A magical Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations began on Christmas Eve. The Whiteheads invited us to spend the evening with them and it was so much fun! We started off with a live nativity and I neglected to take pictures because Creed and I were busy being shepherds and Larry was the videographer. Heather's whole family was in town and her mom gathered costumes for everyone so all we had to do was show up. Earlier in the week Heather gave me and another friend a little workshop on using our cameras so I'm sure she has some great pictures that I can steal from her blog later. After the nativity we had a wonderful dinner and played Christmas SceneIt that the Whiteheads put together with their favorite Christmas videoclips and telephone pictionary, which was hilarious.

The morning brought surprises from Santa. A red wagon for Creed (He hung out in it for most of the morning while we opened presents)

And Santa must know Larry well because instead of a tangerine, he left Larry an onion in his stocking. After opening some gifts at home we headed over to the Erneys to spend the day with our adopted Columbus family. I missed taking pictures of a lot of wonderful moments, but we were busy just enjoying this special day. Here are a few things I did manage to capture.

Creed adoring Grandpa Ken

And playing with Grandma Cat

And conversing with Audrey. These two were adorable together! Spontaneous kisses were exchanged and it was caught on video. It is so fun watching them grow up together.

Cat went all out. She made us our own stockings.
And provided a feast. Here's a picture of David carving the turkey. He looks a little sinister!

And here's Cat in her element, cooking away.

It was such a fantastic day. Ken kept saying it was the best Christmas ever and I agree. Christmas on the cruise in Jamaica last year was pretty great, but nothing beats your first Christmas with a baby, surrounded by family. I'm so grateful that the Erneys have adopted us. I'm not sure why they chose us, but we couldn't be luckier. Over the past seven years, they have fed us countless times, shared secret recipes, visited us in the hospital, comforted and cuddled Creed, introduced us to Erney Family Holiday, invited us to Jackie Chan movies fests, provided Marissa with a job, shared many a Duckling Day with us, taught how to play Cootie tournaments, and now they've hosted the best Christmas ever. I'm seriously sitting on my couch crying when I think about having to move away from them this summer. Oh, and did I mention that now Elle has provided Larry with all of the secrets to becoming a superhero?
Sadly, today was not Creed's day. I'm not sure if it was just his cold or if it was teething, but he had a VERY rough day and wore us both out. It's a good things there were so many extra hands to help

And now a few gift highlights: my mom shipped us so much Christmas goodness since she couldn't be here to share Christmas with us. She actually made me this Olivia quilt and I love it so much! And she told me has has extra fabric to make a baby quilt if I ever have a girl (hmmmm, first she ships us extra stockings and now she's talking about another baby quilt. I am NOT pregnant blog readers!)

And my other favorite gift was from my adopted mom, Cat. She hand wrote the recipes for all of my favorite things that she makes, and she filled my stocking for the spices they require that she knew I would have on hand. It was probably the most thoughtful gift that I have ever received!

One of the highlights for Larry had to be the old school Vans from Keri and Matt along with a matching pair for Creed. Creed started wearing a size five shoe this week and they sent us size five and halfs so look for pictures soon.

And this is the shirt Santa left in Creed's stocking. How did he know how Creed would be feeling all day? He's definitely magic!