Josh's first Christmas (highlights!)

The pink pig from Aunt Millie - Aunt Millie received the pig in a giftexchange and brought it for Josh. When she put it on the coffee tableand turned it on, it walked across the table and oinked. Not thatloud, but kind of loud. Josh immediately starting crying - andpouting. He didn't like it at all. He's pretty scared of loud noisesand he really didn't like the pig. Shelly and Juan took the pig toHouston for a gag gift exchange, but they left before the exchangehappened. So, they brought it back to Josh. We took it out of thebox on New Year's Eve and Josh still doesn't like. Jerrud turned iton and he immediately started crying again. Later, he almost criedjust looking at the pig, not even turned on!

Dinner on Saturday at Pappadeaux with Dad, Phyllis, Shelly, Juan,Jerrud, Josh and Chantel. Seth showed up right at the end and atewhat was left on our plates. Several of us had blackened fish with abutter pecan sauce. It was really yummy! The restaurant was reallyloud - so much so that we could barely hear our conversation from oneend of our table to the other. But, it was nice to get out and havedinner at a restaurant. This was only the second time that Jerrud andI have had dinner out at a restaurant together with Josh since he wasborn. Received three compliments on what a cute baby Josh is on theway to the restroom. Actually, one on the way, one overheard on theway, and one in the restroom. A waitress that was going into thestall actually turned around and came out the stall when she saw Joshand said what a cute baby he is and how she loved his hair! Theladies at the table next to us stopped me to say how Josh was the bestbaby that they had ever sat next to in a restaurant and how he couldeat next to him anytime. Actually, I think it was so loud that theyjust couldn't hear his fussiness. Josh had crackers, bread, saladdressing, and tried lemon for the first time. He actually seemed tolike the lemon - I was surprised that he didn't even pucker up whenJerrud put lemon juice on his finger and put it in Josh's mouth.Before the meal was over, Josh was actually sucking on a lemon wedgeand seemed to like it!

Opening with presents with Dad, Phyllis, Shelly, Juan, Jerrud, Josh,Seth and Chantel at our house (Bay Shore). We opened presents in thebig living room, even though the tree was in the other room. Chantelhanded out the presents. When we thought we were done, Dad andPhyllis realized that some of their presents had not been opened andfound a whole plastic trash bag of presents that had not been givenout. Dad / Grampa Jerry / "Santa" slung the bag over his shoulder anddid his best Santa impersonation while handing out the gifts from thetrash bag. He kept saying "Ho! Ho! Ho! Here's a present for youlittle girl. And here's a present for you..." You get the idea!

"Fun" presents at Mom and Tim's - Jerrud says that there always needsto be a least one "fun" present to play with on Christmas. So, thisyear the fun present was remote control cars (10:1 scale) that all theguys got (Seth, Juan, Tim, Jerrud, and Mark). The guys had funplaying with the R.C. cars outside and even inside the house at ourhouse.

Lots of ornaments for Josh - gifts from Mommy and Daddy, Mimi andTutor, Grampa Jerry and Gramma Phyllis, and Aunt Marty.

Christmas exchange for the Hitt family. First time to divide thegroup into two groups based on the the different generations - Mom'sbrothers and sisters and their spouses were one group. The cousinsand their spouses were in a separate group. Mom wrote out the nameson slips of paper and put them in bowl - Josh was the official namedrawer!

Two lasagna dinners for Christmas this year - continued our tradition of lasagna and Mom and Tim's on Sunday (23rd) with Mom and Tim, Shellyand Juan, Chantel, Jerrud and Josh, and Seth. Then, Chantel also madelasagna for Christmas dinner with Dad and Phyllis, Shelly and Juan,Jerrud and Josh, and Seth.

Wrapping presents with Shelly and Juan - Shelly and Juan arrived lateFriday night. On Saturday, Shelly, Juan and Seth came over and wewrapped most of Shelly and Juan's gifts. Chantel was getting tired ofsome of her wrapping paper that had been around for two or three yearsso she invited Shelly and Juan to come over and wrap their gifts anduse of the "old" paper. We wrapped a lot of presents in a giftwrapping frenzy / marathon that lasted several hours.

Christmas cooking - Christmas dinner at the Arnett house was lasagna,casaer salad, and french bread. Desserts were blackberry cobbler andJerrud's favorite - cheesecake. Also, store bought lemon pound cake.Not much else was cooked except for appetizers - Chantel made jezebelsauce and 7-layer dip for everyone to munch on throughout the day.

We used our Spode Christmas dishes and sterling silver. We had a verypretty Christmas table. I have 12 place settings of Spode now(including one place setting received as a gift this year) and 11place settings of sterling silver.

Special presents - Santa brought Josh a fire truck ride on toy,blocks, books, a puzzle, a little sock monkey, and a toy car. Mimiand Tutor gave Josh an ornament, a wooden stool, Chantel's rockingchair from when she was a little girl, and a Lenox ornament - baby'sfirst Christmas rattle. Dad and Phyllis gave Josh a Tonka Scoot andScoop ride on toy, a Lennox ornament with his name on it (Snowman), acute blue and brown fleece outfit, a blue jean jacket, and giraffethat you hang on the wall to measure / track his height as he grows.Shelly and Juan gave Josh an adorable outfit from Old Navy (jeans,sweater, hat) - unfortunately, we didn't think to check the hat sizewhen we picked it out and it was for a newborn (0 - 3 months). Theyalso gave him a really cute hand knitted purple and green hat(eggplant? or grape?) SO cute! We gave Tim a GPS, Shelly and Juan aphoto printer, and Seth an mp3 player (Zune). Mark got video games.Millie gave Mom 8 place settings of sterling silver (some of which wasbought on E-Bay) and we gave her a silver chest to keep it in (alsobought on E-Bay). Phyllis got a necklace and earrings, a bracelet,and a casserole dish. Jerrud got a disc brake kit and steps for hisnew truck (Dodge Ram) from Chantel. Chantel got a diamond solitairenecklace and perfume from Jerrud.

Treats for Santa - the Arnetts were unprepared and didn't have anycookies on hand. So, we left Christmas M&M's and Coca-Cola for Santa. Santa seemed to enjoy them!

Christmas day at Mom and Tim's - Mom, Tim, Chantel, Jerrud, Josh,Seth, Ellen, John, Andy, Andy's girlfriend, Stacey, and Dump.Traditional holiday meal with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce,salad, green bean casserole.

Shopping with Aunt Millie - Chantel and Aunt Millie wanted to goshopping the day after Christmas and try to get a couple of good afterChristmas deals. We went to Old Navy to try and return the too-small hat for hat, but unfortunately, they didn't have any more available.We then went to Macy's to try and find the Lenox nativity pieces onsale for 60% off.