Christmas Eve

Oh boy, it's Jack's first Christmas Eve! We both woke up this morning with huge smiles on our faces - me because I knew how cool today would be for him, and him because he's a happy boy. But the point is that this will be his first exposure to the Christmas Eve tradition with Nikki's side of the family. Already he's scored some neat toys and a collection of books from his Nana and Papa, and there's more to come later tonight at Old Grandma's. I feel the holidays of the past few years have been not so much of a let-down, but certainly not as exciting as I had hoped. This year has been different though, in that I don't need to be excited for myself, but I'm pumped for Jack. His reactions and interactions are what I'm focusing on, and it's been great.

He's getting so close to crawling now too. He's a pro at rolling to get where he wants to go, and he often performs the motions of crawling with his arms and legs, but he stops short of actually moving across the floor. It's coming soon though, which is amazing.

Finally, I assume anybody reading this already knows, but Nikki and I are engaged. Our anniversary is on December 18th, a solid week before Christmas, so we've gotten into the habit of exchanging gifts on that day for both occasions. This year, I decided to stop screwing around and give her the ring. It's exciting and - so far as I know - expected. I always believed that we didn't need an official ceremony and all of that to declare that we're partners for life, but I do think it will be cool and another good chance for all of our friends and family to get together. And Jack can play a role too. Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you. We'll talk again soon. And look for pictures of Jack on Facebook, keychains, mantles, walls, etc.