New Year’s Day, and Christmas with Grandma Amanda and Grandpa Terry!

On the afternoon of New Year’s Day we celebrated Christmas with Jon’s Mom and her husband, Terry, Jon’s Grandma and Grandpa, and Jon’s brother and his girlfriend, Jessica. Elijah went down for a quick nap while we ate dinner, and then was back for his dinner (ooh, peas) in the gorgeous highchair that Terry had refinished for Mom. This was Jon’s highchair originally, then Jeremy’s, and then was passed to various cousins. Terry stripped the finish with the intention of repainting it since they weren’t sure the quality of the wood, but once stripped it turned out the chair was a good quality maple, so Terry re-stained and sealed the chair. And it is simply gorgeous!

Anyway, after prince Eli was done with his meal it was present time. Eli dutifully posed in front of the tree and presents while everyone fawned and adored him (rough life, huh), and then it was time for presents for Eli! And after the morning present session of fun, he was ready for this one too. Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Jessica got him stuffed frogs and books, and Elijah went crazy. He was almost spastic you could say. At one point he kept lifting his books above his head and squealing over and over again, with a huge smile on his face. Elijah’s stocking present was this dog puppet who barked Christmas songs when you moved his mouth. Elijah thought that was pretty amusing as well, though you couldn’t tell who enjoyed it more – the adults or him.

As the opening wore on Elijah started to get tired (he yawned while opening his “Baby’s First Blocks” set), and so he was retired to Grandma’s lap for the rest of the night. From there he opened camouflage pajamas from the Marine Corps. (Grandpa Terry was a Marine), and also a box of books that Jon read when he was younger. That was really cool, and the another neat thing was that Grandma wrote little messages and dates on the inside of each book cover, so Elijah will be able to know that the books were his Dad’s and now are his!

Jon and I had a good Christmas as well (though no squealing from either of us I must admit). I got a yarn winder to go with the umbrella swift I received from my brother (now I can wind my own balls of yarn, yay!), and comfy shirts, which I’m always grateful for, and really cool snowmen trays for entertaining. I’m excited to use that, and I love snowmen, as anyone who is near me at holiday time knows! Jon received a wine opener and foil cutter, expansion sets for a strategy game that we like to play together, and a little footstool for under his desk that Mom and Terry made, and has a big block “M” on the top for the University of Michigan (where Jon and I, and my Dad, and Jon’s Dad, and Jon’s Mom, and Jon’s brother, and Jessica, and Jon’s Aunt and Uncle, all went to school!).
After presents, Jeremy and Jessica took Jon’s Grandma and Grandpa home, and Jon and I and Mom and Terry watched the new Star Wars movie together. Right at the end Elijah started crying, so I went up to check on him. He seemed really uncomfortable so I tried to settle him and rock him back to sleep. When Jon came up to bed though, Elijah kept waking up in his pack n’ play and we were all tired, so Jon went and slept in Jeremy’s old room, and Elijah and I slept in the bed in the guest bedroom. A huge bed for me and Eli, and the little squirmer kept scooting around until he was glued to my side. He’s so sweet and cuddly though that it was nice. Except that I didn’t get much sleep since I was afraid I’d fall into a deeper sleep and roll over him or something. He slept until almost 8 though, and then I woke Jon up and passed the baby duties on to him while I took a nap. We headed home pretty early since both of us wanted to get unpacked and have time to relax at home a bit before it was back to the regular work weeks for us! We had a really great New Year’s-slash-Christmas with family though!