As I said in another post, normally at Granny and Papa's house, Christmas starts dark and early--usually we are up before the sun, all tearing into our presents, much to Michael's exhaustion, lol. This year, the one that Michael was unable to make it, we actually couldn't start until later!!
Amber and Jud both worked Friday and could not get out of Tyler until early Saturday morning, so they didn't arrive until 9 or so. As they knew Amber would be late, Aunt Cindy and Uncle Ted did not rush over, so they did not arrive until around 10.30 or so.
This actually turned out to be a blessing because it gave us plenty of time to do Gabriel's sensory things!!
Every day, we have a list of things that Michael and I are supposed to do with Gabriel that help him feel more focused and calmed and centered. Basically, it helps him learn and cope with his environment better.
So that morning--New Years Eve--Jarrod and Tyler (my cousin) helped me. We spun him around in circles in the swivel computer chair or holding him, ran him up and down the stairs, did deep-pressure compressions, chased him outside until he was breathless, brushed him, and put his weighted vest on. Anytime he got overwhelmed we took him out to the van so he could sit and regroup for a few minutes or Oma would rock him and spell words or recite addition problems.
We had the plan that we would try and get Gabriel to wear his new headphones while we opened presents, and if that did not work, I would take him into the computer room where he could open his presents all by himself.
He would only wear the headphones for short bursts, and as the presents were being handed out, I noticed he was getting more and more fidgety. Right before everyone tore in, I got Gabe to sign "thank you" to Gigi and Papa, and I snuck him off into the computer room. I think it was the right decision because I didn't want to make the day more stressful for him than it needed to be, and we haven't gotten very good at calming him down once he is worked up yet.
He opened one present and then was officially done--it was the "Jonah" veggie tales DVD and from that point forward, all he did was stare at that movie. So as soon as I was done trying to tempt his attention away, I finally put his new movie in to watch and went to go check on Emerald and Benjamin.
You never have to worry about either of them--someone is always happy to hold little Benji, who is an incredibly happy, loving little baby that will be content to lay in your arms or thrilled if you babble and play with him. Emerald had all ready torn into all of her presents and was wandering around seeing what everyone else got, so I opened my own presents and Benjamin's as well.
After opening all our presents and trying new clothes on and everything, Papa went outside and saddled up the horses, much to Emerald's delight. I let her go outside and ride, but Gabriel wasn't very interested. I helped clean up and set out the smorgasbord of food--there were sausage balls, queso, french bread and bruschetta, crudites, several types of cheeses, summer sausage, hummus, dips, orange slices, chips...more than I could possibly remember, but I bet you Granny is going to be eating leftovers from that lunch for a long time.
We just kind of lounged about for the rest of the day--we took a nap, Gabe watched that Jonah DVD at least the full times (he just kept requesting it, and no one had the heart to tell him no!), Emerald and I went to Sam Moon to exchange a purse that Julia had gotten. While we were gone, Mom set up the tent for Gabriel who was absolutely thrilled to have his own little special place. Benjamin got spoiled rotten because he was not set down for a minute the entire time we were there, so when we left and he had to spend some of the day entertaining himself, he was less than pleased, lol.
Gigi was worn out and requested that we NOT stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve, seeing as we were all in her house and we all had church in the morning. The kids went to sleep around the usual time, but Amber, Julia, and I stayed up late talking so that we could ring in the new year together.
Sunday morning, we got up and got gussied up to go to my hometown church. I miss it a lot, but it feels so different because so many things have changed since I was there. Gabriel and Emerald were all in the same class and Benjamin was right next door, so I stayed in the class with Gabe to help him out. Sure enough, he made multiple (rather successful) escape attempts that left me clodding up the hall to catch him. Poor Dominic at one point tried to bar the door to keep Gabe from leaving, which earned him a rather harsh hair-pulling from Mr. Gabe. Emerald herself had a bit of a meltdown when we left class. Service went pretty smoothly--Benjamin and Emerald made it all the way through sitting next to Gigi, while Gabriel only made it to communion before I had to sneak him out. Gabriel had taken a liking to my cousin Justin, so they played together in the nursery with the other kids while I went back to church.
After service was over, we decided to go out for lunch to spare Granny another mess to clean up. Unfortunately we forgot that it was now New Years Day and almost everywhere was closed. Babe's chicken ended up being opened, so we went there--it was really good, actually. We got fried chicken (some people got chicken fried steak) and mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, this sweet corn, and gravy...the atmosphere was a bit hectic, so I couldn't convince Gabriel to eat--he just watched Jonah on my phone while everyone else ate and I fed him ham and cheese and oranges and trail mix when we got back to Gigi's house.
We loaded up in the car and drove back to Jarrod and Julia's after that--we stopped long enough to drop Dominic off with his mom, and had a pizza dinner at Ms. Emerald's house.
So that is the last "post" of 2011!! Stay tuned for our adventures after the new year :)
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