This year, Christmas was very different for all of us. We had it at our house for the first time in a very long time and my mom and brother flew out to join us. Oh, it also happened to be baby's first Christmas. But no big deal.
Only ten thousand photos of her were captured. Most of the gifts under the tree were for her. A normally leisurely day was full of chasing her around, showing her new toys, and keeping fake pine needles out of her mouth.
And can I say it was heavenly!? She's still too little to appreciate (or demand) all of the trappings of the holiday but old enough to recognize new toys and things.
This year we put the tree up on a big round wooden table to keep it out of her reach. The table was big enough for all of the gifts too, so they too were conveniently out of her reach. I only spent a few quick hours decorating...the mantel got a live pine bough garland and various real and faux hurricane glass items. And...that was about it for decorations...just enough to "feel" like Christmas!
Wrapping paper? Well, I failed to plan ahead enough to have canvas bags on hand for all of the gifts so some of them were gift-wrapped. Last year I found huge rolls of holiday paper on sale for less than a dollar so they've been lingering in the attic, waiting to be called upon. I had hoped to avoid using it because I feel like it is wasteful, despite being recyclable, but I'm not sweating it.
Stockings? My goal this year was to not put any junk in the stockings. The adults exchanged only a few small things so the stockings were a main part of the "gift" side of Christmas. The guys got an assortment of things like tiny Moleskine notebooks, favorite candies, a mind-boggling 3D puzzle, and the like. Fun but decidedly not junky.
Gracelyn? I tried...really I did, to not spoil her. She still ended up with far too many gifts so we pared down and set some aside for her birthday this spring.
From my parents, she got an Anatex Play Cube. Made in the USA of mostly wood and metal, and just so fun. Truly a toy that will "grow with her" since it has the spinning alphabet blocks on one side and lots of good "fine motor skills" activities as well.
Lucky baby, right!? Uncle Taylor said it best: "When I wanted to play with a toy this cool, I had to go to the dentist!"
Gracelyn also got a stuffed turtle from the LeVoys which she promptly chewed on and abused as much as possible. She also got a rolling wooden giraffe from my parents and a wooden submarine teether from us.
She also got a few Priddy books from us that have animals that have textures which seems to be her newest fascination. Maybe we can teach her to pet the cheetah gently and thus pet her live dogs gently?
She got three outfits as well...my favorite is a navy blue dress with anchors and her name embroidered on it. The other two were little cotton play clothes.
It some how eluded the camera but she got a crazy organic stuffed cat from us as well as the cutest crochet giraffe known to man from our friends in Idaho.
Her big gift from Santa is a 1-2-3-Grow With Me walker toy. It converts to a little push bike and later a shopping cart. Cool, right?!
To be honest, there were other gifts and things that I'm forgetting about because I don't have photographic evidence on hand to remind me AND I'm sleep deprived.
G got some exceptionally cool PlanToys from Don's mom including blocks that she pushes around in her walker and plays with every day.
So, hope everyone else had their heart's stolen this holiday season. Love to you all!
