Merry Birthday

Since we decided to stay home on Christmas Eve this year we missed out on seeing Gran, Papa, Aunt Di Di, and TJ. Luckily Papa's Birthday was this past weekend so we were able to have a mini-Christmas/Birthday party at Pepe and Nonna's house. The boys have become professional present openers at this point I think. Reed even offered his services to Papa when it came time to open his Birthday gifts. Of course instead of playing with their new toys the boys ended up wrestling with the packaging!!!

Pepe made a fabulous dinner that had us all going back for seconds (and thirds). After dinner there were a couple of desserts, this meant multiple candles and multiple candle blowers! Reed refused to share the slice of cake I brought for him with anyone so I gave Kieran a taste of cheesecake - let me say it was instant love for the Kiddo.

Aunt Di Di and TJ had to leave early to get home so I asked Reed to pose with Diana so I could get a picture and below is what he came up with! Then, as is our Sunday tradition, we made our way out to the pool house for games and drinks. It was a great evening celebrating a great guy!!!

Christmas Continued

Shortly after Kieran went down for his nap Christmas morning, Nonna, Pepe, C, Tio, and Lyla all arrived. Since the Bug was sleeping we decided to play a game. Reed chose the teams - Reed and Nonna vs everyone else! We played an updated version of the classic "Guess Who" game and made it through one whole round before Reed started changing the rules. We decided to start opening gifts before Kieran woke up and got a few in before we decided he needed to join the party and woke him up. The boys received some awesome presents but by far my favorite gift of the day was the quilt I made Lyla. I had wanted to make it as a gift for her shower (I ordered extra fabric when I bought the material to decorate for the shower), but ran out of time. I forced myself to find the time this month and although it meant a few late nights of sewing I'm so glad I was able to give her something so sentimental for her first Christmas. Speaking of Lyla she was pretty into gift opening. She loved grabbing pieces of wrapping paper and tearing them off of the boxes.

Team Reed and Nonna

Team Everyone Else

I think a switch flipped in Kieran during Christmas and he spent a lot of his time walking instead of crawling and he just seemed like such a big boy all of the sudden!!!

After the boys took their afternoon naps we went to Auntie "P" and Tim's house for a big McClarty Christmas dinner. Pepe's three sisters and their spouses were all there, all of their kids, except one, and their spouses, and all 10 of their grandkids made it this year. This meant Tim and Paula cooked for 30 people. It was a delicious dinner and after missing out on the meal portion for so many years Jon and I were both so happy we were able to be there the entire night this year. Tim, who's not known as a baby person, held Lyla for quite awhile stating that he had been observing all of the kids and she seemed the easiest (no argument here)! There was of course the annual gift exchange and Uncle Allan and Aunt Lynette were again so generous and gifted each of the children beautiful musical snow globes. Although we were the first to leave we stayed well past the boys' bedtimes. Reed and Kieran were obsessed with Auntie P's stuffed animal Christmas tree and wouldn't leave until we found an animal that would make noise. I loved watching Reed interact with some of the older kids and can't wait for a few years from now when both boys are part of the gang.

Reed LOVED erasing the big chalk board

Tim and Lyla

Synchronized Snow Globe opening

Tio plotting his gift selection

Auntie P and Reed

Christmas Eve, Elves, and Santa's gift

With the boys still being on different schedules and with us having so many different celebrations to attend we decided staying put on Christmas Eve made the most sense this year. Grandma, Grandpa, and G-Momma came over just in time to enjoy a tamale lunch and hang out with Reed and Kieran a bit. Once the kiddos were napping we got to work assembling the boys' Santa gift. In one of the online reviews I read, the lady had said it took her husband an hour and a half to assemble it. I had great plans of putting the gift together earlier in the week, but it just hadn't happened. As Jon said, he doesn't know who this guy is but he must be an octopus because it took all five of us "Elves"  two hours of coordinated work (and a few adult beverages) to get the thing together. It came down to the wire; Grandma went in to play with Kieran when he woke and Reed was waking as we scrambled to move the gift into our bedroom.

Once the boys were awake we decided to open gifts. After gift opening we got to enjoy G-Momma's delicious minestrone soup and some yummy desserts Reed and I had made. Luckily there was time for the boys to open their pajama gifts, make a plate for Santa, and Reed even got to play one of his new games with Grandma and Grandpa while I put Kieran to bed and G-Momma and Dad caught up. Our Elf on the Shelf had left a note for Reed that morning asking him to send allergy friendly cookies back to the North Pole with Santa. Reed of course remembered this and also added that "we should only put one cookie on the plate for Santa because he gets so many from other people but that we should leave a lot of carrots because people forget the reindeer!"

We had told both sides of the family to come over anytime after 7:00 am Christmas morning. I let the boys open their stockings when they woke, but held them off from the big wrapped present in the living room until a little after 7:00. We made an apple breakfast cake and played with their stocking stuffers but they couldn't wait any longer so we let them rip into the package. They both loved Santa's gift and played with it all day (and every day since). Grandma, Grandpa, and G-Momma arrived a few minutes after the grand reveal and hung out for awhile drinking coffee, nibbling apple cake, having Reed and K "cook" for us, and just enjoying each other's company.

Grandma, Grandpa, and G-Momma left for home a little bit before Kieran's first nap. Luckily Grandma remembered to have us pose in front of the Christmas tree for our annual family pajama picture, I will call the photo session moderately successful, you can judge for yourself!