baby's first Christmas

Isaac is so sweet. Look at this picture. Take a guess at what Isaac would be interested in. It's in this picture.
No, it's not the ornaments on the tree. Nor is it the tree itself.

Nor is it the wrapping paper or bows or presents. Isaac bypassed all that and went for the boombox you see in the back of the first picture. Only once did he seem remotely interested in the presents, and that was for a fleeting moment. He is definitely not too materialistic.

Mama and Papa might be though. We gave pictures of him to several people. We hope that wasn't too narcissistic of us. Actually, probably it was fine since those people were in his family. Here is Great-Uncle Chris proudly displaying his present.

Here is Isaac in the shirt Great-Grandma gave him a while ago. I thought he should probably wear it sometime around Christmas. We had him dressed up for Mass but took off the fancier clothes for opening presents. Perhaps I should be more chronological in the telling of this story.

We went to Christmas Vigil Mass at 5:30, which we have always done, it seems. I like the 5:30 Mass. I guess it's one of our traditions. Midnight Mass is pretty too, but there isn't actually a midnight Mass in Newport... Anyways, it was pretty and the church was actually pretty full. That was nice to see since last year it was not so full at Christmas and that made me a little sad. Isaac was very good. He rode with Nana, Bumpa and Uncle Mikey to church, and Mama and Papa followed close behind. He sat and looked around quietly on Nana's lap, then fell asleep during the rest of Mass. He woke up at the very end.

One interesting thing that Father Mark from St. Mary in Eugene said last Sunday - about Christmas - that I thought is something to think about:

"So, last July I received a card from Fr. ? (I don't remember who.) I actually thought he had gone into early retirement for dementia! But, here he was sending me a Christmas card in the middle of July. And inside, it said, 'If He doesn't come every day, He doesn't come any day.'"

So think about that. I think it's pretty profound.

After Mass we came back to our house and Great-grandma and Great-grandpa and Great-uncle Chris came over and we ate dinner, which consisted of vast quantities of delicious seafood, including black cod, salmon, clam chowder, and the traditional oyster stew, in addition to much other food. After that, we opened presents.

Mama got a new camera, a Nikon Coolpix, and tomorrow, she will post the pictures from that. These are all pictures from the old camera, which was actually Nana's, and we had been using since Isaac was born. I thought we shouldn't overdo it with the pictures in one post, so we'll space it out and it will be quite enjoyable.

Papa got a big box...

and inside that box was his old drum with a new skin! The old skin had broken and Nana had it repaired for him. He was very surprised and happy, and Isaac wanted to try it out with him!

Isaac wasn't really into the presents, but he got a lot of board books and a few stuffed animals, as well as a sweet, very soft blanket with his name embroidered on it from his cousin Louisa. She really is good at embroidery! I can't believe she can already do that at just 10 1/2 months! :)

One present that interested him for a little while was his first ornament, which was a little glass float.

Today we came back. We very much enjoyed our Christmas and visiting our family. Now little boy is tired and we are going to sleep! Tomorrow, we will show you pictures from the new camera!