I'll divide our Christmas festivities into two posts since there are so many pictures. This was quite possibly our last Christmas all on our own, far away from any family. Luckily Jared's program ended up unexpectedly giving him Christmas Day off, but he had to work a 30-hr shift early the morning after Christmas (Saturday into Sunday) so we wouldn't have been able to drive anywhere for Christmas. The end of this stage of our life has felt so far off for 7 years, and now we're having our lasts. Last Christmas of training, and it was perfect.
On Christmas Eve, we opened these cute matching Christmas pajamas from my Grandma Roper. Jack was so excited that "Nana" got them for us, and he immediately wanted Savvy in matching pajamas too. We found an old red shirt in the back of Jared's closet and that did the trick.
Last time we stayed in Casper for Christmas we got Papa John's pizza on Christmas Eve, so I knew I wanted to make sure we did that again. I cook a nicer meal on Christmas Day so I figure an easy Christmas Eve dinner is a good thing. We ventured into town wearing our pajamas. There's a park across the street from the hospital that is decked out for Christmas. I made us get out of the car to walk around and enjoy the lights, and I'm so glad I did because right as we got out a light show started and we enjoyed music and twinkling lights the whole time we were there. Jack loved swinging and running in circles around the nativity.
We drove around town for a while finding the best Christmas light displays, and then we grabbed our pizza on the way home.
Jack was very tired by this point. There was still so much I wanted to do--watch a Christmas show, read the nativity, and sing Christmas songs--but I could tell Jack only had maybe 20 minutes left in him so I had the brilliant idea of combining all 3 and turning on A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's short, there are several Christmas songs, and Linus reads the nativity scripture at the end. Perfect.
After the movie Jack and Jared put out Oreos and milk for Santa. Jack thought the reindeer would appreciate some graham crackers, so those went on the plate too. It was so fun to have Jack be old enough to get really excited about the Christmas things this year! Jack ended up eating 2 of Santa's 3 Oreos off his plate after I put it by the tree, but Santa gets cookies at every house so I figured he wouldn't mind being shorted this time.
And that was our magical Christmas Even with Toddler Jack! After he went to sleep we turned on Muppet Christmas Carol and set up the gift piles and cleaned the house. The Christmas magic must be creeping back into my life because I lay in bed unable to fall asleep for hours. That might have something to do with Jared snoring and Savvy scratching to go outside at 1 a.m. Next year I'll take a melatonin on Christmas Eve and invest in some better noise-canceling earplugs.
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