Christmas Recap

I know it's late, but here is a recap of our wonderful Christmas... As I mentioned before, it all started with our festival at church, and here is a picture I couldn't resist posting from Gideon's time in the petting zoo:



As a gift for Jason's side of the family, we finally got everyone together for a good old-fashioned Ryan family photo. (The first professional one they've had since, like, the 80's). It took hours, but we got some awesome shots. Here is one of the whole family:



And, while we were there, of course we had to take our annual Christmas photo:



His favorite words of the season were "Santa" (who he was never really afraid of, even when sitting on his lap), and "Tree!" which can only be said with an exclamation point. We had a tree at the top of the stairs, and downstairs in the living room, and every time we walked up or down the stairs, he would squeal, "Tree!" like he was seeing it for the first time. Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve, and even Gideon felt the anticipation of what was to come:



Christmas morning did not disappoint!



Gideon went straight to his huge train set, bypassing all of his other presents. Jason had to tear him away after awhile so he could discover that he actually had more under the tree. "Elmo!" he cried when he saw his big Elmo flip out couch. I think he thought it just magically appeared under the tree while he was playing with his train. He was truly excited about everything, and we knew that Santa had done a great job.



He played hard at Grandma and Granddad's house that afternoon before crashing for a much-needed post-yuletide nap.



But, he was up and running again at Nana and Papa's that night, excited to see cousins, eat junk food, and wear Brooke's Santa hat.



It was definitely an awesome Christmas, and as crazy as it was, it actually made me walk away thinking - now I can't wait for next Christmas!