An overdue Christmas re-cap

What a fun Christmas we had! Last year was a magical Christmas for us, because we got to enjoy it with our brand new baby girl, but since she was brand new, we didn't get out and about as much as we usually do. This year, we made it to all the family gatherings, and even though it was tiring for all of us, we were so glad to be able to see everyone that we love.

We did lunch at my grandparents house on Christmas Eve, and I sadly have no photo evidence of it! I had left my memory card in the computer at home. :(

When we got home, we decided to get into our pjs and go ahead and open presents since we would have to leave early the next morning for Cliff's family gathering in Laurel. In future years, I am sure Amelia will wake us up early enough to open presents in enough time to get where we are going, but this year I made the executive decision to move it up to Christmas Eve to maximize photo ops.

Of course, Katie came by to capture said photo ops, and to watch Mimi open her presents. Here they are playing babies before we got started.

Our little family of three in front of the tree. Katie did most of these in B&W, partly because we just love B&W, and partly because my allergies were going crazy and my nose looked like Rudolph in most of them. Thanks for that, Katie.

She picked up very quickly on how much fun it is to tear open presents! We tried not to overindulge her this year, although I can't promise anything in the future. She still had so many unopened toys from her birthday, and really Amelia just isn't that into toys right now. She would much rather play with a bowl from the kitchen or a remote control these days. She does love books and baby dolls, so she got several of those.

Here she is opening one of my personal faves, the Etch-a-Sketch magnetic doodle board. She has played with it a little bit, and I have played with it a lot.

Santa also got her a puzzle, some fat crayons and a coloring book and some crayons that write on the bath tub. She has tried to eat the crayons, so they have sadly been taken away until she is a litle older. However, I have enjoyed testing out her bath crayons in the meantime. She also got some of those markers that only write on certain paper, but she has also tried to eat them, so they had to be taken away too. Santa didn't really observe the age suggestions on her toys, ha.

Uncle Chris and Aunt Kathryn were not with us because they were in Kathryn's family, but they sent Mimi a whole bunch of fun books to unwrap, and she loves them! Kathryn's parents, who we have never met, were kind enough to send an autographed copy of a precious children's book for Mimi. How sweet of them!


We are SO glad she loves books, since Cliff and I are both big readers. Well, me not as much these days, but I have always loved to read, and I am looking forward to sharing that love with Amelia as she grows older. We have video of her opening her gifts, which I promise to share with you, Chris and Kat, as soon as Katie gets it to me. We missed y'all so much!

Checking out the damage. She does enjoy trashing a room!

(Is mine the only Christmas tree that looks awful in photos? It really was beautiful, and I'm so sad the photos don't do it justice.)

After a bunch of baby playing and book reading, the princess was off to bed, and got up the next day to head to our next event in Laurel. I just had to snap this pic of her resting up on the way over.
And becuase I just love a good comparison photo, here's what she looked like last year while we made that same drive to Laurel.

I distinctly remember stuffing a bunch of tissue into those size 0 red shoes so they would stay on! Every girl needs a pair of red Christmas shoes! I also love comparing the bow to head ratio from last year to this year. She still wears that red bow and it is about the same size as the one in the pic above from this year, but look how big it was on her little bitty head last year! Oh, I miss kissing that tiny head!

If you want to see the rest of her first Chrismtas pics, I wrote about it here last year.

OK, enough reminiscing! Here are a few from Cliff's family's gathering in Laurel. I took a few, and snagged a couple from Katie. We were just having fun eating and visiting and didn't take a ton of photos. Amelia really enjoyed all the attention she got from her Nana and aunts, uncles and cousins.

Cousin Lisa being sweet to Mimi

Cousin Kaitlyn and Mimi enjoying one of her new books

Mimi and Nana

After Laurel, we swung by my parents' house for supper. We departed from all the traditional Christmas food we had been stuffing in, and had yummy fried fish. Here's me, my brother and sister, Cliffy, Mimi and Justin goofing around.

This photo is incomplete without my brother Jeremy, who is still in Iraq. We missed having him with us. Mare and I got cozy in some sweats (you know, what with all the eating). I love getting to come home and just get cozy while I eat a lot of food, ha!

Amelia scored even more presents at Grammy and Papa's. My brother, Josh got her this sweet chair, and you can see she really likes it!

She also got more baby dolls from Grammy and Aunt Mare, and she loves feeding her babies a bottle. It is so dang precious. Speaking of precious, would you look at that little nose from the side?

After Grammy had already gotten her a rocking horse as her big gift, Papa saw this basketball goal and decided Mimi had to have it to be like Daddy!

She was serious about playing some b-ball. Daddy says he's going to have her play out on the wing, but I think she'll be a fiesty little point guard. Or maybe she'll want to be a cheerleader or dancer? Time will tell.

Christmas just became a whole lot more fun, now that we have our sweet girl with us to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. I look forward to making new family traditions over the years, and teaching her why we celebrate this special day.

P.S. Do you like my new blog header? Lindey was so sweet to make it for me using shots from our latest photo shoot, which I will be sharing with you very soon!