The Zorio Family Christmas

The Zorio Family has been very busy celebrating Christmas this entire month!
December 10th we attended our Sunday School Christmas party which was a lot of fun! We had childcare at one house and the adults had their party at another house nearby. Dawson got to have some fun playing with all of his friends while we had fun at the adult party.
The following day, December 11th, Dawson's Nana and Grandad (John's parents) came in town. It was great to have them at our house for a visit, and Dawson loved getting to spend time with them. That afternoon was Dawson's friend, Jude's 2nd Birthday Party. Nana, Dawson, and I went to the party. Dawson had a blast! The party was themed after Jude's favorite toy-lawn mowers, and there were several mowers there for children to play with. Dawson loved pushing all of the mowers, playing with the other children, and exploring all of Jude's toys!
Then that evening Nana and Grandad took care of Dawson for us so we could participate in our Small Group Christmas Party. Each year we have done a progressive dinner which we call our "tour de Christmas." This was our 4th annual Tour de Christmas with our small group. We had a great time, and got to eat a lot of tasty food. This year our house was first which means appetizers! We served ham roll ups (ham rolled with cream cheese with an olive on top), shaved fillet with bearnaise sauce, bruschetta, hot crab dip, and spinach stuffed mushrooms.
We got to spend a little more time with John's parents on Sunday before they had to head back to Tennessee. Not long after they left, it started snowing! This was our first snow of the year but not our last!
The next weekend, December 18th, I baked Christmas cookies and attended the annual Christmas Cookie Exchange at the Kokan's house. I love baking and decorating cookies, so preparing for the party was fun. Then I got to come home with three dozen or so cookies to share and some new recipes.
Since we stayed in Huntsville for Thanksgiving we decided to spend this Christmas in Tennessee unlike last year. This meant that we got to celebrate Christmas at our house early!! Santa even visited Dawson early...how convenient! :)
John took off work the entire week before Christmas was was wonderful! He has been so busy at work recently that it was nice to have some down time. We celebrated our Christmas Eve on Monday evening the 20th. This meant that opened our Christmas Eve gift of pjs! After opening our pjs and eating a yummy roast for dinner we make hot chocolate (Dawson got milk), and loaded in the car to go to the Botanical Gardens. This was our 2nd year driving through the Huntsville Botanical Garden's Galaxy of Lights, and we had a great time again! With tradition we rode in our pjs with our hot chocolate, and even Bentley got to come with us again. This year, unlike last year, Dawson stayed awake the entire time.
The following day, Tuesday the 21st we celebrated our Christmas. We had a great time exchanging gifts and watching Dawson enjoy his new toys! Bentley saw her new doggie bed from Santa under the tree and ran right in and laid on it. When Dawson saw his Power Wheels from Santa, he too knew just what to do (at first, that is!). He ran in and swung his leg over the seat to ride. Then he pushed the red GO button and was terrified when it jerked into motion! Now, a week later he has finally warmed up to the Power Wheels and enjoys riding it. It goes 2mph! He looks like a big kid riding it too! We had a wonderful Christmas at our house.
Wednesday morning we loaded the Jeep and drove to Tennessee to visit and celebrate Christmas with our families. On Thursday Dawson got to ride the train at Foothills Mall with his Nana. He was a little afraid at first, but I think he had fun after he got used to it! While we were there John managed to squeeze in a Tennessee Basketball Game with is Dad. They had a great time at the game. While they were at the game, Dawson got to do some special activities his Lolly had planned for him. They decorated a sweet little tree. It was really cute, and I will try to describe it since I didn't get a picture. It was like a stuffed animal that is a Christmas tree and about 2 feet tall. It had big buttons that you hung the ornaments from. The ornaments were also stuffed and were of angels, wise men, animals, etc. The other activity she had for Dawson was to decorate a magnetic Christmas tree on the fridge. Dawson had fun at Lolly and Pop's house with the activities, but his favorite thing turned out to be exploring their stairs! (Thank goodness our house is all on one level!)
We spent the first two nights in Tennessee with John's parents. They had set up a great area for us upstairs where Dawson even had his own room. It was wonderful!
On Christmas Eve for lunch we got together with John's Mom's side of the family. We ate a delicious meal and then exchanged gifts since we had drawn names earlier in the year. Dawson got up from his nap just in time to open a few gifts and play with Jared and Zachary, his 1st cousins once removed.
On Christmas Eve night, we celebrated with my Dad's side of the family in Knoxville. We played Dirty Santa which was a lot of fun, as always! Part of the fun is that usually all of the gifts are really good, everyone steals-no one is off limits, and there are about 20 people who participate. John and I were very pleased as we came away from the game with an AmEx gift card and an 8-cup food processor! I was excited to see everyone, but I was especially excited for Dawson to see Corbin, his 2nd cousin. They are exactly 2 months and 1 day apart, and Corbin is older. Since he lives in Knoxville, they rarely get to see each other. They got to see each other once when Dawson was 2 weeks old and Corbin was 2 months and then again when Dawson was 6 months and Corbin 8 months. They interacted some, and it was funny to watch them together.
We spent the last two nights at my parents house, so we woke up there Christmas morning to a blanket of beautiful snow! What a wonderful way to wake up on Christmas! Dawson, John, my brother Logan, Mom, Dad, and I exchanged gifts on Christmas morning. Dawson got a train table from his Lolly and Pop which he LOVES! After exchanging gifts and eating a yummy breakfast we headed next door to exchange gifts with Jeannie and have some wassel.
Then we drove in the snow over to John's parents house where we exchanged gifts with Dawson's Nana, Grandad, Aunt Em, and Cousin Drew. Dawson loved all of his gifts! John, Grandad, and Drew had a snowball fight which Dawson cautiously watched out the window.
After this we still had one more Christmas celebration (that's right and it wasn't even 1pm on Christmas day yet!). We headed back over to my parents house where we celebrated with my Mom's side of the family. I think we counted and there were 23 people there. Unfortunately, Dawson was worn out and slept almost the entire time! It was great to get to see everyone, especially Mamaw.
We relaxed the rest of Christmas afternoon, and then Lolly and Pop watched Dawson so that John and I could have a Christmas date! We went to the movies to see the new Meet the Parents movie (that's right, I'm not typing the name of it on our blog! hah). It was hilarious and just as good as the first two! It was nice to have a little time out to ourselves.
Sunday was our planned travel day, but when we woke up we saw that it was still snowing and had been for over 24 hours. We thought we were going to end up extending our stay (our families were very excited about this!), but it started warming up around noon. Around 1pm we got on the road and had a safe trip back to Alabama. We were surprised that we even had a couple of inches of snow on the ground here at our house and a few major roads were still closed when we got back in town. Although Huntsville didn't get as much snow as Maryville, I think we lack equipment to take care of the roads when we do have winter weather which is why it's more treacherous here. We were packed in the car coming home, but thankful there were a lot of new toys in the car that kept Dawson entertained almost the whole trip.
We are settled back in at home now and we're back to reality after a wonderful Christmas and trip to Tennessee visiting family. It was so wonderful to see everyone. Enjoy the pictures below. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and we wish you a very Happy New Year!

Above: Christmas morning at Lolly and Pop's house.


Above: Dawson playing with a toy at Jude's
birthday party.

Above: Dawson and his friend Caleb at Jude's party.

Above: Our table of appetizers for Tour de Christmas.

Above: John and I before our Christmas Party.

Above: One more picture before the guests arrive.

Above: John and Dawson in early December

when the snowflakes started falling for the

first time this year.

Above: A few of the Christmas cookies I baked and decorated

to take to the Cookie Exchange.

Above: Dawson being silly at the table during

morning snack.

Above: Dawson in front of our Christmas tree

before Church.

Above: My two guys before church.

Above: Our Christmas tree.

Above: Dawson with the Christmas Eve gift.

Above: John showing Dawson how to open his gift.

Above: Dawson modeling his Christmas Eve

PJ's. I continued the tradition of getting him

pjs with a matching hat...I couldn't resist!

Above: Mommy and Dawson in the car in our PJs going

through the Botanical Garden Galaxy of Lights.

Above: Bentley checking out the lights at

the Botanical Garden.

Above: She was very interested.

Above: John driving us through the Galaxy of Lights.

Above: Christmas morning-Dawson running

in the living room to check out his gifts.

Above: Santa had Dawson's power wheels

all charged up and ready to ride. Dawson knew just

what to do. He ran in and hopped right on it!

Above: The tower of blocks waiting for Dawson beside the tree!

Above: Santa brought Bentley a new bed.

She ran right in and jumped on it!

Above: John reading Dawson one of the books

we got him for Christmas.

Above: Even thought it was really cold,

we let Dawson ride his Power Wheels

outside for a few minutes!

Above: John teaching Dawson.

Above: Dawson decorating the magnetic tree

with Lolly.

Above: Dawson and Corbin ringing the bells on Christmas Eve.

Above: Josie (Dawson's 1st cousin once removed)

got this very life-like cat as a gift on Christmas Eve.

Dawson loved it and kept sneaking it away from her!

Above: Dawson and Corbin eating a snack.

Above: Dawson checking out his train table

from Lolly and Pop on Christmas morning.

Above: My dad and brother on Christmas morning.

Above: Dawson and Grandad on Christmas morning.

Above: Dawson riding Cousin Drew's snow sled in the house

while eating a snack on Christmas morning.

Above: I love this picture of Dawson. He is

watching his Daddy, Cousin Drew, and Grandad

have a snowball fight on Christmas morning.