A Slaton Family Christmas

After we packed up our haul from Granny and Papa's, we headed east to Oklahoma City to celebrate Christmas with John's parents and his brother's family.


Here is John snuggling our little man, who had on his "Santa's Little Helper" outfit.

Gerre (Nonnie) opening Christmas gifts.

Jim helped James open his gifts. Last year James was only a month old and slept through most of the Christmas festivities, but this year he had a great time pulling out tissue paper, helping unwrap gifts, and then playing with his new toys.

Here is Dale (Paw Paw) opening his Seinfeld Scene-It game.

What holiday is complete without some family photos? Here are James (13 months old) and Drew in their Christmas outfits.

Nonnie and Paw Paw with James and Drew

Jim and Jaclyn moved to Wellston, Oklahoma last summer because Jaclyn is now attending the medical school at OU in Oklahoma City. Wellston is a little town northeast of there, so they took us on the grand tour and we got to see the med school, their house, the church where Jim works, and the town. On our way back, they took us to Pop's, this awesome little gas station/burger joint that specializes in old glass-bottle sodas. They had an entire wall of refrigerator units (like the glass-front ones in convenience stores) with every imaginable kind of soda. It's owned by the former owner or CEO of a big oil company, so he does it just for kicks. We had a great time on our tour, so thanks Jim and Jaclyn! John was a good sport to pose with our sodas in front of the giant bottle statue out front. And for the record, my favorite was the sasparilla, which I'd never had before.

A Mills Family Christmas

In the grand tradition of the Mills family, we opened our presents at home on Christmas morning, then headed to Erick, Oklahoma to open gifts with the rest of the clan. Drew was a great sport, and probably wound up with more gifts than anyone else. Here is John helping him open a gift.

Not to be forgotten, Sadie and Gracie (that's Gracie on the left, she's my parents' miniature dachshund) got stuffed animals for Christmas, which they promptly tore to bits.


All the presents made poor Drew tired, so he had to stop for a rest. Grandmommy was happy to provide a lap for napping on.

Here is me with my very favorite Christmas gift -- John gave me a gorgeous pendant that is Drew's birthstone surrounded by diamonds. It was a surprise, and I love it!

Here's Drew with his stash. In our holiday tradition, we wake up, eat breakfast, and open presents in our pajamas, so Drew is in a cute sleeper that says Baby's First Christmas.

Next, we hit the road for Oklahoma. We went to Granny and Papa's house for Christmas dinner, then did our traditional gift-opening routine. We all draw a name and get that person a big gift, then we get everyone stocking stuffers related to that year's theme. This year the theme was "things that come in pairs," so there were some really great ideas. Here is Drew with Great Granny. (I don't know what face he was making -- he wasn't fussy at all.)

Here is Grandmommy (with Drew again), Fred, and Papa. He seems to be pleased with his big old stack of gifts.

I love this picture! Drew got dressed up in his Santa suit to spread some holiday cheer and clearly enjoyed some snuggle time with Papa.

Here are Fred and Janna with their stocking stuffers. (Janna's opening a pair of gardening gloves.)

Granny makes stockings for each member of the family. The row of stockings has grown, and it was so fun to see Drew's hanging up there with ours.

Fun in Amarillo

Our first stop on the "Christmas Extravaganze 2008" trip was Amarillo, Texas to visit my family. We arrived late on December 19, and John headed out the next morning on a ski trip with his dad and friend, Damien, to Frisco, Colorado. He had a couple of fun days of skiing, then was back before Christmas Eve. Sorry there are no pictures of the ski trip, but John's not the photographer of the family. So, here's what was going on in Amarillo while he was skiing.


Drew showed off his new skills to Grandmommy and Granddad. These skills include rolling over, raising up his head, smiling all the time, and drooling like it's going out of style.

Here is Granddad bouncing Drew on his leg. Clearly Drew is enjoying the newfound attention.

Cereal Attempt #1

After Drew's doctor appointment, we got the green light to begin feeding him rice cereal. For those of you without kids, it looks like potato flakes, and when mixed with milk, it pretty closely resembles wallpaper paste in texture and taste. We got Drew all set up in his Bumbo seat and ready for cereal time. Here's the before picture:

And here's the feeding. Clearly he's not having any of it. He pretty much spit out whatever I managed to slip in there, then screamed til he was as red as a tomato. Attempt 1 was a failure, but I'm not a quitter.

Here's sweet Drewby all bundled up. It was cold in Amarillo while we were there, so he got to wear a bunch of his warmest clothes that had not yet seen the light of day.
Cereal Attempt #2
For attempt #2, I made a few changes. We put him in his bouncy chair with the vibration turned on (this kiddo loves that bouncy chair, so that was a plus.) We also fed him about an hour after he had eaten, so he wasn't quite as hungry and cranky as the first time.

I'm happy to report that attempt #2 was a success, as you can tell from this photo.

Pre-Christmas Photos

Well, I'd say Christmas was a success! We had a wonderful trip and it seems like we travelled everywhere and saw everyone. It'll take several posts to hit everything, so here's a start. We took these pictures before we left. We thought it would be fun to have some pictures of Drew under the tree, since he's the best gift we've ever been given. He was a great sport, so enjoy these pictures!