christmas recap.

hello, there. :) i hope you had a wonderful christmas!

we were home last christmas, but newly home and jet-lagged and a bit shell-shocked at this whole insta-parents thing as we adjusted to our new lives together.

this christmas, we took full advantage of the fact that our boy had a (semi) understanding of what was going on and knew and loved everyone that surrounded him on this very special holiday. we also took a lot a lot of pictures...sorry. this is gonna be a long one! ;)

because of the craziness with church on sunday morning, we decided to do the bulk of our family celebration on christmas eve this year. my parents (who live 20 minutes away) requested that we pretty please sleep over on friday night so they could soak up every ounce of the day with choi boy. of course, we happily obliged and loved watching cb relish our sleepover at hahmee and hahbee's.

we started christmas eve morning with presents before the rest of our extended family came over. choi boy was very happy about this and tried to charm his way into opening them before anyone else was ready.


once we started, cb was just as excited about the giving as the receiving.

especially when the giving included calendars filled with pics of cb from january to december!

there was knitted goodness,


lots of kisses,



and a train from eemo that gave cb a preview of what was to come on christmas morning.

once the train was out, there was no concentrating on anything else. my sister also gave cb some super cute clothes, but really, he couldn't be bothered with them. not when there was percy to play with!

there were also some laughs,

(i get a present from "santa" every year. and quite suspiciously, he has the same exact handwriting as my momma.)

and even some tears.


we gave my sister a necklace engraved with "tippy" -- her name is tiffany, but cb can't say it and has called her tippy eemo since he started saying her name.

she loved it. :)


was someone exhausted from all the presents?

oh, no. someone just wanted to have some quiet play with percy, all by himself.

silly boy!

later on, my cousins and uncles and aunts came over,

(love my family!)

and the first thing cb wanted to do was to show off his new toy. of course!

thankfully, he was some very sweet and loving uncles that were only happy to play.

cb tore himself away from his train long enough to pass out his gifts for his uncles and aunts,



in customized bags, no less!


and even opened a few more gifts for himself, too.

note: we did *not* tell him to pose with his hands in his pockets. he is just *that* much of a ham. ;)

we enjoyed a delicious christmas eve dinner prepared by my dad and uncle (with some help from my sister -- parmesean crusted brussel sprouts -- holla!):

corned beef, salmon, mashed potatoes with kale...yes, a very traditional korean christmas dinner. ;)

and right after dinner, guess what cb went right back to...

yup.


this time, he enlisted help from his hahbee and great uncle, who went all out and constructed tunnels and overpasses out of little boxes and containers!

soon, cb was changed into his christmas jammies and left in the care of his grandparents and two sets of great uncles and aunts while the young folk (uh huh, i'm included in that!) headed out to the movies.


we returned to my parents house to stories of choi boy drinking "wine" (sparkling grape juice...why my parents had that on hand, i don't know) and toasting cheers while chomping on lots dried squid. apparently, he was quite entertaining. :) we scooped up our sleeping boy and headed back home to prepare for christmas morning.

we (and by "we," i mean the hubs) sleepily set up choi boy's big present...


and the whole time we were giggling like school children imagining cb's reaction in the morning.

he did not disappoint.


(even in his hodge podge red and green "jammies" since he peed through his santa ones...i blame it on all the sparkling grape juice.)



cb just kept repeating excitedly, "choo choo chains! chains!!!" and loved discovering his new table and some extra special trains (and an awesome mickey mouse clubhouse book -- with sounds!) from his grandparents in wisconsin.

cb also very much enjoyed a super cool toy shopping cart and some awesome wooden cut-apart food from his gomo and uncle jake.


so blessed and loved that boy is...:)

and i scored something pretty sweet, too. the perfect "mommy" necklace that isn't overtly a mommy necklace:

a momma bird, a baby bird, and a letter c.
my hubs is the best. and he *may* have had some help. ;)

phew! told ya that would be long :)

we hope your christmas was super fun, too!