Dudu Christmas

The final Christmas celebration of 2011

Jack and mzee being silly

all present grandkids accounted for...still missing quite a few, but we still had fun!

cousins having fun

the boys opening their gift from the Henrys

a lightning Mcqueen beanbag!

and the roughhousing, wrestling and plopping began...and continues!

yep!

looking at a picture collage of all the Dudugjian grandkids

the 2 boys wearing their coordinating knit winter hats. cute! thanks Granny Ruthie!

dude!

by this time they were REALLY good at opening gifts

Granny Franny got a cute "sing-a-ma-jig" toy that Wesley also greatly enjoyed!

we just found out that we get to go to the beach this year! woohoo!

Daddy and the guys were learning how to play Bridge and Wesley sat down to "learn" too....and next thing I know, he is passed out in the floor snoozing. So wierd! I cant believe that we tiptoe around this kid during naptime, and he can sleep during a bridge session.

yep, passed out!



Granny Franny came in to hang out with Jack. I told him he is so blessed to have great grandmothers, and especially to have ones who are healthy and able to play with him.

We had a wonderful Christmas and we are so thankful that we were able see so many loved ones and were blessed with so many wonderful gifts!

a very Bertie Christmas

We drove from Gallatin to Franklin to meet up with Bertie. We planned to have a Christmas Eve dinner at Cracker Barrell, but believe it or not, they were CLOSED! So we ended up at.....STEAK AND SHAKE!

the service was slow, but that just meant we got even more time to visit...and calm down little boys who were stir crazy!

When we got back to Bertie's house we got to visit some more and open presents!

We were SOOO excited to get a WII! I had been trying to get one for a few months in the hopes that streaming netflix and hulu would help bring down our tv bill....but we never set aside the $$ to buy one....do Bertie did it for us! YAY! We are already LOVING netflix!

Later on Daddy took Bertie to the airport to go to Texas and we headed off to the next Christmas celebration.
Did I mention that we experienced a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE the night we stayed at Bertie's....Wesley put up a little bit of a fuss when Daddy laid him down in his pack and play, but after that, he totally slept through the night!!! It was amazing! He slept better than any of the rest of us! WOW!

Christmas with the Fishers

Christmas Eve is our usual day to celebrate with the Fishers. Last year we didnt because the Henry's were out of town and I think people were sick and we had the Coopers up in Cookeville celebrating with us....the year before we didnt because Papa John was just getting over being very sick....the year before that we had a mini celebration since the Henrys were gone again...so this was the first year in a LOOOONG time that most of us got to celebrate together. What a blessing!

Baby cousins admiring each other

going in for a hug

we were THRILLED that Ma Fisher felt up to celebrating with us!!! She has had a hard year health-wise but she mustered the energy to spend the day with us...and it was such a blessing! They boys were really cute with her too!

we were also thankful that Papa John was well this year, and that Beverly and Kitty made it this year too. We really missed Mimi, but she was caring for her ailing mother.

Eden's first Christmas. She and Papa John had some sweet time.



3 Generations. I wish we had gotten a full group picture, but we were too busy eating, talking, opening presents and taking candid shots to gather the whole group up.

this is one of my favorite pictures from the Whole weekend....it was time to EAT and someone handed Wesley his plate, and he marched right into the kitchen and got in line for his food...without any prompting. Kid must have been hungry!

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Papa John and Eden...aka...Santa and his little Elf

Jack showing his stained glass creation to Ma Fisher. She doesnt have much room in her new place for STUFF, so we made her a suncatcher to bring some color into her room and I figured there would be a little room to hang something on her window.

Eden's FIRST Christmas gift came from us...

apparently the ribbons are TASTY!

so cute!

definitely a Kodak moment!

Jack was a good helper with handing out the gifts and helping to unwrap.

and his after party entertainment....acrobatics. As you can probably tell from his pink face, he stayed like that for a LONG time...it was pretty funny!

Shall we just say
"THE END"

Santa Claus!!

as I said in the previous post, we do our little family Christmas celebrations early due to traveling, so we had our "Christmas Morning" on Christmas Eve.

We were very surprised Christmas morning that Jack slept kinda late....and when he woke up he was content to watch a show, eat breakfast and do other things before seeing what Santa dropped off. I wonder how long that will last! :)

Jack walking in to see the loot!



Whoa, someone must have been really good!

what a cute face!

stockings too!

looking at his "search and find" book

See my car vacuum in the background....my Santa gives useful gifts! Santa's helper, Josh, used the vacuum to clean the car before we loaded up to head to Nashville....and it looked AWESOME...a two-fold gift!!!!

glow sticks in the stockings. We used some of them in the bathtub a few nights later with the lights out. It was pretty cool!

Can I just say how hard it is to find little stocking stuffers for a toddler who still likes to put little things in his mouth! Santa had his work cut out for him this year!

Jack wanted to get to work on his 150 and 300 piece puzzles right away....we convinced him to work on the 48 piece ones that morning and we would do the bigger ones later. whew!

As far as Santa, we still play the Santa game, but in our attempt to focus the celebrations on the birth of Jesus and less on the materialism and STUFF, we try to de-emphasize Santa. We have told Jack that Santa is NOT real, but it is a fun game to play and pretend, and I still let him watch all the Christmas/Santa/Frosty/Rudolph cartoons on TV. We havent gone to visit Santa since Jack was an itty bitty baby or written him letters...not to be spoilsports or because it is "lying" to our kids...just our attempts to put less emphasis on Santa....that's all. I think the boys still have LOTS of fun! I would like to learn more about St. Nick and the Christian aspect of Santa so that we can put MORE emphasis on that.

And to be clear, I dont have any problem with Santa or people who do Santa with their kids...I love Santa growing up, and I thought my parents did a great job when they "broke the news" about him when I was around 7 or 8. It didnt crush my world or make me question why my parents had told these tales to me or make me doubt the existence of other things...so that has nothing to do with why we do it....just a choice of what to put more emphasis on. No big deal. :)
And please dont get me started on my thoughts about the Elf on a Shelf...you'll really think I'm a curmudgeon about that! Let's just suffice it to say that I think it might be a fun Christmas tradition depending on your motivation behind introducing the Elf...and the reasons that a lot of people have been telling me have rubbed me the wrong way, so I doubt that we will have an Elf in our house anytime soon. I have enjoyed seeing pictures from all my friends who have the elf doing silly things.

our Family Christmas (eve eve)

We usually travel for family Christmas celebrations, and this year was no exception. The boys are young enough that they dont notice or care if we do our little family celebrations early, so we did ours the evening of Friday 12/23, so that we wouldnt be too rushed in the morning between Santa gifts and getting out the door by 11. I think it worked out great!

cutie pie and the tree!

the same tree, the same 2 Christmas Cutie Pies (minus a passy....now you can REALLY see how cute they BOTH are!)
that passy has been banished to only bedtime and naptime....unless he is sneaky and we forget to hide it. It's about time.

Daddy reading "The REAL Night before Christmas" which tells the Nativity Story with wording and phrasing similar to the classic Christmas Tale.

I think this book is very cute, but I do feel it is a bit ironic that it emphasizes that it is the "REAL" Night before Christmas, yet it is narrated by the main characters, which are anthropomorphic ducks....are there even ducks in the Holy Land? Just wondering?

Bo listened too

Wesley didnt really want all the doggy attention

Wesley enjoyed "helping"

Daddy got the generic version of Jenga from the boys....the #1 block builder (Jack) and the #1 block tumbler (Wesley)....should be an interesting game with these 2 around!

I tried to get a cute son/daddy pic, but this boy is CONSTANTLY on the move!

Jack got some costumes....a fireman jacket, Buzz Lightyear, and Superman! I LOVE after Halloween sales....and Essex!

Wesley got some "stained glass" crafty ornaments painted by his favorite brother.

The Christmas after Jack was born, Daddy gave me a lovely necklace with a blue topaz, which is the December Birthstone...and it matches just about everything I own! Well....a year and a half after Wesley's birth (I blame hospital bills and FPU for the tardiness of this gift)  I got his birthstone bling. I got Alexandrite earrings....and they are "nice" ones that I can keep in my ears on a semi-permanent basis (since I am not great about remembering to change them) and they wont turn my ears green! YAY! I feel so spoiled!

it was a nice evening, sweet family time, and it gave the boys a little while to play with their toys before we had to zoom off.