Dawson's First Christmas

John, Dawson, and I have spent the last week celebrating Christmas. Last Monday we traveled to Maryville to visit our families. Dawson has two wonderful sets of grandparents who make our lives much easier by keeping cribs set up at both of their houses for when we visit. On Tuesday morning Dawson had a 'first'. He woke up in his crib at his Nana and Grandad's house and we sat him up to look around. He immediately pulled-up to standing for the first time in his crib. Although, we were excited, we also knew this meant it's time to lower the matress in his crib(s) everwhere.

That Tuesday we celebrated Christmas with John's parents, sister, and our nephwe. We had a great time celebrating with them and watching Dawson open the first of his first Christmas gifts. Although we took lots of pictures, we didn't end up with any of Dawson with his Aunt Em or Cousin Drew (we will have to fix that on our next visit!). We had some a delicious dinner and a lot of fun exchanging gifts with everyone.

The next day, Wednesday, we got to celebrate Christmas with my parents and brother. "Chef Pop" fried the fish that John, Logan, and he caught deep sea fishing in October on our family vacation. The fish was really good and there was a lot of it thanks to the great fishermen! :) After lunch we opened gifts. We unfortunately were not able to get any pictures of Dawson with his Uncle Logan since Logan was sick. We hope he feels much better soon, though!

Wednesday evening we met our friend, Kealan, who went to high school with us and was in our wedding. We had dinner at Aubrey's with Kealan and his wife, Sarah. We usually don't get to see them when we're in town since they just moved back to Knoxville from Cincinnati, and we actually haven't seen them since their wedding in July. We got to visit over dinner for a couple of hours while Dawson stayed with his Lolly and Pop.

On Christmas Eve we visited my Mamaw (Dawson's Great Grandmother) and loaded the car to start home. When we got home on Christmas Eve night we all opened one gift of pajamas, a tradition we started this year with Dawson. Then Christmas morning we got up to celebrat Christmas at our house. We spent the day relaxing, watching a movie, and playing with Dawson.

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Enjoy the pictures below...

Above: Our Christmas tree.
Above: Christmas decorations.

Above: The stocking's were hung by the chimney with care.
From left to right the stockings belong to: John, Dawson, Me,
and Bentley. Lolly and Pop gave Dawson his musical Elmo stocking,
and he LOVES it. When he's in the living room he looks for it and waits
for us to press the button so Elmo will sing. He was more interested in
the stocking than the gifts Santa left in it!

Above: Bentley in the living room.

Above: Bentley in the car on the way to Tennessee

for Christmas.

Above: Dawson piled up with toys to entertain him

in the car on the way to Tennessee for Christmas.

Above: Dawson and Bentley in the car on the way

to Tennessee for Christmas.

Above: Dawson grinning after pulling up for the first time

in his crib.

Above: Dawson right after he pulled up the first time in

his crib at Nana and Grandad's house.

Above: We took his Johnny Jumper with us

because it's always entertaining for him.

Above: Dawson with his Nana (John's mom).

Above: Bentley watching Dawson try to eat

the paper off of one of his gifts at Nana and Grandad's.

Above: Dawson with Nana.

Above: John opening a gift from his parents.

Above: Dawson taking a ride in a box one gift

came wrapped in.

Above: Dawson opening a gift on his

Grandad's (John's dad) lap.

Above: Dawson in the exersaucer at Lolly

and Pop's house.

Above: Me, Dawson, and Bentley in front

of Lolly and Pop's tree.

Above: Dawson with his Mommy.

Above: Dawson showing off a stuffed animal to Bentley.

Above: Dawson trying to eat a bow off a gift

on Pop's (my dad) lap.

Above: Dawson with his Lolly and Pop opening

a big box of toys.

Above: One of the toys out of the box from Lolly and Pop.

He is pulled up the the table on his own.

Above: My parent's golden retriever, Abby, with her reindeer

antlers.

Above: Bentley with her nose in her stocking.

Above: Dawson at our house on Christmas morning.

Above: Dawson having fun with the gifts still wrapped

on Christmas morning.

Above: Dawson wouldn't quit talking for the picture.

Above: Dawson and DaDa in their Christmas pjs

on Christmas morning.

Above: After all the gifts were opened.

Above: I was trying to get a picture of the back

of Dawson's Christmas pjs. They have a flap

that opens on the back and above it says My

First Christmas.

Above: Christmas morning. Dawson with the cap that

went with his pjs.

Above: John & I on Christmas morning.