Sunday, January 2, 2011

Christmas Fun

     We had a great Christmas this year! We started early by getting our tree up right after Thanksgiving. Adam decorated the house with beautiful lights and garland. We didn't have many Christmas parties to attend this year, but that's probably a good thing. I usually gorge myself on sweets at those events, and I did enough of that without the parties. I did attend a fun cookie exchange and SB met Santa at our friend Kim's house.
     On Christmas Eve, we went to church for the candlelight service. It's always a special time and this year was even better because we had SB with us. She was on her very best behavior too! After church, we headed over to visit with the Mee family (my sis-in-law's parents). Mrs. Roslyn cooked a yummy dinner for us and Sara Beth received her first present, a baby laptop toy. Back at home, Adam and I sprinkled magic reindeer food (Thanks Kim) in the yard even though SB was fast asleep. It's fun to pretend to be kids sometimes!
     Christmas morning was full of stockings and gifts at home. I'm glad that we got to have our little family time together before heading out for the day. I hope to start our own traditions some day. We got SB a swing for the porch and a music player for her room. Adam built me a beautiful sewing table and I got him a new bike light.
     Next, we drove out to Cross Lake to have Christmas with Adam's parents, Travis, Carie, and baby Charlie. After a delicious breakfast, we opened gifts and watched Sara Beth play with her toys. Charlie was too little to know what was going on this year, but I bet we'll be in for some serious fun next year.
     That afternoon, we headed over to my mom and dad's house to celebrate with them, my brother, and my nieces, Shelby and Maddy. I guess SB had about all she could take (with no nap) because she had a melt down. There was crying at the dinner table, crying opening presents, and hardly any smiles at all. Poor thing! We enjoyed spending time with our family even if it didn't work out the way we hoped it would. Sara Beth finally fell asleep on the way home and ended up sleeping 3 hours in her car seat. We were not about to wake her up after the day she had. When it was bedtime, we changed her clothes and fed her. Then she slept until 7:00 the next morning!
     Overall, it was a great first Christmas for our little girl (as evidenced by the multitudes of baby toys at our house right now)! My goal next year is to figure out how to make Christmas more about Jesus and less about presents. It's hard to do, but I think it's worth the attempt. If anyone has any ideas or traditions from your family that you would like to share, please leave a comment. I'm up for suggestions!
Her first gift on Christmas Eve

Mommy and SB opening her stocking

Swinging in freezing weather is so much fun!

Daddy and SB about to go on a ride

4 comments:

Kathleen said...

Brandi-- you have such a cute blog, i love popping in and seeing pics of your adorable baby. We do several things around the holidays to make it more about Jesus. We focus on charity through: (1) Adopt a Family-- with the help our our playgroup we adopt several local families at Christmas to ensure that they have a wonderful Christmas; (2) Operation Christmas Child, check out their link: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/. When Sara Beth gets older she can help you pack the Operation Christmas Child shoebox. Unrelated to charitable giving, we also have a Little People Nativity Calendar and count down the days to Christmas while talking about the true meaning of Christmas
~Kathleen (Kirchner) McCoy

Diana said...

I really ejoyed reading about your Christmas time! :) Such a sweet family. We love you guys! One thing we have decided to do is only buy T three presents (this year that even included his stocking stuffers). We heard another friend talking about doing this with their children. Then as they get older you can use it as a teaching tool. Jesus received three special gifts etc. We've tried really hard not to allow our house to be overrun with toys. However, it hard to pass that whole idea on to our family and friends that love him so much and want to buy lots for him. But I think we're off to a good start. And I think you've got a great idea going with rotating them out. We tell our parents to do that. It helps cut down on the amount they can pull out and keeps their interest up.
-Justin's parents bought T a little peoples nativity set. They were on sell at Target for 15. I thought this would also be fun to pull out each year and let him play with. And eventually he will be able to make the connection.
-The next thing we started this year was the Happy Birthday Jesus Party. We baked a cake and orderd some rather cheap HB Jesus party supplies, even sent out the invites and celebrated his BD. Justin read the Christmas story before we enjoyed some cake! Love the idea of putting more focus on Jesus vs. getting gifts. Let me know if you come up with any cool ideas too! Luv ya

Crystal said...

Hey sweet friend! Good luck getting the grandparents to not buy lots of presents! Presents are what it's about for kids...they just get so excited. That does not at all mean that you don't need to be sure to center the celebration around Jesus. Someone told me their point of view on presents...God sent Jesus as his present to the world, so we give presents to celebrate that. Giving presents helps makes the receiver feel special, and it's another way to show God's love for the people He has blessed us with. There is nothing wrong with presents, as long as we remember the TRUE meaning of the season. Love you!

Brandi Hart said...

I love everyone's ideas! Thanks a lot! And Crystal. . . I have no delusions about the grandparents gifts. They waited a long time for this little one. I guess they can buy her as much as they want to.

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