Whew...Christmas was here, what an amazingly wonderful day :)

Christmas eve was spent with my father. He came over just after 1:00 p.m. We spent the afternoon hanging out, and reliving Christmases past.

Later in the afternoon, I started making my gingerbread cookies. The house smelled wonderful. I hope to make this a tradition. My father reminded me that smells create amazing memories. I hope that when my children are older, they'll remember the wonderful smell of the gingerbread, and instantly think of warm, fuzzies.

For dinner, my dad and I made the BEST turkey chili in the WORLD. While the chili was simmering, we went to look at the local Christmas houses. Manny really got a kick out of them.

Manny went to bed at 8:30 p.m., but the adults didn't go to bed until closer to midnight. By the time my head reached my pillow my body was exhausted from all of the baking and gift wrapping, however I could not fall asleep. I think I was more excited about Santa's visit then Manny ;)

Christian woke us up bright and early around 6:30 a.m. Christmas morning. Manny strolled out of bed about a half an hour later, and quickly started ripping open presents.

Manny must have been a really good boy this year because Santa brought him a TON of gifts. He got some Kung Fu Panda action figures, a new Buzz Lightyear doll, a Bumblebee transformer toy, etc, etc, etc.

Christian got some awesome toys as well, but was more interested in the boxes, and bows.

Soon after breakfast we started to get ready to make our way to Fairfield. I think the boys were absolutely spoiled by their Grand Aunts, Great Grandma and Uncle James. The car was filled up to the brim with toys.

After Fairfield we went to John's moms house, where again, Manny was spoiled. I seriously think that he's going to expect every wrapped gift to be his...haha.

Yesterday was an extremely long day, but it was a wonderful day spent with family. I can't wait to do it all again next year!

I can't believe that Christmas is only 3 days away!

We are almost completely finished with our shopping. John still needs to get his mother a gift, and I need to run to the craft store to buy supplies for my Grandma's letter box (instead of buying her a gift, I'm having each family write a letter to her to show how much we appreciate her, and putting those letters in a decorative box). Other then that, we're done!

I have been put in charge of desserts for Christmas at my relatives house. I'll be making gingerbread cookies, cake balls, and White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Bark; trust me, they sound fancier then they are. I'll post pics of my fabulous treats when I've finished making them.

I think Christians ear infection has returned. Over the last 3-4 days he's been completely inconsolable. At first I thought he was just being grouchy, and that his poor attitude would get better after a couple of days. When that didn't happen, I thought that he might be teething, but he's not drooling, so I crossed that off of the list.

So the last, and final option is that his ear infection returned. I've scheduled a doctors appointment for tomorrow to confirm. I'm hoping that it is an ear infection, because that means it's something "fixable". If it's not, I have no idea what to do.

I've noticed that when I stay on top of his pain medication he is fine. I'm switching between motrin and tylenol every 3-4 hours.

All I know is that things need to change, and quickly. He isn't getting any sleep, and is crying constantly. Which means that mommy and daddy aren't getting any sleep, and we've been nearly pressed to tears on several occasions.

I am very lucky that Manny has been a very good boy over the last couple of days. He's had a couple of "normal" meltdowns, but nothing note worthy.

Here are some of the funny (and cute) things that my adorable 2 year old has said in the last couple of days:

"Daddy, don't say that, that's not nice." -- After John cursed (can't remember why he cursed).

"I love you too." -- After I told him I loved him.

"Am I in trouble?" -- Manny's timeout area is his bedroom. He asked this question after I told him I needed him to get me his shoes from his room. I think we need a new timeout area.

I LOVE Christmas shopping with an infant -- yesterday, after work, John and I went Christmas shopping for the boys. Manny spent the night with Lola so that we could go.

Shopping for Manny was so much easier this year. We know exactly what he likes. We got him a couple of Transformers toys, a Buzz Lightyear doll, this cool bowling game, and a couple of other things that I can't think of right now.

On the other hand, shopping for an infant can be a bit difficult. You never know what they're going to really like. All of their toys seem to be extremely expensive. For example, there was a toy that we bought that spit out balls for Christian to chase, and it also had a piano type key pad, this toy was $25! We only put aside about a $100 for Christian, so he got about 4 toys...haha.

But I digress....the reason shopping with an infant is so fabulous is because you can give them the toy to "try out" to see if they like it. If they show interest in the toy, you buy it, if they don't, you move on. The fantastic thing? They WON'T remember!

I was a little disappointed with the toy selection for Manny's age. Manny is absolutely in love with Kung Fu Panda, so John and I wanted to get him a couple of Kung Fu Panda toys. However, all of the KFP toys were extremely small, or had parts that a small child could easily choke on. Plus, the toys weren't that great...very disappointing.

I do feel a bit sorry for Christian. Manny's first Christmas was CRAZY. We bought him SO many things (things he really didn't need to be honest), but it was his first Christmas, and he was our first child. I wanted it to memorable....for us...haha.

Knowing what we know now, we didn't get as berserk with Christian. We bought him a couple of toys that he'll be able to open himself. We got him a couple of stocking stuffers that I know he will aboslutely love, but we didn't go over the top like we did before; partly b/c times are a little tough, but also because I know he doesn't need 10 new toys, and because really....he won't remember it.

I'm looking forward to next Christmas with Christian. Hopefully next year we'll be able to spoil him a bit :)

I took Christian to a trial class at Junior Gym this morning. Manny goes regularly and absolutely loves it, so I figured I'd give it a try with Christian, but I'm not sure he's ready yet. He's the youngest in the class (ages 6 mo-18 mo), and is the only crawler.

He loved the beginning [structured] part which consists of a song (he got to jingle some bells which thrilled him), warm up, and parachute play. I think he was a bit shell shocked during free time. He basically spent most of his time in the center play area, occasionally venturing out, and playing with the equipment. The instructor said that his reaction was pretty normal, that it usually takes a few sessions for them to acclimate.

Manny missed a couple of sessions last month, and Mikeala (Manny's teacher) said that Christian could use those sessions for free. I think I'll check into that before enrolling Christian full time.

There are positives to the class: it got both of us out of the house, Christian got to be around babies the same age as him, it wore him out (he passed out as soon as we got into the car), and I do think that eventually it will help his motor skills. I just think that it may be better for him when he can finally walk.

Tonight I spent the night watching Santa Claus is Comin' to Town! with Manny. It brought back so many memories of my childhood. I love the holiday season. Sure it can be a little stressful, but I love passing on old holiday traditions to my children, and making traditions of our own.

Later in the week, I want to go to the store and buy a gingerbread house kit, and make it with Manny; this is something I used to do with my mom. I'll be sure to take some pictures when we're finished.