Last year at Christmas Sunday was still a teeny tiny newborn so this year really felt like our first Christmas with her as an interactive baby. We were blessed to have three different Christmas celebrations this year: one with Tommy's family, one at our own home and then one with my family in Fredericksburg. After the first celebration Sunday seemed to catch onto the unwrapping presents thing so it became super fun to watch her explore! Our first celebration was with Tommy's family and Sunday received soooo many goodies. I actually saved two gifts to put under our tree for Christmas morning because she was already having so much fun with the gifts she received first. One jackpot gift was this little Dora chair from Grandma & Grandpa (Tommy's parents).
She LOVES this thing and I think she feels like such a big girl when she sits in it. Sometimes it's the only place I can put her down when she is feeling especially clingy. I love these pictures of her!
On Christmas morning Sunday slept in until about 7:30, the latest she has slept in months! Of course! When she did wake up I insisted that the very first thing we do was put Jesus in His place in the nativity scenes. Tommy was a super good sport about that, as was Sunday. :) (I made him do it a few times so I could get pictures.)
We invited my mom and brother to come to our house for Christmas morning since my dad was going to be in Florida with his mom. Both of them brought gifts for Sunday and she opened the big one first. Tommy had to help her wake up a bit and give her a quick reminder of how to open presents. She got the hang of it quickly and we had a great morning of giving, receiving, and watching her discover.
Tommy got me an ornament to match my awesome Holy Land nativity scene (his mom gifted us the nativity and picked out each individual piece while she was in Jerusalem in 2011), and I went with a sweet homemade ornament I knew he would love. I was right, he asked me to make the same ornament every year from now on! :) He's so easy! Oh, and yes. We got Sunday a sock monkey ornament. So did everyone else in her life. We now have FIVE sock monkey ornaments. Too funny.
We had a lovely Christmas morning at home followed by a delicious lunch with Tommy's whole family later in the day. Fast forward a week and we were celebrating again with my family in Fredericksburg on New Years Day! Of course the entire time we were there was just depressing because my sisters family was set to move on the third. So, instead of taking pictures of the gift opening and dinner, I focused on capturing some sweet cousin interaction. Trying to freeze time, ya know. :)
We had a lovely Christmas and again I find myself overwhelmed with the blessings in our lives. Between our three celebrations we made incredible memories and each received wonderful, thoughtful gifts. I somehow managed to collect really nice trail running gear to help me kick off the new year on the right foot, including a subscription to Clean Eating magazine that I'm SUPER excited about! But... more on all of that later... :)