Meet the Morans: Christmas 2013

Christmas has come and gone, all of our decorations are put away and the lights have been taken down from our house, but I wanted to do a quick post about our eventful holiday activities over the last few weeks.

It started with picking out our Christmas tree at Trinity Tree Farm. We love it there, and even though it was only 11 degrees the morning we went, it was sunny and Jackson had a great time helping pick the tree, and then thoroughly enjoyed climbing on some rocks he came across (such a boy).

Next up was the HMG holiday party at the Westin, while Gramma Joan watched Jackson. He kept busy by decorating his first gingerbread house that she brought over, while we mingled with Corey's co-workers and took part in a gift exchange. It's always so great to catch up with the HMG'ers, since I don't get to see many of them very often.

Jackson helped me make sugar cookies this year, and it was his first time decorating them, which he loved. He may have only decorated a few (since I was worried he'd start licking them and we planned to give some to a few of our neighbors), but those few were amazing, and delicious.

Last weekend, my family came over and we celebrated Christmas (round 1) together with gifts and a yummy dinner. It was so fun to watch Jackson not only get excited to open gifts but to also play with them this year. His favorite gift by far was a kid's CD player my parents gave him - he spent at least an hour putting CDs in, dancing and taking the CDs out while we all opened our presents. He didn't even want to move on to his next presents - "not yet, I'm busy" is what he'd say each time we tried to get him to move on to the next gift. We finally got him to open his other gifts, which included his own kitchen, but he still kept going back to the CD player. It was in constant use all weekend (I think we heard the Chicken Dance alone at least 100 times), and has continued to be a bit hit since then.

Earlier this week, after Jackson's haircut at Bellevue Square (first time not having to sit in my lap since he was a baby!), we hit up Snowflake Lane. Jackson loved the lollipops they handed out, and the drummer boy that we had a great view of, which was his favorite part last year as well.

On Christmas Eve, Joan and Elliott came over for our Moran family Secret Santa gift exchange (round 2), and we were each spoiled and enjoyed watching Jackson open his next round of presents including a race track, adorable big boy outfit, and new additions to his kitchen.

On Christmas day, we spent a quiet morning at home (round 3) - just the three of us - and Jackson opened his presents from Santa and from us. The present we were most excited to give him was a work bench, and he's spent a lot of time putting together and taking apart a toy airplane Gramma Joan gave him earlier this year. The cutest part is when he uses the (fake) vacuum attached to the side of the work bench to clean up when he's all done.

Christmas afternoon, we headed to Joan's with Consuelo and Elliott for Christmas dinner and to open stockings (round 4 - whew!). Again, we were all spoiled both a delicious dinner, as well as stocking stuffers.

Corey and I didn't get each other any presents this year, considering he bought his dream car a few months ago, and we just got a new bedroom set (finally bought a king size bed, which we love!), but we did decide that a nice dinner out at Daniel's Broiler would be a great way to sneak in what may possibly be our last date night before Mini Moran #2 arrives. So over this past weekend, Joan watched Jackson and we headed out on date night. We ate way too much of course, but had a fabulous time together.

You can sense a theme --- yummy food and being spoiled with way too many presents --- and we thoroughly enjoyed all the family time we were able to sneak in over the past week. And as Jackson's last holiday season as an "only child", I'd say he had a great time.

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday as well!