Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we all went to my parents' house for a chili dinner and to open presents. Wayne's mom, Helen, Grandma, and my sister, Jennifer, were there too. The weather was crazy that day! We knew that it was supposed to snow, but we had no idea how much. Wayne and I started our celebration by taking his mom to our church for the Christmas eve service (3:00 pm). It was really cold outside and raining. Pretty soon, the rain turned to snow, and the wind was out of control! After the church service, we drove to Mom and Dad's house. By this time, the snow was really coming down, but the roads weren't bad yet.


Nathan with Mama and Papa.


Posing by the Christmas tree...he couldn't wait to get his hands on all of these presents!


Nathan and Papa


After eating a great dinner, it was time to open presents. Nathan played the role of Santa. I gave a present to him and told him who it was for, and he took it right to that person. There were a few times that he tried to put other people's presents in his pile...I'm not so sure that was a mistake :)

After passing out all of the presents, Nathan wanted to help everyone else open their presents first.








Now, it's time for Nathan to open his presents!


This is the huge present he drug to his pile first :)


An art easel from Auntie Carrie and Uncle Chris!


Nathan also got several Thomas trains, and soon that was all he wanted to play with!




"Look Papa, I have Percy, Duncan, and James!" It's so funny to me that he knows all of their names and which is which.


Mom showed Helen her new Snuggie that Carrie got her for her birthday. Helen looked very stylish and warm!


Then Nathan decided to snuggle up too!


After opening all of those presents, Nathan and Cookie were worn out. So I gave Nathan a bath and put on his Christmas pajamas. I was pretty sure he'd fall asleep on the way home.


Nathan and Aunt Jen


I wonder how long this "smile on demand" is going to last. I love it, and it makes taking pictures so much easier now!


Nathan with Mommy and Daddy


Right before we left, Nathan wanted to watch Mama wash the dishes. He loved seeing all of the suds in the sink.


He also loved putting those suds on his nose :)Soon after, we loaded up the car and got ready to head home. Helen rode with us so we were going to drop her off at her house first. Normally, it only takes 25 minutes to get from their house to mine. On this night, it took us 2 hours! As soon as we walked out of mom and dad's door, we saw that the snow was really coming down and already sticking to the roads. Luckily, we were in Wayne's car which had 4-wheel drive. Even with 4-wheel drive, we slid several times. There were cars and wrecks all over the roads. It was really unbelievable. After we finally got home, we put Nathan in bed with us. We thought it would be fun to let him sleep in our bed so that we could all wake up on Christmas morning together. We love sleeping with Nathan. He is so snuggly! We couldn't wait to experience the next morning with him.