and a merry christmas it was

yesterday gigi, papa, kathryn, and earl arrived to celebrate christmas with us and we have had a wonderful time here in boston. last night, we attended hope's first ever christmas eve service and we all enjoyed hearing God's word and singing christmas carols. quinn laughed and danced the whole time! after the service, we headed over to the stumps' house for dinner and desserts along with more singing and reading the christmas story. we love that tradition of sharing christmas eve with some of our closest friends up here.

delicious food prepared by connie

quinn entertained us by dancing while we sang christmas carols

walking in his cute christmas outfit from the cooks

this morning we woke up and santa had arrived! we were glad he came early since quinn was up for 3 hours in the middle of the night...teething doesn't even take a break for christmas!

quinn and bella opening presents

helping mommy open presents

playing with his new guitar from aunt kat and earl!

and finally, here are 2 videos of quinn learning to use the walker that uncle bryan and aunt katie gave him. we're working on learning to steer it, which is tough in a small apartment. but even with a few steering issues, he absolutely loved it! you can see in the second video that he actually gets upset every time he gets to the end of the hall and has to stop so we can turn it around. i think we will be spending many hours in this hallway with him :)

quinn got so many cool new toys that i think we're going to have to pack up the old ones to make room for the new ones! he had a fun day (despite not feeling great) and i'm sure he will keep having fun over the next few days as he explores his new toys.

we feel truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to share this special time with us. it has been a great christmas so far, and it's not over yet!