Max's First Christmas and First Hanukkah

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! YES.... Max gets to celebrate both! I'm Jewish and Jerry is Catholic so Max is technically Jewish ( born from a Jewish Mother ) and raised with all of our religious holidays. And YES that might get confusing. But we are going to take it one step at a time. Our policy is that all holidays really are about love.... so we get to slather him in double the love!

Grandma Marty came to town the first weekend in December to share Christmas with Max. It was so fun to watch him with his first big pile of gifts.









And He celebrated his first Hanukkah the following week. We went to Temple the first night, and lit the candles and said the prayer. He was fascinated with the light.




We also had a mini holiday party over at Club 21. Here are all of my favorite folks ( ok some are not pictured but MOST of them are there ). It was great to see everyone before we had a break for the holidays.



My parents came up for a weekend and bought Max some Hanukkah gifts as well.
Max had his first experience in a highchair that weekend. Plus he got to meet his Cousin David and he REALLY was into him.
( I'll post photos of these things later! )



Last night we went to Temple for Chinese food and a movie. Max got to meet a lot of wonderful people who all told us how cute he is. What mom doesn't love that. Met a few who know some friends of mine ( small world ) and for some reason I felt like I fit right in there. .....um.....it does feel that way around other Jews even if I don't know them yet.
Jerry met a lot of people that are from Michigan, or went to the university of Chicago. A lot of things to talk about !

I just finished wrapping Max's Christmas gifts and put them under the tree and took a few photos of it. Max is still in bed. It's my first experience being Santa!

After we have our fun here - we head over to Jerry's dad's house for a Holiday Party with our extended family. More photos to follow. We do Secret Santa with them because there are SO MANY of them!

Jerry and I are excited to drive there in our new car! It literally just arrived this week. It's our gift to the family. It's a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox. It's beautiful and luxurious and bigger which is the point! YAY for all of us! It was a Festivus Miracle. We are both so happy we now have the room we need for our family.

Have a Wonderful Christmas everyone. I'm grateful for all of you who read this blog, are in our lives, or know someone who has Down syndrome. Our lives are so much richer because of the love you share and support you give.
That is worth more than any of the gifts under our tree.

Love
Catherine, Jerry and Max