Christmas

Christmas was crazy and hectic and full of fun and Porter enjoyed every second of it! Unfortunately for us, Tommy had to work half day Christmas Eve, but was able to meet us at 1:00 for the annual Christmas Eve movie which was "The Princess and the Frog". After that we hurried home to help Ruth Ann prepare for the giant Adams Family Christmas Party that would host upwards of 70 plus people! Pure craziness!

After dinner, we were able to participate in one of my favorite traditions, taking our Sub-for-Santa to the family. We headed over to my mom's to do jammies with Porter and then loaded up the car with the gifts. We caught the tail end of their festivities with the Nativity and Christmas Program which Porter enthusiastically wanted to participate in requesting various songs (although Book of Mormon Stories and Popcorn Popping aren't traditonally Christmas, we humored him) Although we were exhausted by this time, my mom was overjoyed that we stopped by since Christmas Eve is the only real celebration in my family. Oh the complications of switching off and being fair to our families!
We like to stay anonymous with the Sub for Santa because it could be awkward especially because sometimes the family may know us, but I love the little glimpses you see into the family's Christmas. Sometimes you hear squeals of excitement, but I love the feeling of giving up some of what we have to help someone much less fortunate. It is very humbling to do your Christmas shopping after you have seen their list and they are requesting basic things like beds. It is hard to always work this drop off in on Christmas Eve and poor little Porter fell asleep before we got home, but I couldn't give it up.

We were "fortunate" (yes notice the quotations) enough to sleep at my parents Christmas Eve because it was pretty crowded at the LeBarons. So we tucked Porter in and went back upstairs to open the traditional one Christmas gift. And finally, we headed to bed to wait for Santa. After a rough night, we woke to find that Santa had indeed come! Porter was thrilled with every aspect of Christmas morning and insisted that he get to enjoy each gift for a good 10 minutes before we moved on. I love that little boy!After we finished opening gifts, we headed back to the LeBarons to help prepare for brunch, gifts, and finally dinner. Porter was down for a nap for most of it, but was excited to make his way up later to still find some cousins there. Christmas was wonderful but especially being pregnant, all the preparations and cleaning and festivities have left me feeling exhausted. Christmas was truly magical for Porter this year and I can't wait to have another child to share the magic of the season with.