I started out the holiday season feeling not very excited. I'm tired. I'm pregnant. And I just hoped people didn't get her presents that would annoy me.
So I went to bed on Christmas eve, just like it was any other day. But I found that whenever I woke up during the night (which is often with a baby in the bed) it was hard to fall back asleep. I had that weird feeling of excited anticipation that you get when you're a kid. Just waiting for Christmas morning to finally arrive. At any of those moments when I awoke, I could have been up for the day. I was awake and excited, and had to force myself to go back to sleep.
I woke up before Aaron and Chancellor, went to the bathroom, and when I walked back into the bedroom I see my beautiful little girl wake up and smile at me. I think she knew it was a special day. We were such a happy, excited family!
After breakfast, we went and opened some gifts. (MY favorite gift this year was a rocking chair from my husband. Nothing has ever been more needed or appreciated). Chancellor got some pretty nice stuff. grandma and grandad got her some really cool toys, and Aaron and I got her some all right things. She had a lot of fun figuring out that after the fun of ripping paper is gone, there's a toy to play with under it. This girl loves paper, and was sooo excited to see the colorful toys it was hiding.
That's Chancellor opening up her very first Christmas present! She had just ripped off a piece of wrapping paper and was handing it Grandma. She's very good about sharing.
That afternoon we went to Aunt Rosie's house. Chancellor got a couple more presents, and we got to eat yummy food and play games and just visit with family that we hadn't seen in a while.
53 years ago, my grandma made Raggedy Anne and Andy dolls for her sister, Rosie. This year, Rosie gave them to Chancellor for Christmas. I never got to meet my grandma, and don't really have any of the wonderful things she made, so it's really awesome that Chancellor has something to treasure. She is not allowed to play with them.
We took a few family pictures at Rosie's house, but it turns out I had the camera set on "flower" instead of "mountain" so they came out kinda blurry. That was the best we could get.
The next day we went to the Umberson house to exchange gifts on that side of the family. We got some really nice things. Chancellor got books and toys, and cute little shoes! Grandpa Trick got her this cool little car. She really likes to play with the "gear shift" part of it.
So it turned out to be a really nice first Christmas for my little girl. It's good to see how happy it makes everybody to have a baby around. Makes Christmas just a little more special again.
Glad to hear your Christmas was good! I love those raggedy Dolls-and all things homemade, really! I was laughing because I have those exact same Paul Frank Monkey pajamas as Chancellor. I'll bring them next time and we can take a picture together.
ReplyDeleteThe books we sent might be a little older for her, but we feel like you can never have enough books for kids. Reading to my boys is my favorite thing in the world to do.
xoxoxox,
sally