Merry Christmas!!

I cannot believe that Christmas is over! I always hate to see Christmas end as it's my favorite time of year. It was even more so this year with the arrival of our best present, Mason! I also can't believe he is 5 weeks old already! Here is our monthly picture of Mason with Big Bird:

Mason at one month old

We did end up having a "white Christmas" this year! Matt and Zane decided to head outside on Christmas Eve and play/work in the snow. Here is Zane "moving snow"

We got ready and headed to church Wednesday evening. It was packed, and was a very nice service. It felt so cozy being there as a family of four! Afterwards, we drove around looking for a place that was open for us to eat supper...and ended up at Chili's. We then headed home to get ready for Santa's visit! We set out took baths, put on the boys' matching pj's, and set out some milk and cookies for Santa. It was very easy getting Zane to bed Wednesday night!

Thursday morning, Zane woke up about 7:00. He must have forgotten about it being Christmas, because he came directly into our room like normal. We were able to keep him contained for awhile so we could feed Mason before heading downstairs. As soon as he looked at the tree and saw the Santa bags, he said "Oh, those are like Jo's house." (They were the red bags "Santa" brought to the kids at Jo's). He was very excited and wanted to get started right away...but we made him pose for some pictures first! Aaron and Michele were able to come to our house to spend the morning watching Zane open his presents. It was nice to have them here and I think they enjoyed it as well!

Zane & Mason on Christmas morning

"I wanted this!"

Our tree before opening presents...

...and after!

After we opened all of our gifts, we got ready, packed, and headed for Iowa. We went to my mom and dad's house to have Christmas with them. We had fun playing wii bowling, eating, opening gifts, and just spending time together. Here are a few pictures from their house:

Zane bowling!

"Little Santa"

Grandma Hammer, Mason, Grandpa Hammer, Zane
Zane with his horse & cowboy boots!

Friday we had Christmas with Matt's mom's side (Papa/Gaga Ee-ah) All but one of the grandkids were there, so it was a full house! Once again, we had way too much food, but we had a great day! We ate, played games, opened presents, and had a wonderful time together.

Zane showing Papa how to play Leapster

The Beggs grandkids

The Beggs siblings

Mason during present opening

Zane & Keaton pretending to pout!

Zane & Keaton jumping over the "river"

Saturday we woke up to ice covering everything! We were afraid that we wouldn't be able to go to Des. Moines for my Dad's side Christmas, but luckily it wasn't that bad. We packed up and headed to Des. Moines for that one around 1:00. My dad has 7 brothers and sisters, so we have a lot of family members. We always have this Christmas in a hotel. This year there were 63 people there. It was nice to see everyone and catch up on the happenings of the last year. Zane's favorite part was the swimming pool! I was looking forward to the hot tub, but unfortunately the heater on it wasn't working, so it was a cold tub! At this Christmas we bring a grab bag gift that starts with a certain letter...this year was "h." It's always interesting to see how creative everyone is and the variety of gifts that are brought!

Zane & Matt in the pool

Sunday was our last Christmas gathering of 2008! We headed to my mom's parents. The whole family was able to be there, so we were very glad for that. It was the first time they all met Mason, so he was not put down the whole day! At this Christmas we exchange a White Elephant gift. There wasn't a lot of stealing going on, but there WERE a lot of interesting gifts! It was so fun to see everyone again. We would love to get together more often!

Grandma meeting Mason

Grandma, Mason, Zane, Grandpa

As busy as we were, the boys handled Christmas week/weekend VERY WELL! Mason met a lot of new family members and was held a lot, but that didn't seem to bother him! Luckily he still slept like normal at night, so he wasn't too out of sync! This week is my last week off (boo hoo) so I'm trying to savor each moment with my boys! Zane will be able to go preschool tomorrow, but the rest of the week I'm home with both of them. I posted a lot more pictures to Flickr, so check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerbunch/. We hope you had a great Christmas!!!

The World According to Zane

• This whole week we've been telling Zane that Santa was watching him. One day he said to Matt, "Santa is watching you Dad. I good boy, see...

• Lately when Mason cries, Zane will go up to him, pat him on his tummy, and say "It okay Mason, I right here...

• Zane wants Mason to look at him, so to get his attention, he'll say "Mason, over here!
• Tuesday night after Zane was at preschool, we were eating supper and asking him about his day. Matt asked him what he had for lunch and he said "Carrots. Broccoli." Then he said "I no have lunch box, Dad." We didn't know what he was talking about, so Matt went to look at the lunch calendar on the refrigerator. On there, it said "Please bring a lunch and drink today." We felt TERRIBLE that we didn't read that in advance and didn't send Zane with a lunch. Can't you just see the teachers telling the kids to get their lunches and little Zane hunching his shoulders over saying "I not have a lunch..." with a little pout? We definitely earned "Parents of the Year" for that! Lucky for us Zane has great teachers who probably gave him part of their own lunch! They never said a word to us! Guess what...today we went shopping for a lunch box for Zane!