Smith Family Christmas 2012

If December 24th was Christmas for the Reed's, then that means that December 25th was Christmas for the Smith-Jacksons!! The two households do many things differently, but we look forward to all of the nuances that each home holds.

At the Smiths, the stockings get opened first, since Santa filled them and leaves them out on the couch for easy reaching. There is always a box of sugary cereal for each person, young and old. Jonah wasted no time in wanting to dig into his Lucky Charms. ("Mama, did you know this cereal has smarshmellows in it!")

Moments later, Cuz Noah got up and the boys compared their loot. Light up dolphin and whale toys, books, and pens with stamps! Santa also brought a special toy for each of them and their individual interests. An Angry Birds track for Noah and a new train, Rheneas, for Jonah. (Noah's love of Angry Birds has rubbed off on Jonah more than his love for trains has rubbed off on Noah, for sure!)

After breakfast we got into the task of opening the presents under the tree! We usually go from oldest to youngest, but with two 3-year-olds, we went youngest to oldest this year. (Thanks Pop Ro for giving up your spot!) Again, whenever it wasn't Jonah's turn to open a gift, he tried to be where the action was with someone else. Notice him hovering over Cuz Noah and over Auntie Bec.

Jonah got sweet gifts from his Texas cousins. All of them were train themed of course! He loved this wooden train that he got to decorate himself. He and Pop Ro spent quite a while painting and decorating it together. It was like 2 gifts in one!!

The two star gifts were by far Rusty and Owen. Jonah asked our elf Starry, to relay his request for Rusty the train to Santa, over and over again. Well, Santa came through (in the form of Cuz Noah, Auntie Bec and Uncle Kc)! He refers to Rusty as his favorite train an has not been without him since. Owen is a big incliner with a bunch of tracks beside. As soon as he was set up, we lost Jonah for the day.

After naps were had by many, we got a family picture before our traditional crab dinner. (Mmmm) I think the picture turned out pretty well, with two squirrelly little boys! ( I love that they are rockin fedoras, yet have bare feet.)

Reed Family Christmas 2012

On the 24th, we celebrated Christmas with the Reed's. This year, G.G. came a day early so Jonah (and we) got to have extra time with her. Those few extra hours made a world of difference and it felt like we got to spend some real time together because of it. I hope that becomes a new tradition :) We did have breakfast first thing that morning, but had to quickly move onto presents. Again...we do have a three year old, and he could read his name on the packages.

Here he is reading the letters J-O-N-A-H and realizing the present is for him.

 

It was a Very Thomas Christmas this year, and Jonah's face lit up every time he saw the face of that little train. And he saw it over and over again. After he got a Thomas book, he took a little break to have Daddy read it immediately.

 

 

Jonah also got Family season passes to Tweetsie Railroad (see past post for more on Tweetsie!) from Mimi, Pop Pop, Nana, Papa, and GG, for next summer. He has no idea what these pieces of paper symbolize, but he will be SO excited when summer comes!

When Jonah had to actually let another another person open a present, he came right along side them to help with the task.

 

 

Jonah got a Thomas bat and ball set, so after the presents were done Daddy and he headed outside to try them out. Jonah looks like he  has his mama's skills!!

 

 

 We tried to get a family photo to mark the day as a family. With a three year old. Just before naptime. This is what we got. (I actually kind of love them.)

 

 

After Christmas dinner, we took a drive to Cindy Lane to look at the Christmas lights. Jonah loved all the displays and kept asking to get out of the car. I'm thinking that next year we will be walking it, with hot cocoa in hand!

Cute Cousin Moments

Easily one of the best parts of being in Fresno is the amount of time that Jonah and his Cuz Noah get to spend together. Just about everyday they got to play and explore together. Even when it wasn't a holiday or when we weren't taking a family field trip, they found things to do together.

As is our tradition, Nana got the boys matching "jambos" to wear. At first they weren't really into posing, but after the promise of treats they snapped to it! Ahhh, just look at that love!

 

 

A couple of three year old boys have a ton of energy, so a trip to the park needed to happen. They pushed each other, figuratively and literally at times, to do the big boy things like the big slides.

 

 

They both found the tree interesting, with all of it's lights and ornaments. (Don't worry, breakable ones were up top!) I personally love the picture where it looks like Jonah is explaining something to Noah. What could they be talking about??