Twas' the day after Christmas

Today we are winding down from the hustle and bustle of Christmas 2007. The excitement hit Jonah pretty hard on Christmas Eve, wreaking havoc on his routine and causing a night of many cries and night awakenings. We were at Todd's parent's house, so Jonah's crib is in a room along with a twin sized bed that I normally sleep in when we are there. By about 3am, Jonah was sleeping in bed with me, and frankly I really loved it. By Christmas night, we were finally home and in our own beds. Jonah awoke with a little cry, I went to him to calm him down, but chose to bring him in bed with us. He slept wonderfully with us, only awakening a few times, but since I was right there, I was able to soothe him and get him back to sleep quickly. And better yet, he didn't wake up (wake up for the day that is) until 7am. Unfortunately, Todd isn't quite the fan of co-sleeping, but maybe it will grow on him. I am not saying I am planning on doing this 100% of the time, but if need be, he will sleep with us. The upside was that I didn't get crabby about being woke up at all throughout the night. The act of hearing him cry, waking up, walking to his room, for some reason makes me crabby! With him in bed with us, all I could do was smile at that little face looking back at me, whether he was crying or sleeping. I loved how he would cuddle up to me and nestle in, that is the best feeling in the world. Well worth the lack of bed space I was allowed and the severe backache I woke up with. To me, those things just didn't matter.

We all received some really great gifts, and personally I feel like this is the first Christmas where it wasn't too overboard. Maybe it was because my focus was more on Jonah and his gifts than it was on myself and my own gifts. Don't get me wrong, I am forever grateful for the great things I was given, but having a baby changing your perspective not only on life, but every old experience that has turned new since his arrival. He worked like a champ through many sittings involving opening presents. If I do say so myself, the most enjoyable time was at 5:30 on Christmas Eve morning, when Todd woke me up, with Jonah in his arms, saying "Let's open presents!" I took pictures galore and Jonah was really, really into it. He loved tearing the paper, making noises, and actually playing with the presents and not just the boxes. Jonah seems to have a favorite toy already, his Little People Airplane that Santa brought him. A little later than morning, Mimi and Papa Duck came over with more presents and Jonah had a field day with them too. He even fell asleep on Papa, it was so cute! Then we headed over to Todd's parents house for MORE presents, a great dinner, but unfortunately a significantly sleepless night. After everyone returned from the Midnight church service, we opened the adult presents. In the midst of it, Jonah woke up, so instead of fighting him to go back to sleep, we let him join in on the fun. We all got to bed (some of us "back in bed") about 2:30am, to then awake around 7:30am (of course, Jonah had a few wake-ups in the middle there).
We headed to my dad's house=more presents, and then to Todd's uncle's house, for a few more presents.

The funny thing is, after writing all that, it really seems like we accumulated way more presents than we did. I am happy because Jonah got some cute new clothes, as well as some "big boy toys". We stored away the baby toys, so now Jonah can play and learn and discover how to do things with toys that are a little more complex.

I hope everyone else had an amazing Christmas, and got to spend some quality time with those most important in your lives, and in the middle of it all, you remembered the true meaning of Christmas. But if you forgot (or want a refresher), Steph posted a link to this video, so check it out.

Not long now until the start of a whole new year!