Elser Family Christmas

Better late than never, right?

2011 was an absolutely wonderful Christmas for our little family of three.  In fact, Drew & I declared it quite possibly the best one ever. We both went to bed on Christmas Eve so excited for Santa's arrival the next morning you would have thought we were kids ourselves! 

Jackson was at such a fun age.  We were able to introduce some new traditions this year, like our Advent Calendar and he had an even better understanding of some old traditions, like The Elf and Santa Clause.

We also got to spend the holiday with both sides of the family.  Drew's folks spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us and my parents visited the next weekend.  We had gifts galore, scrumptious food, one very excited three-year-old and loved ones to share it with.  Absolutely perfect.

Despite it being the end of March already, since I don't want this Christmas to go undocumented on The Elser 411, or in the books that it will later become, without further adieu I give you The Elser Family Christmas!

First, some decor shots (that I will undoubtedly reference in about 8 1/2 months - yikes!! - when we do this all over again):

Living Room

Oh Christmas Tree

Presents!

Mantle

Dining Room Table

Treats!

I couldn't resist snapping this picture of the Elf one morning.  He had moved to a new spot the night before after making a quick trip to the North Pole to visit Santa Clause.  Fortunately, Jackson was oblivious to the ironic and not so G Rated position the Elf had put himself in (by pure accident I might add).  The humor of this unfortunately accident; however, was not lost on his father who needless to say was laughing hysterically! 

We thought there were lots of presents under our tree.  But then Gram & Grump arrived and everything multiplied.  So much so we had to give them their own corner of the living room!



Jackson chose some cookies to set out for Santa.  It must have worked, because he sure brought a haul!

Cookies for Santa

Here is a video of Christmas morning.  Much to our surprise, and completely out of character, Jack did not wake up at the crack of dawn.  I, on the other hand, was wide awake with anticipation by 5:30 am while Jack slept until 7:30 and seemed to have fogotten all about Santa's arrival.  He came around the corner eager to look for the Elf who was living atop the Christmas Tree the night before only to find Santa had been there instead!

Santa brought a tool set, Jayhawk pillow pet, flashcards, a slinky, Thomas the Train cars,
golf accessories and a new set of golf clubs.  Wow!

Santa even stopped at Alvamar and picked up Jack's bag tag for him!

Handy Man

After a yummy breakfast and some quick freshening up we went to town on the rest of the presents.

Train set from Gram & Grump

Checking out "Super J" from Mom & Dad

Kid safe headphones.  Best.  Purchase.  Ever.

Daddy got in on the golf action, too.

This was a pretty comical series of events.  The last present of the day for Jackson was a Chiefs uniform from Gram & Grump.  He loved it, but quickly became irritated with the built in shoulder pads - which led to a near melt down.  Instead of throwing a full on tantrum, he just laid down on the floor right in the midst of the Christmas chaos.  Fortunately, after his self-imposed time-out, he recovered quickly and everything was normal again.

I want these shoulder pads outta here!

And right in the midst of it all...someone needed a break. 

All better now

For some reason I didn't think to snap pictures of our Christmas dinner. It was my first solo attempt at a prime rib and all in all I would say it was a success.  As usual, there was way too much food and everyone was pretty stuffed by the end. 

The day ended with my guys modeling one of their gifts from me - matching PJ's - that to this day are one of Jack's favorite things.  There's not much he loves more that being "twins" with his Daddy!

Shaking their booties

Twins!

And just when it seemed Christmas 2012 was put to bed, we got to do it all over again! Nana & Papa arrived the following weekend and the presents under the tree multiplied again!

Even more presents!

Here are the highlights of our second celebration:


Pitching machine from Aunt Nikki



Power tools!

Safety first  :)

Drew was super pumped to get the 2nd edition of P90X.

Nana was testing Jack's new suitcase - perfect for pulling little people through the airport!

Jackson gave Nana & Papa some original artwork to add to their collection.

The coveted Woody.

Hmmm...I think I see a resemblance.

Nana & Jack are movie buddies.  Notice Woody got in on the action, too.  They're sidekicks now.

Playing with Widgets the next morning.

And that concludes the longest, most image-heavy post The Elser 411 has ever featured.  You can stop pretending it's still December now and I can finally check the Christmas re-cap off my (three-months late) to-do list.  Whew.

Now...back to Spring!