Our Christmas. Sigh, it was such a special one!
Our first one as a 'family'- Jonah + me + Oliver. This year we did something completely different and stayed home until Christmas afternoon. It was oddly quiet on Christmas Eve, and we did find ourselves missing the loudness of extended family around. I mean Oliver can get noisy, but not that loud. But we really wanted to celebrate our very first Christmas in our new home, with our own tree. And after getting past the quietness of Christmas Eve, snapping some memorable (picture to follow) family photos, the next morning made it worth it.
We woke up, headed down to get the coffee brewing and passed out our stockings. We didn't get Oliver a lot for many reasons, one being he is young and doesn't know what is going on, two we don't want to start the tradition of giving a billion gifts so that he can't enjoy them and get greedy therefore missing the reason for Christmas, and three we knew he'd have gifts from family.
But the one gift that Oliver loved loved loved was a little toy wooden car I picked up at Target for $1. Isn't that the way it goes? You find fabulous gifts for a six month old and he reaches for the least of all of it. Tissue paper was also a big deal to him. He loves to crinkle it and tries to eat it of course, as everything goes to the mouth these days.
Jonah and I also opened our stockings, which was fun and always surprising to see what we get each other. And yes we wrap those gifts too- we are the biggest kids of all when it come to unwrapping. Love love love to unwrap even the simplest little thing! .....or maybe it's just me that loves to unwrap....
For Christmas gifts we found a special toy for Oliver. Last year while I was 7 months pregnant we visited FAO Scharz in NYC and saw the most beautiful big white elephant. I really wanted it, but it was not in our budget at the time so we chose not to get it. For Christmas though we both knew we wanted to get this for Oliver, so we ordered it and waited and waited for it to come. What fun it was to see that big box on our doorstep from FAO!
Oliver liked it, but still loved his car more. Oh well! I think when he's a little bigger and able to wrap his arms around his 'Melvin' the elephant, he'll like the softness of him. Right now Oliver and Melvin are about the same size.
Our gifts for each other were fun to open as well, and I was able to surprise Jonah, and he did with me as well. One special gift we always save for the end is a small silver ornament that hangs on our tree. It's a present box and opens up so every year we rotate back and forth for whose turn it is to fill it. Jonah had it this year and he very tediously cut out a silver snowflake with the words 'snow, sew' written on it. My newest passion as of late is sewing, and he had contacted his sewing aunt for advice on a sewing machine. Well she actually had a sewing machine that I could have! It's an old Singer from the 50's and heavy as they come, but so thrilling to have! We went out this week and picked it up and it's waiting for me to use it....
After gifts we had a lovely breakfast complete with delicious fresh from the farm bacon....oh so good.
Then we headed to our in laws for a couple days. We spent time visiting with them and enjoying more gifts, and memories together. We even saw some snow that night, which was pretty neat on Christmas day!
I want to say we didn't get caught up in gifts, and honestly I really feel like we didn't. Every year I try so hard to focus on what is the most important thing- Jesus coming to this earth as a tiny baby. And having Oliver here reminds me again of what Mary went through. Last year I carried our son within me and felt him move and kick, and imagined what he looked like. This year he was with us, watching the tree lights sparkle, listening to us laugh, and filling us with so much joy. It's so special to share the day with our son, with each other, with those we love, and I think the memories we made will stay with us for years and years to come.
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| scrabble, hot cocoa and sleeping baby what more could you want? |
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| so much fun he fell over |
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