Christmas 2010

The day after Christmas I decided to update this blog. I had a goal - to get it completely updated by the time baby girl arrives around Feb. 2nd. I had not written anything on the blog since July and had only uploaded pictures from April. As I write this, it is Jan. 13th and I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can actually remember what is happening in each picture - which could be a bad thing. It means I might be writing more and not just adding pics.

Here is our Christmas story for 2010:

Nathan is helping us decorate the tree. He wanted to plug it in! Of course, we didn't let him.

He got quite tired of helping and decided to sit on the decoration box and "play" his video game. Most of the time he uses it as a cell phone, but other times, he acts like he is playing the game. He really has no clue, but it is quite funny!

We tried our best to get a picture of Nathan in front of the Christmas tree, but it was pointless. He didn't want to sit still at all. He is now into "I see" and runs towards the camera to see the pictures. This doesn't help when he wants to see before any pictures are taken. This one above is the best one we got! Oh well!

We went to Nathan's first Christmas parade in Cayce with Aunt Allison, Uncle Parker and "Khaki" (Nathan's name for his Cousin). It was soooo cold, but Nathan loved it. He is enthralled by all the lights and music. Jeff is listening to the Carolina basketball game on his MP3.

We have finally started having some what of a normal tradition of how we do Christmas with each family - so we thought!!! We left on Wed. the 23rd to go to Spartanburg to celebrate Christmas with the Kings. We were planning on staying there until Christmas Eve, then travel back to Columbia to have Christmas at our house. BUT, the plans got changed. As you can see from this picture above, Nathan doesn't look too good. He ended up getting sick and so we took him back to Columbia on Thursday the 24th to go to the Dr. Poor guy had two ear infections. I didn't realize how sick he looked until I saw these pictures. Even when he is sick, he has tons of energy, so it is hard to know when he is sick, until it gets pretty bad. Even though our plans got changed, everything turned out to be OK.

John and Barbara came to Columbia and we were still able to have our Christmas with the Kings on Christmas Eve - just in Columbia at Parker and Allison's house - instead of Spartanburg. Below are the pictures from that Christmas celebration.

Reading the Christmas story from a children's Bible that both C. and N. have.

Nathan is playing with his Thomas the Train. He loves a "choo choo"

Here he is sporting his cool new backpack. This is now his diaper bag. I realized how much he is growing up when we only need a few things to go to out. It is kind of sad. But he loves carrying it in and feels like such a big boy when he walks himself into nursery at church wearing his backpack.

The best I could do to get the two cousins together. I told Nathan to sit next to Khaki and this is where he sat. It looks like they don't like each other, but that isn't the case. They love to play together and Nathan often asks to call or go see Khaki.


The next group of pictures is our family celebration at home. Barbara and John spent the night with us, due to the change in schedule. It was fun having them there on Christmas morning to open up Nathan's gifts. Jeff and I usually just get each other one joint present to share. Last year it was the flip video camera, this year a new MP3 player. We didn't even bother wrapping it up. We are too lazy. By this time, this was Nathan's 3rd time to open presents. He was now understanding what a present was and that he liked to open them. He couldn't even sit through the Christmas story without asking for presents. It was so cute that he learned to say the word presents so quickly.

We were given this Handy Manny tool bench by someone Jeff works with. Nathan got the tools that go with it for Christmas.

Jeff started playing guitar with Nathan a few months back. He always wants to play Jeff's so we bought him his own. He was so excited to get his "tar" as he calls it.

One of the few shots of me at Christmas. Like my festive Christmas Pj's??? Whatever fits at this point!!!

Here Nathan is showing off several of his presents at once. His golf clubs, backpack and hard hat to go with his tool bench. He put this "outfit" together all by himself. When we sat back and thought about the gifts we gave Nathan this year - tools, golf clubs, guitar - we realized we were turning him into a little Jeff. All that is missing now is a "pow pow" that he could go hunting with. But I assure you, that will be a LONG time before that happens!!!!


The next set of pictures is celebrating Christmas with the Kluttz side of the family. After we opened presents at our house, we went over to my parents house to celebrate. We put Nathan down for his nap, while we lounged around watching TV and mom was doing some cooking. After Nathan's nap, we opened presents. I think we started around 3:00 and didn't finish opening them until around 6:00. It was the LONGEST present opening EVER!!!! The main reason is that Nathan really got into the presents, but not just opening them. He wanted to deliver all the presents. He would go under the tree, grab a present, we would tell him who to take it to, and he would deliver it. That took awhile. Especially when he started to refuse to bring gifts to Jeff. We would tell him to take it Daddy and he would say "No, Pappy" and then proceed to give Jeff's gift to my dad. It was quite funny.


Nathan and Pappy working on opening a present together. You can see my sister Amy in this picture with her dog. We were a bit worried of how Nathan would respond to such a big dog. It took some warming up, but he ended up being just fine.

Here is Nathan delivering a gift to Amy - or as he says "Ahme"!



This ended up being one of Nathan's favorite gifts. A working drill from my Aunt and Uncle. I think he stopped and played with this for 30 minutes.

Another present delivery!

Nathan with Nana.

Nathan with "Ahme". We don't get to see Amy very much. She lives in Dallas, TX and we love when we get to see her. Nathan likes to play with her and she likes to be know as Fun Aunt Amy.

The day after Christmas, Nathan woke up asking for presents. Poor guy started to think we would be opening up presents every day! As I started thinking about this, the Lord reminded me that we should be like that with Him every day. Opening his word and praying and waiting in anticipation for what gift He has in store for us that day.

Christmas time is filled with lots of busyness, family, presents, and food. But the most important reason for this season is the birth of Jesus - who gave us the BEST gift ever. He came to this earth to die for us so that we could spend eternity with Him. Thank you Jesus!!!