Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a big night for Jackie boy. He knew it was going to be very exciting even if he wasn't completely sure why. He did have all the buzzwords down and talked about Baby Jesus, and shepherds and angels and Santa and presents even if he didn't know how any of those things were connected. If nothing else, he knew he looked super cute in the Santa suit we dressed him in over at Bella and Grandpa's house.


He ran right out to show off his fancy outfit to Bella, and the festivities officially began. There was tons of food and plenty of new recipes to get us all started for the evening.


Then it was time for presents. After his week long birthday celebration and our little Christmas at home, Jackson was already a pro at opening presents. He didn't waste any time helping mommy open one of hers.

Then he was off his seat and over to help uncle "Jer-Gee" open his Jeff Gordon cook set.

Grandpa got the electric fillet knife he'd asked for and promised us all a fish fry this summer.

Jackson wanted to open one of his presents every time someone else opened on of theirs, and when he couldn't, he wanted to open one of someone else's presents for them. He was eager to run off with Bella's new Ipod.

Gram likes cardinals of all kinds (in case the sweater didn't give it away), and here she is opening her set of Cardinals baseball collectors pins.

Angie loved her new hat Susie knit for her. I'm not sure she took it off until we got to church, and even then it didn't seem like she really wanted to.

Jackson ran from present to present and collected lots of cool gifts like a Thomas train/bridge set, some books, a step stool, a fuzzy blanket, some cute clothes, and a puzzle.

He didn't want to leave all the fun, but the whole family headed off to church. Jackson handled the service very well and even interjected some of his random Christmas words like "shepherds," and "Jesus Christ" much to the amusement of the people sitting around us.

After church we headed to Nana and PawPaw's house for the Spangler family Christmas party. The place was packed, but Rachel's baby radar led her right to her newest cousin, Abbeny.

Jackson was less interested in the babies. He was excited to play monsters with the big boys, and he did it looking good in his white button-down and tie.

Of course, there were the gamblers hooting and hollering at the dice and each other.

Aunt Debbie and baby Preston took a quieter spot in the living room for some cuddle time.

Kinley and Aunt Dawn made the social rounds. Kinley made sure to "flirt" with everyone in the room by batting her eye lashes in truly adorable fashion.

It was really good to spend time with family, and we hated to see the night come to a close, but we had to get some rest before our big day on Christmas.