Baby Life Week 26: Christmas Upon Us

After weeks of preparing, Christmas is finally upon us.  During Asher's 26th week, we celebrated at home and up North, alone and with friends and family.  It was a memorable week with my favorite boys.

On Saturday (Dec. 22), we woke up and had our own family Christmas morning at home, just the four of us, complete with family prayer time, gifts and Alabama Christmas playing softly in the background.

Our Christmas tree.

Our family.

Asher got to open the first present, and then Emma got hers.  We bought her favorite squeaky tennis balls for her about a week or two prior to this.  When we brought them in the house, we had to keep hiding them around the house, because she kept finding them.  Thus, we gave them to her right at the beginning so that she could finally have them, and we could open our other gifts in peace.

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Once Emma had finished opening her gift, we continued by opening ours...

Asher got this little book in his stocking (from the Dollar Store)...he LOVES to chew on it!

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Asher & Daddy opening our gift from him.

He made us an ornament! :)

Eric got this "SuperDaddy" shirt from Asher for Christmas.

About mid way through present-opening, Asher needed a little breakfast/nap break.

Asher gave me 2 books.  This one was called "Before I was Born".  It is a cute book that shows how Mommy & Baby grew during my pregnancy.

Asher with his very first cell phone...hopefully he won't have a real one until he is a teenager...and has a job!

When everything had been opened, there was one gift left under the tree that looked different than all the others...it was from Santa!  :)

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After we had finished opening our gifts, we cleaned up, loaded up the van and then headed up North to Mom & Dad's house for the long Christmas weekend.  We got there in time for dinner on Saturday evening.  Then on Sunday morning, we cleaned up and headed over to church.

After church, Asher rooted for the Packers with Papa & Uncle Aaron, while Mommy took a nap! :)

On Sunday night, Dad's family came over to the house to celebrate Klingenmaier Family Christmas.

Rachel playing with Asher.

Grandma helping Asher open a gift from Uncle Richard & Aunt Lisa.

The boys playing with their new toys...of course the box was the best part!

On Monday, it was Christmas Eve.  Mom had to work a half day, so we had a lazy morning at home and then headed over to the Eichhorn's house to visit with Kris, Dale, the kids and Jamie.  It was great to see them all and catch up.

Papa with the boys. 

That evening, we went back to church for Christmas Eve service.  The service was very nice, but a little hard to sit through compared to previous Christmas Eve services...church is definitely different now that we have a little one.  At the beginning of the service, Caleb fell off his church and was crying.  Then, Asher decided to load his diaper and leaked all over himself and Grandma.  Then Micah and Caleb were both getting very antsy (along with all of the other kids in the sanctuary)...it is tough for the little ones to sit still for so long.  

As I was sitting through all of this, I couldn't help but think about something my friend Jamie Palmer had recently said.  He told me how he had taken his family (wife & 3 kids) to a live manger scene recently.  When the pastor gave his sermon, one of his kids started to cry and act up.  After his wife took the kid outside to keep the peace inside & allow others to hear the pastor, another child started to cry.  It was then that he began to wonder if Satan ever uses moments like that to distract us from what God wants us to hear.  Since Dad and I were supposed to sing a duet at the end of the service (Christmas Offering by Casting Crowns), I began to pray that God would not allow everything going on to distract us (or those listening to our duet) from the meaning of the song.  I prayed that God would use us to speak to everyone's hearts.  When it came time for us to sing, we got up on the stage and waited for the music to begin.  Then we waited, waited and waited some more, only to find out that the CD that Dad had made of the recording we intended to use was not working.  Pastor Gary had the congregation sing the closing hymn while we figured out what was going on and if we could get the music to play.  We ended up getting another track to work, but it was not in the key that we had practiced, so we had no idea how it would go.  When we got back up on the stage, I explained all of these thoughts to the congregation, and that my prayer was for them to listen to the words and focus on the meaning of Christmas, the baby that was born to save us all, and the offerings of praise and worship that He deserves.  The song ended up going very well.  Afterwards, Pastor Gary mentioned that maybe everything happened the way it did so that our song and message could be the last thing everyone heard before they left.  Not only that, but the song we chose tied in perfectly to the message that Pastor Gary gave.  It was so perfectly themed, that when my Dad told him earlier what we were planning to sing, Pastor Gary almost started to cry...God and His timing are SO perfect!!

After the Christmas Eve service, we headed over to Aunt Carol's to celebrate with more family.  While we were there, we tried to get a picture of the boys dressed in their matching shirts.  Getting an almost 6 month old, almost 19 month old, and almost 3 year old to sit still for a picture is VERY difficult!  ...Warning there are a lot of pictures int he following series, but together I think they're pretty funny! :)

After the photo shoot, the boys were each given a gift from Aunt Carol & Uncle Joe.  They each got a John Deere gift...appropriate, I think ! :)

Next, we could not leave the party without introducing Asher to baby Mickelson.  :)

When we got home from the party, we took a moment for a few more pictures of Asher on his first Christmas Eve with Mom & Dad's tree.

The next day, we woke up to Asher's first Christmas...but that will require a post of its own.  After that (Dec. 26), we spent a little more lazy time at Mom & Dad's and then packed to head back to Kenosha.  While we were packing up, Caleb was "eating" pickles.  When he asked for another, and I saw that he was already holding a whole pickle, I told Erika that I think he just licks the juice off the pickle and doesn't care to actually eat them.  Thus, Erika gave him a cup of pickle juice and sure enough, he drank it and liked it! :)  Gross!

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On Thursday and Friday (Dec. 27 & 28), Asher's daycare was still closed for Christmas break, so Eric stayed home with him while I headed back to work.  We were not sure how it was going to go since Asher really still only takes a bottle at daycare.  On Thursday morning I was told that Asher did good and took a small bottle.  In the afternoon, however, he apparently had enough and according to Eric, threw the biggest fit ever!  Friday, thankfully, went much better and Asher took a couple of bottles pretty well.  I think Daddy is a little less jealous of my Wednesdays off with Asher now though! :)