Tyler's Christmas

Tyler had a fun 5th Christmas (can you believe this is his 5th Christmas with us?). He enjoyed visiting Santa this year and absolutely loved opening presents. He opened his presents, Matthew's presents, and most of our presents as well. He was always excited to see what was in each package, even if the present wasn't for him! Here are some things I don't want to forget about Tyler's 5th Christmas:

1.He enjoyed Duncan the Elf again this year. If he had a good day, he was able to sprinkle Duncan before he went to bed and Duncan would come alive at night. Here is a slide show of some of the things Duncan did this year...

2. He is totally obsessed with football men. They're like little army men but they're football players. They come with a field, a referee, and goal posts. Santa brought the "generic version" of the football men last year. For his birthday, his friend Carter gave him the Alabama men and then for Christmas The LoPrestis gave him the Auburn men and Santa gave him the Georgia Bulldog men. Now he wants each team to have a band!

3. Santa Clause set out one of Tyler's gifts and then wrapped the rest. This is because last year Tyler woke up, came out of his room, and saw all of his gifts without Jason or me there. This year, after Santa did lots of wrapping, we had to wake Tyler up on Christmas morning to open his presents before our family breakfast. The first thing he wanted to do was open his stocking. He's been looking forward to unpacking his stocking since we hung it over a month ago.4. Out of all the family Christmas events we attended, I think Tyler was most excited about breakfast at our house on Christmas morning. He talked about it for weeks and was so excited when our family started arriving Christmas morning. Although he did little eating on Christmas morning, he enjoyed showing off his new toys.

5. Last, I'll add the embarrassing moment of Christmas with you. This is not our proudest moment as parents but something I'm sure we won't forget. We went to First Baptist's Christmas Eve service and Tyler actually went onto the stage all by himself this year with all the kids to listen to the Christmas story. I had no idea he would go by himself so I didn't "prepare him" for it (i.e. sit very still and listen to the Christmas story and leave your elf on the pew). He did good at first but then he started swinging his elf in the air and he tackled our sweet friend Reese. Jason was telling me to go get him and I was telling him to go get him. There was no way I was claiming that child on stage in front of the entire church! When it was over and the kids came back to their seats, Reese told her mommy and daddy that "Tyler was trying to mess things up". Next year he will definitely be better prepared for the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.