The Mangelers: Jakey's First Christmas-December 24-25, 2010

So Christmas is my favorite holiday but it was a little more difficult this year. First of all, I'm married and have Shaun's Mom and Dad to schedule in (which is totally awesome just hard) and I have a baby too. It's hard to juggle all the different Christmases and come up with a solution that works for everyone. I don't really care where I spend Christmas Day or the days after but I'm really greedy when it comes to Christmas Eve because that's when we doing everything with my side of the family.We have a bunch of traditions that we do and it's hard because it wouldn't seem like Christmas without the caroling, or the nativity, or the gingerbread contest, or the rice pudding, or christmas eve PJ's. But with new family comes new traditions and it's time to get used to doing new things. I don't think I'm quite ready to give up my Christmas Eve but I will definitely make myself available for all other days or traditions that my new family wants to do.

So this year Lindy and Cathy wanted to go to Vegas for Christmas so we did our Christmas with them on Monday. It was a little weird but I'm trying to be flexible right.. We had a really good dinner and I enjoyed talking and eating ham with them. Then Cathy and Lindy got us some stuff that we needed and stuff I wanted;. I got Psych Season 4 and a really cute apron. Shaun got some much needed clothing and a nice hiking backpack. Jakey got a nice thing that he can play with while laying on his back or doing tummy time. And then we did our Gift to Christ. I like this tradition. We write down one thing that we are going to do throughout the year as our gift to Christ and then the next Christmas we look back and see how we did. Overall, it was a really good time but kinda weird not spending the time with them on Christmas Day.

We ended up staying the whole week with my parents instead of driving back and forth from Elk Grove to Sacramento because Christopher and Shaunna and Chris, Julie, and Roxy were in town too. So we had a good time catching up and spending time with them.

Then on Thursday we went to my Uncle Kenny's house and we did our normal traditions that we do with my Mom's small side of the family. We played Guesstures and gave Uncle Stinkerpot some time with the little ones. And we ate yummy Lasagna and opened our "Grab Bags" (a tradition my Grandpa started a long time ago that still lives on)

Then Friday was Christmas Eve and we spent the whole at my Mom's. We did all of our traditions but it was a little different because now I have a baby. And he is more important so I was really sad when I missed the first part of the present opening because I had to feed him and I was sad because I didn't get to participate in the Nativity. I used to be the one to put it all together and narrate. Tori wanted to narrate this year so I said sure why not? Changing traditions is ok right? Well I still wanted to participate so I thought well I'll play the piano for when we sing the Christmas songs. But then they started the Nativity in the other room so that idea was shot. Then I usually make the Rice Pudding but Julie had a good recipe she wanted to try so I gave that up too! It was really hard but I love Julie and wanted to make her feel welcome and loved. It was hard not really having a "part" in our traditions this year, but I realized that that isn't the only thing that is important. My family is growing up and I don't have to be the one in charge anymore. They are getting old enough to be more of a part of everything and I had my time.. It's time to let go of some of the old things to make room for the amazing new things that are happening.

Pooped out at the end of the day!!! :-)

So Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents. I know my family loves each other because of the looks on their faces as they watch their siblings or their parents open up the presents that they thought so hard about or worked really hard on. It was a good morning.

Then we took off to Napa and spent a nice and relaxing couple days with Scott, Lisa, and the boys. They loved spending time with their grandson and nephew. We had a lot of fun catching up and spending time with them. My favorite part? The fires!!! I miss having a fireplace to burn wood!! It was so nice!

Jakey didn't really understand what was going on but I had fun taking pictures of him in his Christmas outfit. I acutally didn't take any pictures with my camera so I thank my Dad for letting steal these pics from him!!