Macario's First Christmas!

We believe that the most important thing to remember about Christmas is that it is a celebration of Christ's First Coming. Aaron and I want to keep the celebration of Christmas alive in our family all year long by remembering that Christ comes into our lives everyday. The blessing of our son, our continued health and wellness as well as that of our loved ones, the challenges we face and the lessons we learn from them are all examples of how He is always present in our lives.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, I awoke to my boys smiling lovingly at one another and the three of us snuggled as we savored the warmth of our safe, cozy bed. To be able to share beautiful moments like that is the greatest gift we have ever been given.

Since we were going to be spending Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with Aaron's family, we decided to share our own little Christmas at home before the weekend. Aaron and I watched as Macario opened the gifts we bought for him. Some of the gifts are things he needed which we already began using, so I printed pictures of the items and taped them to boxes which I wrapped so that he'd have something to open.

 

 

Macario giving Daddy his gift.

We also talked about the values we hope to instill in our son and how our celebrations will fit in with those values. Talking about those things reminded me of how blessed we have been in our lives and how much I love my son and husband (not that I needed much reminding).

As I mentioned before, we spent Christmas Eve with my family. I was so busy visiting and hanging out that I got very few pictures from the day which makes me really sad. Here are a few that I did capture.

Macario had his first candy cane and also had a great time playing with his cousins. My little cousins Isaac (5) and Sammy (2) are always excited to see "Mac." It goes both ways because he is always very excited to see them too. The boys were making him laugh as they showed him toys and jumped up and down for his entertainment. For some reason he gets a kick out of seeing people jump. As a matter of fact, I found myself doing it this morning. Anything for a smile!

My other little cousin, Emilio (also 2) was there as well sharing his toys with Macario and giving him lots of love. It was really sweet and so much fun.

We changed up the tradition of waiting until midnight to open gifts because I did not want to keep Macario out that late. I think my dad was a little sad about that because he has always tried to get us to wait until Christmas Day, but he didn't say much about it. He just left his gifts wrapped and said he'd open them in the morning.

Because we were going to be heading out again the next day, I decided to get all of Macario's gifts, assembled and cleaned off and his clothes in the wash as soon as we got home so that I wouldn't have a huge pile the next day.

When he woke up on Christmas morning, he played with the new toys he got from my parents and wore the outfit my brother got for him.

Activity table from Grandma Yolly and backpack from Auntie/Nina

 

Wearing his new outfit from Uncle Miguel

We headed off early Christmas morning and met up with Aaron's family to visit his grandmother. I was going to be making Christmas dinner for everyone, so we headed back so that I could get that started. As soon as we were all present we exchanged gifts. Macario got some new clothes from his grandma and an awesome 49 jersey from his nino. He also got a really nice 49er bib from his Uncle Lalo and Aunt Mari which I was excited about because he's outgrown his other 49er bibs!

Everyone enjoyed the dinner I prepared which always makes me happy and we had a nice time talking and visiting with each other.

Macario and Lalito playing in the pack 'n' play

12/26 - Wearing his new outfit from Aaron's mom and playing with his new xylophone

Our good friends, The Placencias, had gifts for Macario and our nephew Angelo, so we stopped off at their house on our way home Christmas evening.

My office was closed yesterday (Monday), so I had a chance to get the house cleaned up. I know most people probably spent the day clearing out the holiday decor and junking the trees, but I'll keep that stuff out until after New Years. I'm just not ready to put the holidays behind us yet!