The Christmas season begins...

The weekend after we got our lovely tree, my family gathered for a holiday celebration. A little early, but there's never a bad time to get together, eat, and exchange gifts. Greyson looooves his Uncle Mike, Aunt Jenny, and of course Jo and Pops. He asks about them all the time and was very excited to see them. He was still napping when his Aunt and Uncle arrived, but soon joined us in the kitchen for the Christmas hors d'oeuvres feast. Uncle Mike even ditched his diet for the night, we had such an awesome spread!

Greyson's gift from Jo and Pops was revealed earlier in the day, to his great delight. He is now the proud owner of a train table and train set. He plays with his hand-me-down Thomas trains on it, even though they don't quite fit. He also got an engineer's hat, bandana, and train whistle to complete the ensemble. Already in train heaven, Greyson opened a few more gifts and really got the hang of it. For the rest of the weekend he asked, "open more presents?"

After all those appetizers, Greyson was ready to eat the real meal - pizza. For a long time he acted like he didn't like pizza, but he has recently fallen back in love with the toddler favorite. And like many toddler moms, I'm happy with that, because it has tomato sauce. That's one of the only vegetables he allows to pass his lips at home. And cooked tomatoes are really good for you, right?!

It was a lovely evening, complete with cherry and key lime pie for dessert. We all ate too much and enjoyed the company.

G spent the rest of the weekend relaxing with Jo and Pops, frequenting a local dive-y diner, playing at the park and being disappointed that Santa did not arrive on a fire truck at the right time, and busting his mouth on a table, but thankfully healing up in just a few days. It was a good start to the season, and there would be lots more gift-unwrapping in the following weeks.