This Christmas was so special this year. Liam's first Christmas! While he won't remember it, Nic and I will and he was our most favorite gift we were given this year. The holiday came and went faster than I expected it to and as I was taking it all down yesterday, I couldn't help but feel a little bit nostalgic to put away his first Christmas ornaments and say goodbye to it all until next year. I realized though that every Christmas is bound to get better and better as he grows and begins to recognize the magic of it all. I already can't wait until next year! I know, I'm crazy.
Santa Baby. Is there anything cuter?! He didn't exactly love the hat but the hat sure loves him. ;)
He just started holding his hand like this with his thumb between his two fingers and it is the sweetest thing.
On Christmas Eve Eve, we celebrated with Nic's dad and his family at their house. They had all kinds of appetizers. My favorite was the shrimp dip. I also tried fruit cake for the first time (not a fan). We had a really great dinner (ham, mashed potatoes, and cooked carrots) and even better company.
We spent Christmas Eve at our house with Nic's mom. It was a little unconventional this year (we had pizza for dinner haha) but perfect in my book. We laughed our buns off at Christmas Vacation. That movie is such a classic and never gets old! Afterwards, we exchanged gifts and Liam got his first loud musical toy! What are grandma's for right?! It will be so fun when he is big enough to play with it. For now, the lights are his favorite part! We ended the evening with ice cream sundaes which probably had more toppings than actual ice cream. mmm
Grandma's make the most snuggly pillow.
One of my childhood traditions that I am loving carrying on with my own little family is getting new Christmas jammies and a book on Christmas Eve. Liam got his Christmas jammies from his Grandpa and Grandma West a little early this year so he wore them several times before Christmas Eve came. He also got several new Christmas stories that we read together and quickly became some of my favorites... Snowbunny's Christmas Wish, Merry Christmas Mouse!, and Olive the Other Reindeer.
Besides having the tradition of adding an ornament, the last few years we have added something new to our tree and this year it was a star. I bought our tree topper from West Elm later in the season on a great sale so it didn't show up in the mail until Christmas Eve. Better late than never! It is the perfect addition to our tree this year!
We spent our first Christmas morning in our home this year and opened presents together as a family of three in the living room. I got Liam a few things for Christmas and wrapped them up for Nic to open and be surprised. I had a baby's first Christmas ornament made for him from Shutterfly using one of his baby pictures, a stuffed hug me monkey that he can pull on and it retracts on his carseat, my new favorite favorite book You are My I Love You, and little animal bath toys. We woke up to a complete blizzard outside! Having a white Christmas is so fun unless you have to travel in it. We waited around until late morning to see if it was going to stop but when it kept falling we knew we needed to just go. The first hour of our drive to Meridian was a bit sketchy but after several prayers and driving very slowly, we made it there safely. We celebrated with my mom and brother by relaxing around the Christmas tree together. I ate one too many pieces of almond roca and am ready to start this new year with far less sugar around!
First time meeting his nephew.
This grandma was in heaven!
Yesterday I was looking around the house and feeling completely overwhelmed by it all... the taking down of Christmas decorations, the endless piles of glitter scattered all around our house, the overall mess of not cleaning for a couple of weeks. It is so much more fun to put it all up than to take it down isn't it?! I was really wanting a team full of Christmas elves to find their way to my house but I got my act together and did as much as I could during the day while Liam snoozed away in our favorite solly baby wrap and the night time elf came to my rescue when he got home from work. Bless him! I still have the cleaning ahead of me but I'm sort of taking it one space at a time to really deep clean and take it as an opportunity to reorganize and get rid of things that are simply causing clutter around here. I love that about the new year. If there are two words that this new year needs to be for us are ORGANIZED and PREPARED if we have some hope over survival when I go back to work. With a mere 12 days before my maternity leave ends and I have to find out what life really is like as a working mom... you can find me spending every second snuggling and squeezing my little boy.
Hope you had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year! XO
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