Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I can't believe Christmas has come and gone again!  This whole month has flown by!  But we had a great Christmas here at the Raines household!  We had originally planned to go to Virginia for Christmas, but when things weren't great with my mom we spent a week in North Carolina, so we decided to enjoy Christmas here in Maryland (and spare my mom an unrestful Christmas...no one gets rest with a 2-year old!!!)

So it was a quiet and uneventful holiday for us...just the way we like it!

I was so excited to get to play Santa! Samuel didn't get a lot of gifts since we only do the 3 gift thing from St. Nick and one from us...but Samuel's great-grandparents asked us to pick up a couple things from them since they are all the way down in Virginia, so we did!  And then my dear friend Melissa sent Samuel a sit and spin, which we had let him open early since we thought we would be in Virginia...but we didn't!  I put it under the tree anyway! And to typical toddler fashion, Samuel played with it immediately when he woke up!  He's so funny!  And he got several nice stocking stuffers...so the boy made a pretty good haul!!!

Here's a few pictures from our Christmas!

Santa was here!

Merry Christmas Samuel!!!

How cute is this Gingerbread butt?

Daddy helped Samuel open his gifts...AND play with them!

Samuel didn't have a lot of interest in opening gifts! He slept until 8:30, we had breakfast, and it took us an hour to convince him to open a gift!

Eric trying to convince Samuel to open a stocking stuffer!

From Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa in Virginia...probably his favorite gift!!!  The sit and ride Giraffe from V-Tech!  He loved it!!! I knew he would when I ordered it!  It has buttons, it sings, it lights up...all of Samuel's favorite things!  And I got it on Amazon lightening sale for $15 shipped!  So I liked it a lot too!  Though my favorite feature when it arrived was that the box had a big yellow circle that says "Perfect for your Wild Child" Oh, they do know Samuel!

After opening this gift, Samuel had no interesting in opening anything else!  He played with this in it's box for 25 minutes!!!

We finally pried him away and convinced him to open a St. Nick gift! 

Crayola's Color me a song!  We knew Samuel would love it because of the buttons, the lights, the sounds, and he gets to draw!  His favorite!

We tried one more stocking stuffer (a toy for the bath tub)...but he wasn't game for it!

Almost ready for a Christmas meltdown!

Foot in stocking!  So we put the stocking away!

Instead we got him to open one more gift before church!  Another favorite! 

The Little People Race Track!

Samuel thought that the race track was a slide!  He was confused all day!!!

Eric showing him how to race the cars!

He caught on pretty quick after that!

Do you know how hard it is to pull a 2-year old away from his toys on Christmas morning???  REALLY HARD!  He didn't want to stop playing to go to church!  My coaxing, explaining, reminding him of the stories we read about celebrating the birth of Jesus held nothing to the meltdown that came when I had to put the race track away!

But look how cute this Christmas outfit is!

This was my best picture of Samuel in front of the Christmas Tree on Christmas morning!  He is a wild man!

A wild man who loves his mommy!

Playing until the very last second!

After church, it was back to the races...and abandoning opening any more Christmas gifts!  That's right...Samuel refused to open any more gifts!!!

Eric put together the V-Tech Giraffe!  Samuel didn't quite get the pedaling at first...but he's improved quickly!!!

And yes, that's right, he refused to wear pants to ride it! Diaper, socks, and a shirt...quite the fashion statement!

Samuel also got a pillow pet from his great-grandparents in Virginia!  All kids seem to enjoy them, but he opened his and was petrified of it!  It was a dragon!  Really cute...but he just didn't like it! 

Thankfully, after several hours he made up with the pillow pet!

So as of 10pm on December 26th, Samuel still has a few more stocking stuffers to open, a puzzle from St. Nick, and his gift from me and Eric...a powerwheels Jeep!  But he has no interest, and we aren't going to push him!  He is just so content playing with his toys!  We are so thankful for a little boy that doesn't require much in material toys!  I can't ever recall him asking for a toy at the store! Such a great kid!  Instead, he is great at pretend and loves to give hugs and kisses! 

While our Christmas wasn't fancy or overly exciting...it may have been my favorite one yet!  That is saying a lot because I loved Christmas as a kid...but there really is just something special about celebrating Christmas with your two-year old.  The squeals of delight, the excitement of wrapping paper and boxes, the hugs and kisses, and watching him play was such a joy!  I'll keep everyone posted on the rest of the gifts...if he ever gets around to them!