As it worked out, it was just the 3 of us on Christmas Eve. We headed to mass 30 minutes early knowing the Chreasters would have the placed packed to the gills, ending up with some quiet seats in the back row. As we are a bit of a traveling show with the diaper bag and car seat, this was a perfect spot for our little group. Halfway through mass Henry decided to fuss briefly but was soon fast asleep after a quick walk out to vestibule. Becky and I went up to communion only to end up standing right behind Jackie Purcell, a local celebrity here in Anchorage.  She's the undeniable #1 weather reporter in the state and we got a chuckle out of it. The saying up here is that Anchorage is a small town, which we have proven by crossing paths with the Palins at Costco and Target (Honestly, it's not all Palins all the time). Even though he was due to eat, Henry made it through church as a model of quiet peacefulness and saved his hunger cries for home. It may have been his Christmas gift to us.

Henry seemed to enjoy the It's A Wonderful Life dvd that flickered in the living room, which probably has a great deal to do with the endless contrasting of light and dark on the screen. Black and white is probably a perfect level of visual excitement for him these days. We explained to him very clearly that Santa would not come unless he went to bed like a good boy. He drooled, smiled, and happily squealed a great deal, though in the end he made it to bed smoothly and quietly. Santa would indeed be stopping by our home.



I don't know how many gifts were under the tree in total, but it seemed liked 90% of the pile was for Hank. I believe this will happily only get much worse as the years tick by. After a nice morning bottle and some carols we tried to get Henry to start tearing into some gifts. He tried a bit, but seemed to descend into the crinkling of paper once he had a decent enough piece in his hands. The present would end up half open and mom or dad would have to finish the job.



He made it half way through his gifts and then become suddenly overcome by yawns and general fussiness. We quickly sprinted through the second half of gifts and gave this little guy a nap. There was just so much Christmas that the poor guy was all worn out!

(as always, more pictures here)