Grampa's Birthday and Christmas Eve

My Dad's Birthday is very close to Christmas, and because of this, he grew up very particular about how he likes to celebrate his big day.  Now with Kalea in our lives, he has someone in the family to commiserate with in having a birthday so close to a big holiday.  He now is able to share in a joyful occasion with his first grandchild.

Here is a picture of the Christmas babies spending some time together watching football.

Kalea has a brand new outfit and I decided to have her wear it for Grampa's birthday.  Here she is chasing after Charlie.

My Dad's favorite birthday cake is usually made by my mom, but she took him to dinner while we set up his birthday festivities at home.  Needless to say from this picture, the cake turned out a little funny.  At least it still tastes great!

Skyping with John and Kristin while opening birthday presents.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Now on to Christmas Eve.  Sorry Dad, I just have to since I don't have a lot of pictures from that day!

We had some time in between wrapping presents and enjoying tamales to play "So Big" with Kalea while playing with a football.

Taking a break on the kitchen floor.

On Christmas Eve, my family always opens one gift and it is a new set of Christmas pajamas.  After the pajamas, it is time to read "The Night Before Christmas."  We read it to Kalea last year, but of course she was only 2 days old, so she really didn't know what was going on.  This year, she enjoyed listening to the story while playing with a new book.  In this picture, she is actually looking at the story, but for the most part she was playing with her book.

We really love the Holidays; spending as much time as possible with our family is the most important part of the Christmas season for us.  In the end the presents don't matter, they will be forgotten with time.  I love making memories and traditions that hopefully Kalea will be able to share and pass down to her family some day in the future.  Merry Christmas Eve!