Christmas 2009

This Christmas was a different kind of Christmas for all of us I think, but ultimately wonderful, in spite of everything. Of course, the absence of Chris was felt throughout the holiday, not just for myself and for jack, but for my parents and my sister and Hank as well. It's as though it's slightly incomplete without him. This was also the first Christmas in many years that we didn't get together with our extended family. For whatever reason, it just didn't happen this year.

Christmas Eve, Jack and I had plans to spend the afternoon with our friends the Payne's and then go to the family service at church, but alas, Jack had other plans. He had felt slightly warm most of the day, but didn't have fever any of the times I checked it, and seemed okay otherwise, so we headed out in the late afternoon. He never perked up or played any with Davis, and was clinging to me quite a bit, so we decided it best that we check his temp again. No sooner than we tried, poor Jack was throwing up all over Amy's sun room, dining room and bathroom. Needless to say, we cleaned up, packed up and headed home. After a nap at home, we had plans to be with my parents, so we changed into our pajamas and headed over there to eat summer sausage and cheese (thanks, Mom!) and watch Christmas movies. After we were sufficiently worn out, we headed home, where Jack was sick again. Poor baby felt horrible, and on Christmas! He apparently had gotten a blockage in his tubes, because his ears started to drain. Thankfully, I had an unopened bottle of antibiotic ear drops, and oral antibiotics at home for him, and we started doctoring him up right away.

After Jack was tucked away in bed, Santa came!

Christmas morning, an exhausted and coughing little boy woke to find a train table under the Christmas tree!

He was as impressed and excited as he possibly could have been, given the way he was feeling. (It was truly pitiful...constant coughing, cried every time I so much as touched his ears, still throwing up....AWFUL.)
But the train table was enough to give him a short reprieve and some play time! He played with it until he couldn't play any more, and we went to eat strata at Mom & Dad's for breakfast.
After breakfast, we came home and played a bit more with the train table before crawling into my bed to take a nice long nap and get some rest for Christmas dinner.

That evening, we arrived back to my parents house, finding my mama in the kitchen (my favorite thing!). She had set a beautiful table, all silver and white and made a truly gorgeous dinner. She served us delicious Cornish game hens, red potatoes and steamed veggies and yummy rolls. We drank champagne and laughed around the table. We talked about the Lord. We talked about each other. We had a wonderful time around the table. It was the best!

After dinner, it was time for presents! We gave Jack some Motrin and got him off the couch long enough to open some presents with us...

We were all blessed with some great gifts this year....

Little Man & his Little People Airport....

and a Palm Centro! (just kidding....it was trains in the box!)

Pop-Pop (as Jack calls him) and a new drill....

Chris even joined us via telephone! While he didn't have any presents under the tree, he had left one for me! We were all thankful to talk to him and have him somewhat present at Christmas.

A slinky! (the favorite gift of the night!)

A BIG! train filled with gingerbread...

Nikki with a sign she had loved....

Nana with her annual Little Man calendar...

Nikki loved the necklace I picked for her....

Deeda got some motorcycle parts....

Nana got a little bottle of champagne...

Hank got some new pillows!

Nikki got another accessory for her house....

Daddy got a new leather jacket...

Mom got an Iceman autographed basketball!

and I got "The Busy Mom's Bible" that I was dying for...

a pair of gloves and gorgeous new scarf (that go gorgeously with my new coat!)...

and Little Man got his very own tool bench...

a gorgeous Silpada necklace from Daddy C! (thanks Baby!)

an awesome, oh-so-me sign from Nikki...

and Nana & Deeda finished it off with a HUGE Tonka truck for Jack!

After all the presents were opened and the last of the gift wrap thrown out and all the gifts loaded up, we retreated to the kitchen for dessert and coffee! Mm mm...chocolate pie and pumpkin cheesecake and coffee...yum! We spent the rest of the evening in the kitchen, together, over pie and coffee.

The presents were great, but the presence of our family was the best gift of all this year.

Thanks for the merriest Christmas, family!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing You and Yours Peace this Christmas!

Love,
We Three Stewart's

All Aboard!

The Saturday after Jack's birthday, we threw him a birthday party that was all things train. Last year, the weather was beautiful for his party in our backyard, but this year would fail us. Epically fail us. As in, it snowed the day before, and never got above 35 degrees.

Luckily, our awesome friends and family didn't fail us, and all came out to play in the park in the cold. Sadly though, the weather put another kink in the train party plans, as the city shut down the train because of the weather!

Nonetheless, a great time was had by all!

The invitation, from Etsy seller Sugarcoat Paperie:
I loved the invitation SO much, the baker took it as a cue and made Jack a Train Ticket cake!
I am also completely in love with our city park and it's special play areas for kiddos of a younger age. As you can see, our best friend Davis,
and our great pal Eli,
and our birthday boy all thoroughly enjoyed it without any regard for the bitter cold!
The parents, however, were not without regard for the cold, so we hurried the party right along, kicking it off right by singing Happy Birthday to the little man!

We wasted no time cutting cake...
and Jack helped to serve the pieces....

that we then had to eat with our fingers because Mom forgot the forks! What's better than eating birthday cake? Eating it with your hands! (A funny sidenote: our friends Jake and Davis took up residence in front of the M & M's bowl and barely moved for the rest of the party! Such funny boys.)
Then we jumped right into opening the HUGE pile of presents our friends brought. Unlike last year, Jack caught onto the paper ripping right away this year, and boy did he have fun with it!
He dove right into every package....
with full force,
and amazed expressions!
He was an eager opener,
tearing tissue paper from the bags
and delighting in his treasures!
He was a maniac with the tissue paper, and I wish we'd recorded it!
He was two handing the paper out of the bags and throwing it into the air,
in search of the prizes waiting at the bottom.
It was probably one of the most joyful experiences of my life watching him open those gifts. He was so eager and excited, so surprised and delighted with each new find. I imagine it was one of the most joyful experiences of his life, thus far!

And we're SO very thankful for our wonderful family and friends who came out in spite of the cold to celebrate with Jack, and for gifting him an enormous amount of gifts (it's unreal, really, the generosity) and just for being present for Jack. He was an exceptionally happy boy that day, and we were exceptionally happy parents.