Christmas in Dixie

Trevor survived finals and we were excited to be able to head out for our adventures down south.  Grayson was a champ on the drive down.  He took two really long naps and we made it down to Alabama in good time.  On Christmas Eve, my oldest sister came over and we had a homemade pizza bar.  It was really good and we had fun making lots of different combinations.



 We had lots of tasty appetizers to satiate our hungry while we waited for the pizzas to cook.

Watching Christmas movies with Grandpa

We watched a few Christmas movies and got to open up one present each.



Grayson got some really cute moose and bear pajamas and a new Christmas book.


 Trevor and I got some really fun pillow cases that my mom made.  We love them!












I was so excited for Grayson to wake up the next morning.  It was his first Christmas.  Of course, my Christmas present was that he slept through the night, it was great.  It's always hard when we travel, he never sleeps as well, so I was very grateful for the good night's rest.

Christmas morning!

Before we opened presents, Grayson was hanging out with Grandpa and he quite enjoyed chewing on his calculator.

We opened stockings first.  I made us Christmas stockings this year so we would all have matching ones.  I was a little nervous at such an undertaking at first, but I was really proud of the result.

Grayson got into ripping open presents really quick!  He wasn't too happy when we kept taking them away though to give him a new one.  Eventually, however, he figured out that there was something new in the other package, so he was very content to open all his gifts. 

 He loved all the bags and paper best of course, but he enjoyed all of this gifts.  I am constantly amazed at how much fun it is to see the world again through the eyes of a child.  It truly brings a renewal of gratitude and prioritizing.

Here is the beautiful tree!

We had to take some pictures with the tree.  Grayson was not thrilled about getting kisses.

It did make him want to give kisses all the same.  They are very wet, but I still love them!!

Snuggling with Aunt Dawn.

We had so much fun opening presents!  It is so much fun watching Grayson get so excited about every present.  He was very helpful to everyone else while they were opening their presents as well.

The boys always try to get him to make faces. 

My little niece and Grayson were staring each other down.

All of my sisters and their kids came over in the afternoon and the kids brought some of their gifts.  It was so fun to hear them tell us all about their gifts. We had so much fun spending time with all of our family.  We had so much fun celebrating such an important holiday with people we love.

Grayson's First Hair Cut and Other Fun Stuff

We had a lot to do before we left for Alabama for the holidays.  I did a lot of cleaning because I like to come home to a clean house. I was finally able to get some good pictures of Grayson's room.  It was hard to find a good time when it was clean and I remembered to take pictures.  I had Trevor take these while I was giving Grayson a bath.

I love the vinyl stickers we got.  I am a big fan and will use more of them in the future.

Another thing I did to prepare for our trip was to wrap Christmas presents.  Grayson was very helpful in this process.  He went through all my gift wrap, boxes and bags to make sure we saw every choice.

Here are our Christmas stockings in progress.  I'll have to take pictures of them when they are all done.

One thing Grayson has started doing is reading to himself.  It is very cute and I often find him in his room surrounded by books.

Another fun trick he has learned, is how to pull all my cards out of my wallet.  He loves to explore the diaper bag, which I normally don't mind, but now that he knows how to go through my wallet. 

We decided to give Grayson a hair cut before we left.  His hair was getting so long that it was almost in his eyes.  We put Dumbo on for him to watch as a distraction, but he did great.  He had a little bit of a hard time when we did the back of his neck because it tickled, so it was a little crooked in the back.  

He looks so big!

Ahh where did all my hair go!  It was a little shorter then we wanted.  I missed his beautiful long hair the second it was gone, but he sure looked more grown up with his new hair cut.

While I was getting ready for the day the next morning, Grayson was putting the shampoo bottles in the bath tub.  The next thing I knew he had managed to climb inside the bath tub.  He was very happy with himself.

Grayson likes to drive cars and he has started making 'car noises.'  I had to get it on video because it's so cute.  

His other new trick is shaking his head.  He likes to do it a lot, so we usually start getting dizzy.