well, so it is always a really fun morning. A few highlights: Lance got my grandpa a nerf gun to protect himself from his neighbors. Hilarious! My grandpa doesn't really like any of his neighbors and he is always mad at them for some reason, so this was funny. Lance and my grandpa usually give each other a silly gift every year. Also, my brother in law Kevin is difficult to buy for in my opinion. He is a HUGE golfer and super into cooking. We always get him a gold shirt. I swear the past 6 years we have given him a golf polo, so this year that had to stop. After discussing this with my sister, we agreed that he would pick something out for himself and we would just give him a check. I know this isn't the most personal gift, but we figured it would be fine for this year. Anyhow, I taped the check to the bottom of a brick and wrapped the brick in this huge box. It was labeled "To Kev, From Tiger". This way he would not know who it was from. He opened it and saw the brick and went crazy. He thought it was the funniest thing ever. He didn't even realize there was a check on the bottom. He simply thought someone played a practical joke on him! Classic times. The rest of the morning was fun and special. We all kind of take turns opening gifts so we can all see what each other got. The last highlight was a gift that is a yearly gift. My grandma and papa always get my older sister and I a bottle of the infamous Elliston champagne. (More to come on that in a later post.) Well, this year Jana turned 21 so she was included as well. She was very excited to be included for the first time! Below (or above, I don't know how to work the pictures) is a picture of us being super silly, as usual, with the champagne.
The other special thing about Christmas day is all of our visitors. We have so many family and friends that stop by the house during the Christmas season, but Christmas day was special. My dad's dad, Papa Marshall, always comes over around 9 or 9:30 so we can open his gifts and give him his gifts from all of us. We also usually get to see my grandparents good friends Bill and Karen Barry. They are long time friends of our whole family. Bill's son Bobby was born with cerebral palsy and is such a great guy to be around. He is a little younger than my mom and he always used to come play at their house when they were little. Anyhow, Bobby is a great singer and really good at the piano or keyboard. So while they were visiting we got our old keyboard out and let him play some songs for us. It was so much fun. We also got a visit from Kev's brother Bob. He also stops by for a bit because they always leave for a bit to go golfing. Kev has 4 brothers and they have a long tradition of a round of golf on Christmas day. Lance was jealous he couldn't play (Although he did get to play 4 rounds that trip at some high end courses, which he was very happy about!)
So with all of the gifts and all of the wonderful guests, we actually did not finish opening presents until 12:09! We were so shocked. The only reason I remember the exact time is because I went to the kitchen to get some water and looked at the time. That is a record. Craziness!
Grant got an another present after we were done opening gifts. Mimi and Grantpa got him a Big Wheels motorcycle. It is adorable. It is a 3 wheeled bike that makes a ton of noises and has flashing lights. Grant was in heaven. Although he clearly can't peddle by himself, he still loved getting on and off by himself. It took a couple of tries, but he soon mastered that thing!
Then we got some more visitors! My dads brother, Jim and his girlfriend Tina and his two boys came over. It was a lot of fun to see them. We actually got to see them a lot that trip, which was a great time.
When we were done with Christmas morning everyone went to get showered and we started in the kitchen. Isn't Christmas always about food and the kitchen? I will admit, this year I was not as involved in the kitchen because I took the last shower and put Grant down for a nap. During that time the prime rib was put in the over and the potatoes and broccoli were prepped. Our dinner was amazing! We always have prime rib on Christmas, but this was the best one yet. And I am just totally in love with the cheesy potatoes and the broccoli casserole. Those are 2 of my all time favorite dishes. so basically I really enjoyed our dinner. What did Grant have for dinner? Blueberries, a blueberry muffin, and potatoes!
After dinner we had more guests over. Uncle Don and aunt Gay and cousin Julie came over. They are really my dad's aunt and uncle. Anyhow, Julie is pregnant and looks so cute with a belly! We had a great time with them, especially because uncle does loves champagne. So of course, we broke out the champagne again. They stayed over until about 11:30. It was so great to just sit and chat with everyone.
All in all, we had a really great Christmas day. It was so 'us' to be with family and see more friends and family all day. That is Lance and I to a 'T'. We have always been so involved with our friends and family and always very social. Grant was such a good boy and really had fun with all of his new toys. We are very lucky for the wonderful people in our lives.
Grant has his own sensory bin! My teaching side has come out and I am so glad that it is working and Grant loves it. Sensory bins are so good for children in a multitude of ways. Here are just a few: gripping a utensil, fine motor, scooping, dumping, measuring, hand eye coordination, focus time, concentration, and keeping things inside an object while still managing to play. I am so impressed with Grant for many reasons, but one I am so very proud of is his clean up skills. When something falls outside of the bin Grant knows he needs to 'Pick it up and put it in'. Literally any time something falls out he automatically picks it up and puts it back, even without Lance or I asking him to. I am happy about this because clearly I do not want a huge mess, but also it is teaching him to clean up and put things away. Currently, his favorite item in the bin is the dry beans. He has a designated spoon for mommy, which is so funny. I never asked for the spoon, but he always gave me the biggest measuring spoon. Even when he has 2 spoons in his hands he will look at them both, locate the big one, and give it to me. He cracks me up. They are all so much smarter than we give them credit for.
