Christmas 2015 - Fredericksen Christmases

Yep - Still posting about Christmas!! I'm not even ashamed...

We left home for our Christmas 2015 adventure on the Monday before Christmas. We visited and spent time with Trent's parents on that night and during the day on Tuesday before Melodie and Russ and the girls came over for supper and presents! 

Samuel was all dressed up and ready to celebrate his first Christmas!
He looks like he has a little balding going on in this picture, though! :)

Of course, we had a delicious supper!

Since we were opening presents in the evening and Samuel had to go to bed, he got to open all of his presents first! (well, I opened them for him!) The girls helped get him his presents and helped open them and took pictures with us and the gifts that they got their little cousin! 

Samuel got a super soft bear blankie from Taylor and the super cute Mustache Baby book from Jenna and he got a couple other books from Aunt Mel and Uncle Russ.

He got new jammies from Nana and Papa as well as some books, some Christmas ornaments to commemorate his first Christmas, and some bath toys!

He knew already how much he was going to love having those jammies in the rotation ;)

After all of Samuel's presents were opened, everyone paused to take a picture with Samuel before it was off to bed for him! Samuel was very spoiled and got some great gifts that he will use for many years to come!! 

Daddy and Samuel right before bed!

Samuel had a bit of a rough time going to sleep that night, but thankfully every one was very patient and waited for me while I got him to sleep. Then it was "go time" again! Everyone got great gifts and it was so fun to watch Taylor and Jenna open their presents!
 

 Time for the BIG presents!!

The next morning, we all headed up to Webster City to see Trent's Grandma and spend some time with her. We had really good soup and sandwiches for lunch, hung out for a while and exchanged a few presents before heading home later in the afternoon.

The Angry Russian on the way to Webster City

Nana and Samuel

Nana's funny

The Great Grandkids with Great Grandma Fredericksen

Baby's First Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, family all gathered at Jan and Chucks for a great Christmas celebration. Of course, we had great food and great conversation and Samuel got a lot of snuggles!!

Hanging out in the swing

Then Christmas morning came and we had our traditional breakfast that Trent's mom makes of French toast and fruit cups with sausage and bacon and toast and eggs! Yum! Then it was time to head out to go to spend a few days with my family.

The time went way to fast again this year and I absolutely love spending the holidays with so many family members! This year, it was also so great to talk about and reminisce about the events of  Christmas last year when we told Trent's parents that we were going to have a baby and when we spent Christmas Eve in the Emergency Room and then spend this Christmas with Samuel there! It was just perfect!! 

Christmas 2015 - Kock Christmases (Part 1)

This year, my immediate family had our Christmas here in Omaha once again.

Everyone arrived on Friday night and we watched some TV, worked on a puzzle, Wade and I played a few games of Cribbage, and just hung out. 

Saturday morning was our "Christmas morning" so we got up and opened presents. It was Samuel's first time opening gifts. He would grab onto the paper and pull on it, but he really had no clue what was going on. Eventually he just decided to fall asleep while we continued.

All the kids

 After the presents were opened, we moved the party into the kitchen and made the big traditional breakfast of eggs, French toast, butter braid, sausage, bacon, egg nog, chocolate milk, fruit and an egg bake. After we were all full, we just hung out and rested and took naps and gradually got ready to head out for the Christmas Pageant.

This was the third time we've attended the Christmas Pageant at Westside Church here in Omaha. This year's show was titled The Waiting Room. It was once again a grand show with lots of music and dancing and live animals to accompany the story of Jesus birth.

After the pageant, it was back to our house for supper. We had lasagna and hung out for a while until everyone had to pack up and head out. The time went way too fast.

Thankfully it was just the first of many Christmas celebrations and we were all going to be together again in a few weeks!