Christmas and New Year's

Much to Eli's dismay, Josh went back to school today, and I took the Christmas tree down.  We all enjoyed the holiday season, especially Eli, who got a lot of "Daddy time."  I wanted to post some video footage of Christmas, but for some reason the cable from the video camera to the computer is not working too well right now.  Unfortunately, most of it was video, not pictures, so there's not a lot of visual.  You'll have to take my word for it--Eli loved it!

On Christmas Eve, we read some Christmas stories, including The Night Before Christmas, and re-enacted the nativity.  Since Eli loves pretending, he really enjoyed dressing up as Joseph, the shepherds, and one of the wise men (when you have a small family, you get lots of parts).  He also enjoyed writing a note to Santa and giving him a plate full of cookies.  Although, Eli is convinced that his Grandpa Grant is Santa, so he really just thought they were going to him. :-)

On Christmas morning, Eli was as excited as ever to open his stocking.  In fact, we could have ended right there and he would have been the happiest boy in the world.  He had read the book and watched the movie The Polar Express, so he kept asking for a bell from Santa.  He was quite pleased to get one in his stocking, and I was pleased to note that a bell, some Toy Story bubble bath, and pistachios are all that's required for big smiles and lots of excitement!

Of course, we opened the rest of the gifts too.  Each one was the best thing ever!  In fact, I think Eli was a little unsure of which to play with first, so we put his train sets away in the closet until we took them out yesterday.  That way his new-toy-playing experience wasn't so overwhelming. :-)

For New Year's Eve we had some sisters in the ward come over and play dominoes with us in the evening.  Josh and I aren't big on the late nights though, so we ushered in the new year an hour early so we could go to bed.  The next day we took Eli to his first "big" movie.  He'd only been to a theater one other time--on his birthday we took him to see the 3D whales movie at the science museum.  This was the first time he saw a full-length cartoon movie in the theater.  We watched Tangled, and we all thought it was a really good movie.  Okay, Josh and I probably enjoyed it a little more than Eli.  He liked it, but it didn't hold his interest as much as some other movies do (I'm thinking it was a little more "girly" than he likes).  He really enjoyed the preview for Cars 2, and we'll probably take him to the "big" theater for that when it comes out.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for Christmas gifts and cards.  We enjoyed them and hope you have a Happy New Year!