First Christmas

Due to the joys of holiday travels, Aubrey's first Christmas started last Sunday with G-ma and G-pa. Of course she has no clue what gifts are but she loved all the attention that came along with people watching her open presents. After presents, we went to to visit Santa. Or, let me rephrase, attempted to visit Santa. I looked up his scheduled ahead of time and he was supposed to be available until 5:00 and then he would be back at 6:00. So, we got to the mall at 4:15 thinking we would have plenty of time. When we went to get in line the gentleman in front of us said he was waiting on the 6:00 visit. WHAT?! I was not standing in line with my 10-month old for an hour an a half to wait on some expensive pictures of her crying in the big man's lap. So, we nixed that idea and moved on with some shopping. We then had a nice meal with G-ma and G-pa and called it a day.

The next part of Christmas started on Wednesday when we made the annual trek to Raleigh to hang out with Todd's extended family. Wednesday was a long day of riding in the car and visiting, but not a bad day. But the night was a different story. We always stay with Todd's cousin Diana because she lets us bring the dogs. The only problem with staying with her is the guest room is upstairs and does not have heat running to it. Usually, Todd and I plan for this, bring warm jammies, and snuggle up to sleep. We put Aubrey to bed, but she woke up about 2 hours later and WOULD NOT go back to sleep. I think she got too cold, which made me feel bad for her so I decided to sleep on the floor with her so she could snuggle with me. Yeah, she's not much of a snuggler, so that was out. About 12:30 when I was hitting exhaustion and frustration, I grabbed an extra blanket and wrapped the base of the pack 'n play in it, but another layer of clothes on Aubrey and put her back to bed. She finally went back to sleep, but then she started coughing. ALL NIGHT LONG. So, neither Todd nor I got much sleep so we were beat on Thursday. Aubrey somehow got some sleep and seemed all happy, fortunately. We took her to Todd's aunt and uncles house for Christmas Eve breakfast, which was fabulous as always. The rest of the day was just spent visiting with friends and family. At 5:00, Santa came to visit the little kids and I've never seen so many excited kids. We usually leave before this happens, but since Aubrey needed the requisite visit with Santa, we stayed. We did get some pics with her and Santa before quickly scooting out the door for our 3 hour ride home.


Santa came to visit Aubrey and I woke up before she did because I was excited for her. Of course, she demanded breakfast before toys (I am sure I will miss that in a few years when she refuses to eat because she wants to play). After a good bottle, she discovered the joy of Santa and new toys and it was so much fun to watch. We spent the rest of the day playing with her toys or watching Christmas movies on tv.

In her Christmas jammies playing with her favorite present

Christmas dinner was spent with my family at my house. This was our first time hosting Christmas dinner and I was pretty excited. I even used my wedding china and silver for the first time in the 2 years I've had it! We had a great meal together and then enjoyed watching (or in Aubrey's case, helping) the little ones open presents.

My brother playing with my nephew Dameon and Aubrey

It's so much fun to have a little one during this time of year. I know Aubrey will never remember this Christmas, but to Todd and I it was pretty special. For the last 2 Christmases we have been waiting to share it with a little one so for it to finally happen was so exciting. I can't wait until Aubrey can understand the meaning behind Christmas and gets excited about all of it. So much fun!