Ridiculously long Christmas post

David had a blast this Christmas. We kicked things off Christmas Eve with the arrival of Grandmama, Granddaddy, Uncle Adams and Ashley, whom we promptly ditched for a brunch with friends from my residency. We got to see our friends Katy, Will and Jack who moved to New York after we finished at Loyola, as well as a bunch of friends from closer to home. The kids had a great time playing together and decorating gingerbread cookies.

David, Gus, Jack and Maya decorating cookies.

The Loyola crowd: Lisa & Katie, Katy & Jack, me & David, Christy with Gus & Eli, Nicole & Maya.

David enjoying his cookie on the way home.

We headed home in the early afternoon for a quick change before leaving for party #2 at Kevin's Uncle Paul and Aunt Joan's house. David got to meet some family there for the first time. He had fun playing pool with Joey and Jonathan (see below). Surprisingly, no fingers were smashed in the making of that photo. Santa visited the kids. David was brave enough to get his present from Santa but immediately backed away and refused an individual photo with him. David enjoyed opening his presents but had just as much fun assisting with other people's gifts.

David playing pool. David with Hailey, Joey and Jonathan. The 3 of us with Santa.

David opening presents and then rearranging Melanie's stack.

David came downstairs Christmas morning and made a beeline for his new car. It's pretty awesome that Santa has a connection at Radio Flyer. He spent most of the morning sitting in his car and opened his presents from the driver's seat. We went to church at 10:00 (David still in his pajamas), and David had his new dump truck from cousin Susan blessed. Everyone needs a holy dump truck. When we got home, he helped us prepare for the big crowd coming over in the afternoon. He and his Grandmama LaBorde were in charge of dessert, and they did an excellent job on the peppermint pies.

We had about 20 people at our house on Christmas evening. It was a lot of fun but an absolute mad house. I'm pretty sure there are still people in my basement opening presents right now. I would like to commend my brother and Ashley for surviving two extended nights of family fun.

David loving his new car.

Preparing the oreo crust with Grandmama

We had a lazy day the day after Christmas but eventually got it together for a trip to the lights at the zoo and dinner at the Ale House. David also opened a couple more gifts, including a superfun train set from his LaBorde grandparents, and spent time enjoying his other presents. He breakfasted with the cars from great aunt Vic and John and alternated chewing on his new stethoscope with using it as a phone.

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry where David learned all about tractors, trains and various other things that go.

Here we are in a big tractor and David sitting in the wheel. David helping Granddad with his computer-based learning.

Today Kevin dropped the Columbia crowd off at O'Hare, and now we have nothing planned other than to watch the Bears and begin to clean up our very big Christmas mess. As I mentioned in the last post, David is all about enjoying each gift, and so we still have about 6 more presents under the tree for him to open when he gets around to it. We hope that the 4 of you out there reading this blog had a joyful, peaceful holiday, and we wish you all the best in 2009.