Cara's first Christmas!

When you have a new baby around the holidays, everything is a little more exciting, and everything is a little more difficult as far as planning around their schedules. Cara's first Christmas lasted for days, and it was such a sweet, special time. I reflected that the story of baby Jesus in a manger has never felt more real to me than it has this year. We always read the story from Luke 2 before we open presents with my parents, and a verse at the end of the passage says, "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." I did a lot of treasuring and pondering in my heart last week. So many special memories, cute outfits and quality time with our loved ones and our sweet baby. It couldn't have been more perfect.

We did Christmas with Cayce, Cari, Ricky, Mase, Murphee and Nanny on Dec. 22. We all went to the Edison's in our pjs and had breakfast and opened presents that morning. It was really fun to see Mase so excited for Santa Claus and to spoil the kids and each other. It's been a tough year for our family with losing Cindy, but we celebrated her memory by loving each other and acknowledging our support of one another during this time. The silver lining in all of this is how close we have all become together, so we are very fortunate and blessed for that reason.

Later that afternoon, we loaded up our car and drove to Irving to spend a few days with my parents. We had 2 SOLID days of relaxation and lounging in our pjs. After being so busy and working so much leading up to the holiday, this was EXACTLY what we needed!

On Christmas Eve, we went to the church service at my parent's church. Cara did so good sleeping through all the songs and the Lord's Supper, resting safely in her daddy's arms. He's so good at that! It's my family's tradition to cook a gourmet feast for Christmas Eve, so we came home with my Grandmother and had presents and dinner. Cara ate an early dinner and went to bed in the middle of present-opening. I think she was getting her rest before Santa came, because she knew the next day would bring lots of excitment. :)

Christmas morning was really sweet. Nana & Grandad and my uncle, aunt and cousin (yep, just the one cousin--he's almost 5!) came over to Mom and Dad's for presents and Santa. We also had breakfast and spent time together. Cara went to sleep in her swing halfway through the presents and was a happy girl. We were spoiled and blessed by our families and had so much fun watching them love Cara. I'm not sure she was ever put down the entire weekend (except for an hour or two in her swing every now and then!). We even got some snow on Christmas Day! That made for a very interesting and stressful drive home Christmas afternoon, but it was fine once we got south of Dallas.

Once we got home, our house was a disaster! We left the unpacking for the next few days and instead built a fire, got in our pjs and gave Cara her present from Mommy & Daddy--a Pottery Barn Kids chair with her name on it. She LOVED it and got the biggest grin on her face when we put her in it. I'm glad she'll get to use this for years to come, and it's sweet that we can tell her it was her 1st Christmas present from us.

Like I said, it was such a memorable first Christmas with our little girl. She had so much fun and did so great traveling and being in a new environment for several days. She's such an easy baby! We just kept thinking how much more fun next year will be when she's running across the house, tearing open gifts and learning about the Christmas story and Santa. We feel so grateful for the plethora of blessings abounding in our lives.