Baby's First Christmas

I have a lot I want to update on, but I think I'll start with this- we celebrated Christmas, of course, and of course, it was Caleb's first. He turned exactly 6 months old on Christmas. Cool, eh? Christmas morning Jeff and I waited to open presents until Caleb woke up and after we ate breakfast. I made a breakfast casserole and homemade cinnamon rolls. Yum! :)

Then we let Caleb start, by sitting him in front of the tree and first seeing what he would do. He started playing with the lights and then he sort of attacked a present under the tree. I gave him his own present to unwrap. He wasn't too thrilled at first- I must say here, that he seemed to enjoy the wrapping paper- and I took the wrapping paper bow that I made from him- and he was sick with his first real cold (or whatever it is that's still ailing him).

He unwrapped his present and immediately put it into his mouth- Perfect. We then tried having him unwrap another present and that's when he started to cry, and I mean really cry. Poor guy. He was first enjoying the wrapping paper- I took it away. Then he was enjoying his new toy and I took that away... and to top it off, he wasn't feeling- just to add insult to injury. Jeff opened the windows though and he immediately stopped crying. Outside is so magical for this kid. He just loves it and I hope he will always find the beauty of nature magical.

We all continued to open our presents. It was a fabulous morning. After opening and playing with presents, I nursed Caleb, who then went to sleep. Jeff got ready for church. He's the only one of us that went, since Caleb was sick and we stayed home.

Later that afternoon, we headed to Powhatan, first to pick up my nephews and then to head to my grandmother's home for Christmas celebrations on my dad's side of the family. It was so nice to see everyone. My aunts had only seen Caleb once or twice and one of them hadn't met him at all yet. My grandmother had also not yet met him, so it was good to see them all. My aunt Monica held Caleb for awhile and he eventually fell asleep in her arms, it was so sweet.

After spending a couple of hours eating, talking, reminiscing, looking at pictures and enjoying spending time with family, we packed up our car (wishing that we had a bigger car) and headed to my mom's-side- of-the-family-celebration at my granparents' home. We were the first ones there, which was nice because Caleb was sleeping and was able to continue to do so on my grandparents' bed. Soon everyone else arrived and it was a grand celebration with family. We ate, talked, took pictures, laughed, told stories all leading up to the main event- where my grandfather read the Christmas story from Luke in the Bible, then I played Silent Night on the flute (my string present! Yay! I had played the flute many years ago, but not since and was so excited to get a new flute and learn how to play all over again) while my little nephew Miles sang. It was absolutely precious.

Afterwards, we opened presents- which was completely hectic, but definitely an exciting thrill for all of the little kids, which made it really fun for me. :) I love watching little kids get excited and their eyes light up and when they try to help pass presents to the right person. What fun!

Once everyone had received their presents, we presented my mom and step-dad with their gift. They each opened a box of picture frames. Inside each box were framed photographs of all of their children, together and separate or with families- so that they could create a collage on their wall. They were thrilled. They were excited that we all managed to get together to take pictures. It really was fabulous and we all had such a great time.

Well, that was our Christmas in a nutshell!! :) Hope yours was just as fabulous!


*EDIT*

Thanks to my friend, I realized that I inadvertently left out our family celebrations with Jeff's family. Jeff's brother, Evan, was heading to BYU- I to start school this semester, so we celebrated Christmas with his side of the family on the Monday before Christmas since their plan was to fly to Utah early Wednesday morning and not be back until after Christmas (they drove back with Jeff's sister, Lisa). It was nice. We had a yummy dinner and then opened gifts afterwards. They gave Caleb a wooden activity walker thingy which Caleb loves... mostly as a teether, but it's a toy that he will grow with. Great choice!! :)

I think he rather enjoyed the box. :)

Checking it out.