Tyler's First Christmas

Christmas at the Watson house included waking up in our Christmas p.j.s and staying in them all day, opening more presents than we knew what to do with, and watching a delightful little boy have the time of his life from sun up to sun down.

Santa left Tyler a bunch of really neat presents. It never ceases to amaze me how Santa can know kids so well. It's like he lives with them or something. Anyway, everything in the picture below shows the loot he left, with the exception of the chair, which was from Nana, but too big to wrap.

After a Christmas morning bottle, Tyler was ready to see what Santa had left for him. He was very meticulous as he stopped at each toy to see what it was all about before moving on to the next thing in the row.

By far, this Fisher Price Learning Home was his favorite gift. He has played with this thing for hours since he first saw it.

Tyler is really fond of the chair Nana gave him, but he thinks of it more as gym equipment. No sooner had he learned to hoist himself into the chair did he learn to catapult himself out. Seriously. He would launch himself, in forward roll position, off the chair with complete disregard as to whether anyone would be there to catch him (thank you, Little Gym, for making my kid fearless). If this monkey behavior doesn't stop soon, the chair might have to disappear for a while (although it did have us laughing our heads off, which certainly didn't do anything but encourage the behavior).

Eventually, he moved on to play with his new farm.

And, remember the stocking I so tirelessly made last year? How fun it was to see those little hands pull things out of that very same stocking this year! I couldn't have been more proud. I suppose I need to start on Baby Sister's now. There's no telling how long it will take me to get another one done!

Mamama and Papa Joe sent Tyler a whole library of new books. He has already flipped through most of them, and we've read a half dozen of them or so.

Once Tyler had exhausted his Santa discoveries, we outfitted him with a snack trap of Cheerios (he needed the stamina/morale boost) and began opening presents. We started with the gifts from Uncle Travis, Aunt Lou Anne, Lilli, Amelia, and Collin. They gave him a Curious George friend, two Curious George books, and some monkey p.j.s. He has slept with George ever since. It was adorable to watch him hug George and pat his back. Priceless.

A George video for your viewing pleasure:

Baby Sister even had a stash of gifts from her Daddy and her brother.

One of the gifts Danny picked out for her was the exact same sleeper that I had picked up for her a couple of days earlier, but the line at Kohl's was too long to justify buying it. I left it on the rack with intentions of returning for it later. Little did I know...

I remember lots of things from before I had a child of my own, and one of those things was being completely outraged by the parents who would spend tons of money or fight with each other over toys at the toy store during the Christmas season. Elmo was always a character who struck up those behaviors in folks, and I swore my child would just have to live without the latest Elmo if it came down to all that nonsense.

That is, until Tyler Reed's little face lit up and he chuckled with delight when he caught a glimpse of the new Elmo Live doll at Toys R Us. Still not interested in paying for said Elmo, I called Nana. She saved the day. And, she was thrilled with the reaction Elmo got when Ty opened the box. He squealed. Loudly. It was too cute!

[Note my new camera in the background. I adore my "big" camera that we are "borrowing" from my dad, but it was difficult and cumbersome to take to The Little Gym and the playground and the zoo...places where I needed to be a little more active. So, I mentioned wanting something a little smaller for those activities. My rockstar husband surprised me with a new, smaller Nikon that is completely portable and totally user-friendly!]

Even Daisy Mae had left a special gift for Tyler. I don't know how she delivered it all the way from heaven, but she did!

Tyler gave his daddy a couple of sentimental presents, like this plaque from Precious Prints (you didn't think I really only left that place with an ornament, did you?).

And, he also made his daddy a personalized photo book of their first year together.

Kitty got Christmas-fied with the wrapping materials.

Soon, it was time to eat. I ordered a honey glazed ham from the BBQ place up the road, and I made mac-n-cheese (thanks, Rebecca), green bean casserole, baked corn, and crescent rolls. We had a red velvet cake for dessert. YUMMY!!

I've never made homemade mac-n-cheese before, but this was fabulous! The bottom got a little too brown because I had it on the bottom rack for a while when other things were taking over the top rack. Even still, it was gooey and cheesy and good!

Ty was really excited about all the festive food. I bet he wonders why I don't feed him like this every day.

All in all, we had a wonderful day! Tyler may never remember his first Christmas, but we will always remember the joy he brought us all day long. I never knew Christmas could be such a blast until I had him to share it with!! And, next year, we look forward to double the fun!