Christmas Day 2010

Christmas day went by so fast! We had a lot to do in a very short amount of time! This year, we stayed at our house on Christmas Eve. Since Cooper is starting to understand about Santa, we wanted to be at our house and it got to be somewhat cumbersome last year taking all our gifts down to Tuscaloosa and then bringing them back plus all the gifts we got from our family. There just wouldn't be room in the car!

We got up Christmas morning about 7:30 and got Cooper out of bed. We walked into the den and Cooper was in just awe of all the wrapped presents! Wes & I pointed out the half eaten cookies and empty milk glass. Santa & the reindeer enjoyed their snacks!

Cooper could recognize Santa this year and knew who he was, but I don't think she got the whole Santa comes to my house and brings me toys thing. And, I don't think she really cared how they got there at that point, all she wanted to do was rip open the packaging! She had so much fun tearing off the paper and didn't really want to stop to see what was actually inside the boxes.

Santa brought Cooper an Elmo, finger paint, coloring book and cute coloring case that was painted with her name, a Fur Real kitty cat (that i thought she would LOVE, but she hasn't played with at all), Elmo DVDs, medical kit, a big girl potty book, pearl bracelet and bug glove puppets. Mommy & Daddy gave her some play makeup from Mini Play Makeup that she absolutely loves!

I had high hopes of making a big breakfast on Christmas morning, but there was no time for that. Luckily, I had made some sausage balls earlier in the week, so we warmed those in the microwave and ate them in the car on the way down to Tuscaloosa! We had to be at Grandma's by 10:00! The Thomas family has gotten so big over the last several years, we barely fit in Grandma's living room!

Showing Papa John her bracelet

Cooper, David & Griffin

Brian & Cooper



Playing with her favorite toy

 After opening presents and eating Amish pastries at Grandmas, we rushed over to Nanny & Papa's house. Again, the family has gotten so big over the last several years, we really don't fit in Nanny's house! And, the whole family wasn't even there. Cooper loves her cousins Summer, Anna & Erin and had so much fun playing with them on Christmas Day. Mostly is was a lot of squealing!

Cooper & Summer

All the family

Nanny & Papa

We stayed and visited at Nanny & Papa's a few hours, but by 3:00, Cooper was getting very ill. It was 3 hours past her regular nap time. After Cooper threw a nice fit for everyone, we decided it was time to go! We still had to go back to my Mom & Dads to do our Christmas together. Cooper fell asleep in the car and we tried to get her to go back to sleep at Bebe & Papa Johns, but we had no luck. So, she ended up napping for a whole 15 minutes on Christmas day! After laying in the bed with me and just resting for a while, we got up and opened more presents! She did really well the rest of the day considering she had basically no nap.

Although Cooper was behaving well, we couldn't get her to take a picture with her grandparents. About 7:00 we packed up Wes's truck and headed back to Birmingham. We had such a fun Christmas! On the way home, Wes made the comment that he felt like we spent more time in the car driving from house to house than we did actually being with our families. We may need to revisit our Christmas routine and find a way to slow down and be able to spend more time with our families. Maybe we need to stretch out Christmas for a whole week!