Christmas Part 2

The day before Christmas Eve the Derry cousins arrived to complete the whole Goodwillie family! It's hard to believe but this was the first time everyone had been together in two years!!! Aunt Jen gave Nana a break and cooked dinner for all fourteen of us.  Once we figured out how to seat our forever growing family we settled in for a great meal together.

After dinner, Colin enjoyed his favorite pastime...sucking on Nana's fingers.

Liam and Pierre, on the other hand, got down to business being boys...taking off their shirts and running around the house screaming...

Aunt Erin, who had her hands full all week taking care of herself and Augustin, finally got some cuddle time with Colin. No doubt the tv must have been on since Colin appears to have his laser eyes on it instead of the camera.

On Christmas Eve morning we all packed in our cars and went to the market in downtown York.  Nana and Grandpa helped get everyone in the spirit with their festive hats.

Mommy enjoyed time spent with Sarah...

while Daddy enjoyed showing Colin all of the stands around the market.

Colin donned a Santa hat and joined in the festive spirit with Nana and Grandpa.

Before we left the market, Mommy was able to capture this sweet shot of father and daughter happiness.

Back at Nana and Grandpa's house...

Colin exchanged kisses with cousin Sarah.  (I say "exchange" because this is how Colin gives kisses.  He opens his mouth nice and wide to "kiss" back.)

He went flying with Uncle Anthony:

Made silly faces with Gee Gee:

Hung with all the girls:

And "played" with cousin Joergen and Augustin on the couch.

 

He was so excited to spend time with family and couldn't wait to celebrate his very first Christmas!

But first, there was another celebration to be had, Augustin's first birthday!  Luckily he was beginning to feel much better.

Aunt Erin helped Augustin open our special card and gift before we had to leave to go to Mimi and Pappy's house for their Annual Christmas Eve party.

Colin was so happy to see Aunt Jen and Mimi who he missed all week.

Major smiles for Mimi, as always.

Mimi missed Colin as well and couldn't wait to get him back in her arms.

Aunt Grace gave Colin his very first Christmas present.  He had a hard time opening it since he was a little preoccupied with eating the bag instead.

With a little help, Colin was able to find out what was inside...his very own stocking with a big ol' C on it just for him.

We promptly added Colin's stocking to the mantle to make it complete.

Colin was quite the partier! Here he is hanging with our family friend, Corey.

Corey's dad, Mr. Gary, brought his annual oysters to share.  Colin had to pass on them for this year at least...

Another present break time!  This time, Colin got to open his first present from Mommy and Daddy. It is an Owens tradition to receive pajamas as your only gift from Mom and Dad on Christmas Eve.  This is a ritual I loved growing up (and still do!).  I am so excited to pass it on to our children starting with Colin's first Christmas.

He was a little less distracted this go around and actually opened up most of the present on his own.

What's so funny about pajamas you ask?  Once Colin realized what was under the wrapping paper and I mentioned "night night" he began crying.  Proof that this is a boy who does not like sleep...especially if there's a party going on!

After getting Colin ready for bed and completing his night time routine we tried to put him in his pack and play to sleep.  You could barely hear the noise downstairs but Colin was well aware that he was missing out on a party.  After lots of crying, we decided to just let him stay up till he eventually passed out.

Good thing we let him rejoin the party because Mommy's friend Kevin came over and would have missed Colin if he fell asleep.  Kevin thought it was pretty funny how all Colin wanted to do was suck on his finger.

 While Uncle Ron and Uncle Thomas played for everyone Colin cuddled with Miss Margie....

and Aunt Crystal who worked realllly hard to make him fall asleep.  He looked so exhausted!

We had quite the sing along going on complete with an ode to Mimi: "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes."

We found out later that back at the Goodwillie house they were having a sing along of their own at the exact same time.

As you can see, it was a little calmer at the Goodwillie household however, it turned out to be the calm before the storm.  It was only hours later that Nana, Aunt Erin, Sarah, and Pierre all got sick....very sick...all night long.  There was no sleep happening at the Goodwillie house and as it turned out none at the Owens house either.

Once we finally got Colin to fall asleep just before midnight he was back up again at 1:30.  No matter what we did we could not get him to fall back asleep.  The party, which STILL continued downstairs, didn't help!  Around 3:30 I decided I had no choice but to take him for a drive. Aunt Veronica drove around New Freedom with me until Colin finally fell asleep.  He slept in his car seat until he woke up again later.  In hindsight, we really wished we would have taken him for a drive much earlier in the evening!  You live, you learn!