Merry Christmas!

We had a very nice Christmas this year. One of the best things was that Jim did not have to work! When we woke up Christmas morning, we gave Jack a little breakfast (he never had dinner the night before because he fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner and never really woke up). Then we opened presents. First the stocking:Jack got lots of new books! Some of the books were about trucks and tractors and had wheels so you could drive them around. Next, we began opening presents. It was a lot more fun this year than last year since Jack knew what he was doing. The entire process took a lot longer than last year because Jack wanted to play with all the presents as he opened them. When we would take it from him and hand him another present to open, he would get upset (because we were taking this cool, new gift from him). He didn't actually open all of his presents on Christmas because we ran out of time.

Here is an example of how Jack opened each gift:

Unwrap

Examine

Examine some more

Examine further (while mom and dad are trying to encourage him to open another gift)

Hooray! I really like this!

Finally, moving on to the next gift. He liked to share the wrapping paper with me.

After opening presents at home we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where we opened more presents and enjoyed some good food.

Jack's cousins liked playing with his new toys, too!

This photo was taken immediately after Jack's cousins, Mimi, Katie, and Bridget, opened their gift from Grandma and Grandpa - a new Wii! We all had fun playing with it later.

Katie and Jack played hangman.

Jack with his cousins Katie, Bridget, and Mimi

Paul, Katie, Margaret, Bridget, and Mimi pose by the fireplace.

In the afternoon, we went to my aunt and uncle's for another Christmas celebration. Jack had fun playing with his second cousin, Joe.

Jack really liked to climb the stairs from the first floor all the way to the third floor!

Doesn't he look cute in this coat and hat that my older brother wore when he was little?

On Friday we went to the Magic House. Uncle Patrick and Aunt Ingrid gave Jack a membership for Christmas.

Our little Mozart

One of Jack's favorite things was this set of tubes with air flowing through them. You could put soft balls and scarves in the tubes and then change the direction the air flowed.

Truer words were never written:

The Kids' Construction Zone was fun. Jack got to turn on and off lights while sweeping (two of his favorite things at once)!

He also got to dig.

It was fun to sit in the loader.

Today, Jack colored a very pretty picture for Mommy. Jim and I were so impressed because he used a lot of colors and filled the entire paper. We were not so impressed later when we saw that he had decided the dining room walls needed a little green: