Daniel's First Christmas

This was the best Christmas ever! Having Daniel here, even though he had no idea it was Christmas, was so much fun. Daniel starting doing the army crawl during Christmas so had a lot of fun exploring the house. He loves the color red so he was in heaven. He crawled under the tree to get to the red tree skirt and he got a candy cane off the tree. Luckily we caught him before he got to the actual candy :) He actually opened one of his presents from his Grandma and Grandpa Epperson early so we had to re-wrap that one silly boy. Its lucky he's so cute and sweet...it makes it very hard to be too upset with him.

A few days before Christmas, my mom and I were busy wrapping presents and baking so we left Dan to play in the living room. After a few minutes, we both realized it was way too quiet. This is what I found in the living room. Dan had pulled the stockings down and had also unplugged the box of lights. He looked up at me and smiled and yes instead of fixing the situation, I ran and took a picture, he was just so pleased with himself :)

 It is a tradition in our family to leave cookies out for Santa (and milk of course). Josh and I have taken this picture every year since I can remember. This year I was so excited to have Daniel take the picture instead. It was fun to have Daniel take the picture and be part of the tradition.  After we took this picture we all went straight to bed to wait for Santa :) I was so excited for Daniel's first Christmas that I had trouble sleeping, he however slept all night without ever making a sound, such a good boy.

We always have to take the picture on the stairs together. At this point we're ready to go downstairs and see the tree. We aren't allowed to go into the living room until everyone is awake and ready.

Daniel was fascinated with the tree. We put him down and he started scooting right for the presents. He got to one and tore the bow right off. I think we could've just sat and watched him explore the tree for a few hours but we wanted to get on with the morning.

 

Daniel got some fun stuff right from the start in his stocking. I think he could've stopped right then and have been totally happy. We were able to open a few more presents but then we did stop and let our boy take a little nap. While Daniel took his morning nap, we ate our traditional coffee cake for breakfast. It was so yummy. I always eat two pieces because honestly I behave every other day of the year so this is the day I just go crazy and it was worth it. 

Once Daniel was awake, we were back at it :)

Daniel's favorite part of Christmas...playing with leftover wrapping paper and bows :)

Daniel had a great Christmas and was very spoiled by his wonderful grandparents and other family members. However, Mike and I were also very blessed this Christmas. We received many wonderful gifts. Mike surprised me by getting tickets to see Taylor Swift in June :) I'm super excited! Mike got lots of running gear and airplane models which will give him lots of stuff to do after stressful days at school.

After we opened everything and facetimed with Mike's family in Washington, Daniel seemed like he missed them. So we considered shipping him there to play ;)

We had a wonderful Christmas! We enjoyed spending time with family and especially getting to make so many wonderful memories with Daniel. Merry Christmas 2014 everyone!