our christmas holiday season usually starts the second thanksgiving is over. sometimes before, depending on how motivated i am to get our christmas decorations up. this christmas got its start at our ward christams party. i wasn't aware that santa would be making an appearance, and when i found out i probably should not have reacted the way i did. in my defense, though, richard reacted the exact same way. yes, marty boy had very recently been scared to death by chuck e. cheese, but for some reason we felt it was important to traumatize him further by taking a photo on santa/spencer bowman's lap. the very second that spencer walked into the gym in that costume, marty lost it. we didn't let that stop us. we just forced everyone to let us be the first family to take pictures so that we could leave with him right after. looking back, i'm not thrilled that we did it. i think this is our only real "mean mom and dad" moment, and my goal is to not do it again any time soon. richard is completely on board. even though we did get a couple of funny pictures out of it.
we really didn't spend a lot of time outside when it was snowy, but i did bundle up my little monster baby to help me deliver christmas cards to our neighborhood friends.
the night before we left to spend christmas in st. george with the smiths, we got together at my parents' house to make our traditional graham cracker houses. i took notes on chelsea's past houses and loaded up the inside of mine with the candy i really wanted to eat. i was also reprimanded by chow for using too many orange sticks. she actually said to my mom, "see, i told you!" so apparently they talk about my chocolate hoarding behind my back. i. do. not. care.
riard's house collapsed. i think he was a little disappointed, but not enough to scrap it. he was after the candy this year, too.
marty got new jammies and snuggles from grandpa, so it was a good night for him, too.
as much as i missed being with the porter side for the holiday, i have to admit that i really enjoyed our time in st. george. we played lots of pickle ball, and spent quite a bit of time at the park. the weather was fabulous, so we just wanted to be outside as much as possible. parents of the year award went to richard and i when we found marty slurping up melted snow off of the ground in the corner of the pickle ball courts. we just want to make sure that his immune system is good and strong. clearly it is.
we could have withheld all presents from this boy and he wouldn't have cared for a second. this giant bear at grandma and grandpa smith's house was just about the greatest thing he'd ever seen. he laid on it and hugged it every five minutes, all week long.
marty boy had a rough couple of nights at the beginning of our stay. on christmas eve, he wet through his diaper and none of us slept well at all. luckily just the sight of this little stinker puts us both in a better mood. even when the less-better mood is because of him. parenthood is complicated. did anybody tell us this before we were parents?
we felt pretty bad that it was taking the boy awhile to warm up to liz, so we caved and let him have cinnamon rolls with everyone on christmas morning. and grandma got to feed them to him. the warming up went lots better after that.
the presents were good all around. richard got me a book, some new running shoes for weber in motion coming up, and other good things. i gave him some stickygram magnets made from our instagram photos for him to put in his new office, a picture with maps of our favorite trips, and other good things. but the best part of it all was watching marty have fun that morning. fun with his toys, fun with the wrapping paper and boxes, and fun with richard's side of our family. christmas is so different with a kid, but i think it's a better kind of different.
more time outside called for a walk to the duck pond with grandma and grandpa. i went to begin with, but ended up leaving the three of them alone to do some bonding.
i don't think he missed me at all.
some of our time was also spent doing our new workout program: focus t25. it is a beach body product, and i got sucked into doing a challenge group that an old friend was leading on facebook. i even signed up to be a beach body coach (which fizzled quickly, just like i knew it would). however, the workout program hasn't fizzled for me at all! richard even got on board for a little while. i seriously think i'm in better shape now than before i had marty boy. they are only 25 minutes long, but they are hard. i love them! richard got austin to do some work outs with him, and liz even did one, too! austin even got us the bonus package of dvd's to keep us going strong. it is my soul-mate of workouts.
i came out of rook retirement. and it didn't even kill me.
dale took us all to austin's favorite sandwich place before we left to come back north. so we got to stuff our faces together one last time.
when we got home, my mom delivered all of the gifts that she gathered from family members while we were away. again, the best part of opening them was watching marty, who struck christmas gold! he got a couple of sound-making books that he still reads multiple times a day, super cute jammies, and a snoopy dog that he probably loves more than me. we tried to get him to pose with all of his gifts for a picture to send to everyone to say thanks, and it wasn't easy, so this is what we ended up with. this is the best one.
and speaking of the best of things, i know that last christmas was one-of-a-kind because we'd just had marty boy and it was our first as our little family, but this is right up there with that one in the rankings. being a parent is complicated, but it is the very best thing in the world. it makes all of our experiences with him the best we've ever had. so yes, it is mid-may as i sit and write about our christmas, but not because it wasn't worth writing about. because it most definitely was.
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