"All I Want For Christmas Are My Four Canine Teeth"

{Yes, I am finally getting around to posting about our Christmas.}

Kendry got his first present from Nana and Grandpa a few days before Christmas: his first train set!

On the morning of December 23rd Justin and Kendry packed up the car, then they picked me up at work around noon and we were off.

Kendry handled the 3.5 drive a lot better this time than he did Thanksgiving; he was asleep within twenty minutes. Hooray!

That night we attended the Quincy High School Alumni Basketball Game (Justin played), where Kendry got to run off all the energy pent up during the drive, and mommy chased after him. The silver lining is that I burned off enough calories that night to justify all my Christmas eating.

Christmas Eve Day was spent relaxing and doing a little food prep for that evening and Christmas Day. We noticed Kendry getting a wee bit grumpy, but figured he was just tired and a bit out of his element.

Justin and the three cousins.

That evening we enjoyed dinner with Justin's family before the three of us headed over to the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church. Kendry entertained the people sitting around us by delaring "All done!" after the singing portion of the service ended, and "Uh-oh!" when the overhead lights were dimmed for the candlelight portion.

Then we returned home, where Kendry got to open his Christmas Eve gift: pajamas!

When I was a little girl we got to open one Christmas gift on Christmas Eve - a tradition that ended the year my brother found his primary gift (a Gameboy) and opened it on Christmas Eve before my mom realized what he was doing. Assuming my plan works and Kendry's one gift on Christmas Eve is solely his Christmas jammies, I won't have to worry about this sort of mishap.

Kendry wore this expression for most of the weekend, thanks to some serious teething.

The jammies fit perfectly!


Kendry and Ava ready for bed in their Christmas jammies.

With the kiddos finally in bed, the adults enjoyed a game night.

And then...

the storm hit!

Kendry refused to sleep longer than a 1.5 hour stretch and kept waking up crying. After several hours of this, and afraid that he would eventually roust everyone else in the house, he and I moved out to the living room around 3am, and thus began our first all-nighter together.

I proceeded to watch A Christmas Story (the leg lamp movie) nearly two times back to back while Kendry alternated between sleeping in my arms and fussing inconsolably. Every time I tried to put him back in his crib the battle would start all over again.

Soon we were joined by Justin's sister Amanda and her daughter Ava, who was also having sleeping issues, and my mother-in-law, who was recovering from surgery.

I'm certain we were the most festive group you could find awake at 3:30am on Christmas morning.

Eventually everyone else headed back to their beds, and around 6am Kendry fell into his deepest sleep of the night (which isn't saying much).

When Justin took this photo around 7am I was so exhausted I could have cried.
And the feeling of my baby boy sleeping in my arms, something he hasn't done in ages, only moved me closer to tears. How many more times will he let me rock him to sleep like this?

By 9am everyone else in the house was awake and we were ready for presents. Its a shame my mother wasn't there to see Kendry put on his "happy face" even though he was feeling miserable. Momma B would have been proud!

Kendry loved the matchbox cars from his stocking.


And his cool rubber boots!

Haven't we seen this expression before?

Behold,

the TONKA TRUCK!

He started pushing it around like this before it was even out of the box.

We attempted to get a good photo of the three kiddos together. This was the best one I got.

Doesn't it look like they are singing together?

And then it was time for the annual Gimlin Boys photo.

It really was a beautiful Christmas, and quite relaxing when we weren't trying to soothe our miserable kiddo. I am assured this will make for a memorable Christmas story someday.