A Very Merry Christmas!

What a special Christmas this was for our little family! We had a blast celebrating the season with our little guy. Christmas is my favorite time of year and it was so fun having a little one to share in our traditions...

We took Mason to meet Santa earlier in the month and Mason was an absolute angel.  Brent even made two trips to the Millenia Mall (our first attempt to see Santa was a no-go due to the 3.5 hr estimated wait!) - If you know my husband, you know he doesn't do malls!  We ended up waiting about 45 minutes and Mason loved Santa - especially his white beard and red coat!

On December 18, we had the annual Brown family Christmas dinner. It is one of my favorite traditions! We grew up together so it is always wonderful to have all the cousins together - with Ryan in Jacksonville (law school), Alyssa in Tallahassee (FSU) and Abbey at Auburn, it seems these get togethers don't happen as often as they should! We always have a blast when we are all together - although I have to admit, this year it was much more tame (no beer pong or dance parties)! We had LOTS to celebrate this year - Ryan finished up his last semester in law school and is preparing for the Bar in February (he hopes to move to DC shortly thereafter), Ansley finished up her last semester at UCF where she is getting the undergrad creds she needs in order to go to med school, we welcomed Mike to the family, and, of course, Mason! 

We kicked off the Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve with Brent's dad, stepmother and brother (Bryan).  They came over and we enjoyed a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers before mass. Mason loved seeing his grandparents!

Then Brent, Bryan, Mason and I cooked a nice dinner, watched Home Alone then went off to 9pm mass.  I was hoping Mason would sleep through mass (since his normal bedtime is 830/9ish. But that of course didn't happen with everyone passing him around during mass.  At one point we swore he was going to end up on the other end of the pew!!  

Since Mason didn't go to bed until around 11pm (!) on Christmas Eve, we slept in a little Christmas morning.  We woke up around 9am and did Christmas at our house.  Mason got LOTS of presents from Santa!! He got a stuffed deer from Bass Pro Shop (Guess who picked that one out...), a kick and play piano, Sophie the Giraffe, lots of clothes.  But his favorite by far is his Baby Einstein jumparoo!  

We spent the rest of Christmas morning at my parents house and the evening at Brent's mom's.  It was a busy day but we enjoyed every second!