Merry Christmas!
Evan had his first Christmas. It was wonderful. We stayed with Bob, Katie, Ben and Jilli (my brother's family) in Bakersfield and ate great food, played games (I got the 20th edition Trivial Pursuit for Christmas), went on long walks, and relaxed. We drove almost five hours down there -- the longest we've ever had Evan in the car. He did great. He slept a little but played with his toys most of the time.

I admit, one of the greatest things about the holiday was letting other family members enjoy the baby. It gave Jerry and I some much-needed breaks. We got to read our magazines and books, take naps and shop while he was in the loving arms of Aunt Katie, Uncle Bob or nana and papaw.

Evan got a kick out of Aunt Katie. I don't know what she does, exactly, but she gave him the cackles. He also loved the attention from his cousins. He was the center of attention and he loved it.

Opening gifts was fun for us, but Evan didn't get it, of course. He tore a little paper, but mostly he seemed to like being surrounded by nice people who smiled and made funny noises at him. We didn't take more than about five pictures of his first Christmas -- I guess we were living in the moment.

Nana taught him to make "Indian" noises. When he would make "aahhhhh" sounds, she would pat her hand over his mouth to make the noise. By the end of the holiday, he got it. Now he makes the "aahhhhh" sounds in anticipation of the game.

He's trying hard to crawl. At one point, he got up on his hands and tippy toes for a second, with his butt going straight up in the air. Other times he got on his hands and knees, but couldn't stay in that position for more than a few seconds. He seems to be close.

We came back from our vacation today, and Evan slept almost the entire way home (it took 6 hours this time because we stopped for a leisurely lunch). I think he was exhausted because his naps at Bob's weren't very long... there was too much excitement going on. Anyway, even after those naps today he was pretty exhausted. Tonight I rocked him for 5 minutes then put him down in his crib when he was still wide awake, and he fell asleep on his own... no crying!