Christmas 2005 pictures

A few Luke Christmas pictures for you. And yes, the irony of me changing my template back only to then post Christmas photos has not escaped me.



Our stockings this year, which really aren't stockings at all. It's just a table runner I found at target (i.e. it's flat; the "stockings" can't hold anything), and I used felt to make the letters that I stitched on. We used these great holiday buckets from Wal-Mart to hold our stocking loot this year instead. Luke loves buckets anyway, so it worked out just fine. The cards above each stocking show the wrapping paper assignments for each person. For example, all gifts from us to my mother are wrapped in the blue dove paper, while all gifts from us to my brother are wrapped in the red polka dot paper. That way I don't have to put tags on everything!



Here is the star of the show, getting his first look at his pile of gifts. Mostly from family, with a few from Santa thrown in for good measure. In the future (when it matters), Santa gifts will be piled separately, but for this year, particularly when no gifts could be left under the tree before Christmas Day due to kitties, we didn't bother. I still don't think he grasps the whole concept, and perhaps not this coming Christmas either, but the next one.... we'd better look out! Oh, and for anyone wondering where everyone else's gifts are, we did ours Christmas Eve so we could do our standard "take turns and appreciatively admire what everyone else receives" routine, which was much simpler without Luke, who would have either not waited patiently for his turn or would have wanted to play with all kinds of "off limits" things that we gave to each other. Probably will do that again next year, then include him in taking turns in 2007 (you know, when he's three ::faint::).



Every kid's dream: a pile of gifts so high, you can climb them!



One of his new favorite things to do (make a fish face). He also likes to stand on his head (bends at the waist, putting his head and hands on the ground), though I haven't managed a good picture of that yet.



And last but not least, the gift we are most proud of: the basketball goal. My husband picked this out for Luke all by himself, even though we had said we were done shopping for him. But I'm so glad we did get it, because Luke loves it! It even lead to his first word (I guess): yay. Every time he puts the ball in the basket, we clap and say "yaaaaaay." So now, he will put it in and start clapping his hands and saying "yaaaaaay." He'll do it if I put the ball in the basket, too, which was so funny the first time it happened. He can even extrapolate the sound to other contexts. DH was given the newest Rockapella CD for Christmas, and it is a "live in concert" one that includes some clapping and cheering at the ends of some songs. The first time Luke heard that after learning to "yay," he did it with the CD. We nearly died laughing, but it was so cute!

I think that covers most of the Christmas round-up (even if it is two weeks after the fact). The only other thing I can think of is that we decided to start a new tradition. Most likely, we will always have my family here for the better part of a week during Christmas. This year, due to the way all of the days fell, they were here for 10 days. It was fabulous! And, we got to experiment with some new recipes in addition to our family favorites. So, we've decided that each year, we will put together a "cookbook" containing recipes for all the things we made, new or old, whether we liked it or not (though noting in the comments section what we thought of it, and any changes we might make in the future). This includes desserts and snacks. It will be a nice stroll down memory lane when we look through it, and everyone will have the recipe should one of us decide we want to make something after the holidays. I thought it would be kind-of wimpy, but once I remembered to put in all of the snacks and stuff, we came up with 20 recipes! More than enough to keep us busy until next Christmas. I hear the 2006 Christmas Menu Committee is already testing new recipes....

Currently feeling: quite proud of myself