Whew!

This past week has been a non-stop whirlwind, but I love it! Jackson had a wonderful Christmas and really got the hang of the whole "present unwrapping" thing! It was nice this year, b/c we didn't have to cram all of our traveling into 3 days, so we were able to slow down a little bit. We went over to Wilson to celebrate with the Ryans Christmas Eve day, but we were home by 7:30 in time for Jackson to get to bed. We woke up Christmas morning to lots of toys in the family room -- all unwrapped and out of the box. That was good thinking on Santa's part since Jackson has absolutely no patience when it comes to toy removal. (See Uncle Joe below.) I mean really, is it mandatory that they package toys with oodles of twist ties and even screws?!? I guess we are just novice parents who haven't quite mastered this skill just yet.

Christmas morning we headed down to Bladenboro to celebrate with all the Jacksons at my Grandma's house and we spent Christmas night with my parents. It was nice to settle down that afternoon and not have to pack right back up. I felt like we were non-stop packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking for a week. We decided to get back to Wendell Friday afternoon, so that Jackson could play with all of his fun new toys.

It has certainly been crazy these past few days, but man, it's been a lot of fun! As 2008 comes to an end, we are looking forward to lots more GOOD TIMES in '09!!

Santa came to see the Ryans! (He didn't bring Toby, he just insisted on being in the picture.)

Jackson and his sweet new barn!

Nana and Pa-Jack gave Jackson a Gator! He thinks he is one cool dude!! He has already gotten the hang of the pushing the pedal, well, just wide open. He's clueless about steering though...he'll get there soon enough. He loves this thing and wants to ride it every time he sees it! He has had multiple melt-downs when he couldn't. I think we may try covering it to see if that would help... Out of sight, out of mind -- I don't know, he's pretty smart. :-)

This is Uncle Joe trying (really hard) to get a backhoe out of the box for Jackson. He had no idea what he was in for when he offered to get it out. Sean has become very familiar with the pressure Jackson puts on you to get toys out. It's really funny to watch him wait so impatiently!

Mamma and Papa gave Jackson this train set. Papa actually built the train table and it looks great! He did an awesome job on it -- this table will be around for many years to come.

Jackson loves his train table! This is the first place he goes to in the mornings. He loves putting Thomas and all his friends inside the shed and through the bridge. We have already learned quite a bit about Thomas and I have a feeling he's going to be around for a good long time!

So by the time Don and Jen gave Jackson this present Sunday night, he had mastered the art of unwrapping. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do and he got it unwrapped all by himself in record time!