On Christmas Day, Jacob was up before the sun as usual.  And he was excited to see that Santa had come!

First order of business was playing with the train…I love this new tradition! Every year we plan to add to the train, track and even start building a village around it.  I have a feeling it will be a favorite among both our boys for many, many years.  Thanks Papa J for getting us started!

Then he tested out his new tricycle…

Then the party got rockin’ when Tante Heidi, Uncle Andy and Cousin Matt showed up with Oma and a drum set!

Jacob was so excited!  He helped Matt unpack the box and anxiously waited (while counting off with the drumsticks) while Matt put the drums together.

Thanks Matt!!

Then we had brunch and just visited for a while.

Then we opened presents, Jacob liked playing Santa as I told him who to give the presents to. No one took any pictures while we were opening presents, but Papa J and Nonnie got a selfie stick, so that called for a (blurry) group photo!

And there was one last present for Jacob and Dylan.  Although Dylan is a bit too young to ride it, Jacob hopped right on and started riding in circles around the house.  This is seriously the best gift for a toddler, we love it and I wish I had the adult sized one for myself!

I have this great picture of Jacob with his two great grandmothers at Christmas last year and was hoping to recreate the picture with both boys this year.  However Jacob is not all that cooperative when taking a picture these days, so we got one with Dylan.

That afternoon we took a nice walk to the resort down the street from our house to look at the decorations and warmed up with a cup of coffee before heading home to make dinner.  This was such a fun Christmas since Jacob really got into it this year and understood what was going on.  I know the next couple of years will be even better with Dylan getting older.  It all happened so fast and we did so much, but truly loved having everyone over to celebrate the season!

I leave my decorations up until after New Years, so the boys had a few more days to play with the train before putting it away.

And to wrap up all the Christmas stuff, here is our silly family photo. I love this for a couple of reasons, I got Jacob involved and had him help me set up the camera on the tripod and talked to him about what we were going to do so he was excited (and cooperative) to look at the pictures on the camera after we took them, so he actually stayed still and smiled!  Secondly, I love how Dylan is looking at Jacob, he truly is Dylan’s favorite person, I hope that feeling lasts forever!

Merry Christmas!