Baby's 1st Christmas

We had a few busy busy days of Christmas festivities this year. It started with dinner at Dad and Sally's place on the 23rd. It was the first time many of Sally's family met Miss Natalie and it was fun to show her off to everyone. We sat down for dinner, although I had to excuse myself to feed baby shortly into it. Luckily Eric and my Dad brought my plate and root beer over for me to enjoy in the meantime. Then we opened a few gifts- We gave Dad and Sally a few framed photos from our family photo shoot, which  I think they enjoyed. Natalie received a couple cute outfits, a pink rattle, and a carrosel toy that plays music. Eric was happy to get a voucher for his 2011 fishing license and I got the one thing I oh so wanted from my list- my newest addition to my (small) Circle of Love collection. This piece, called "True Joy" is a modern statue of a man and women caressing a new baby in their arms. I just love it! I'm glad someone tracked one down for me, since it's an older piece of the artist's collection. It was perfectly fitting for our first official holiday season as a family of three. Thanks Dad and Sally!


On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Fleming's house. We had fun toting Natalie around in her little red and white Christmas footsie pajamas. I even found a little red headband to match her outfit! She actually napped a little while we ate and then after dinner, there was the annual Christmas gift exchange. Before we left, we handed out wallet size photo frames of our beautiful baby and little boxes of peppermint bark that I had made. Everyone seemed to enjoy them.


We work up early Christmas morning to spend a bit of time together as a new family. Eric had the great idea of stuffing Natalie into her own stocking and taking some pictures of her under the tree, which turned out adorable! Then we each took a picture with Natalie in front of the tree (unfortunately Natalie grew tired of wearing her stocking come time for Eric's turn...). This year, our Christmas tree has accumulated a few more ornaments, since we also enjoy the tradition of collecting them from places we travel to or important things going on in our lives. We added a cute shell from Pismo Beach that we found when we were vacationing on our babymoon. And then of course, we have our favorite addition for this year- baby Natalie’s ornament!




Sadly my annual tradition of freshly-baked cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning did not come to pass this year... so we baked a batch of Pillsbury instead and fed the four-legged kids their special Christmas breakfast (organic vanilla yogurt).  Then opened gifts. Santa brought Natalie her first movie, Disney's Fantasia, and we bought her a lovely book called "How Do I Love You." Eric and I exchanged a few small things before we got ready to head over to yet another festivity- Christmas at Don and Karen's house out in Brentwood (Aunt Kit's sister and their side of the family). I had another outfit all ready to go for Natalie- a little red footsie outfit that Uncle Greg and Aunt Vicki sent from Texas that says "Baby's 1st Christmas."

The customary gift exchange at Don and Karen's house is always fun, eventful and takes forever! Aunt Kit just loves Christmas and playing Santa with her little hat, handing out gifts to all. Everyone was very generous, as always. Natalie received lots of new clothes and a few cute pairs of shoes. We also met Eric's cousin's new baby, Amare, who was born just three weeks ago. We had fun taking a few pictures of the babies together. We can tell already that Amare is going to be TALL just like his Daddy! He and Natalie appear to be just about the same size! While everyone opened gifts, a few people enjoyed passing around the new babies. Before we had dinner, we passed out more wallet photo frames of Natalie along with more peppermint bark. Everyone just loved her cute little pictures. While we ate, Natalie and Amare took a little nap on the floor together.


I was a little bummed that we didn't really get to spend any good time with Elaine, although we were both really busy with all of our usual festivities and house hopping to do. So, on Sunday, we went over to her place and made pizza for everyone. It was nice and relaxing to just hang out and recoperate from the previous days events. We gave Elaine and Andrew a giftcard to Lowe's, since they're always working on some kind of house project, and gave baby-in-waiting a book called "Counting on Calico" (which Elaine really wanted). They gave Natalie a cute little birdie rattle toy and Eric received a CD that he had wanted.

After all the gift opening, we agreed that next year will be all about the kids! Gift shopping and exchanging can be fun, but it can also be a bit of a headache. And then there's the obligation to buy for certain people and budgets that get stretched a little more than originally planned. So next year, there will only be gifts for the kids. We should be focusing on spending good, quality time with our family and remembering the real reason why we celebrate. And I'm very much looking forward to it!