It's our First Christmas as a Family

How many of you have seen the ridiculous commercial for the jewelry store where a mommy is up in the middle of the night rocking her baby. The dad comes in, and she says "It's 2am, what are you doing up?" He replies in his sweetest whisper voice, "It's not just 2am. It's 2am Christmas morning. It's our first Christmas as a family. I couldn't wait." Get real! That's pretty much exactly NOT how anyone's first Christmas as a family goes. There are several things wrong. 1) If it isn't your turn to wake up with your baby in the middle of the night, there's no way you would go voluntarily. 2) The baby is way too calm. 3) The mom is WAY too alert. 4) The daddy turns on the Christmas tree lights right next to the sleeping baby. I could go on... Here's a little of how our first Christmas as a family has gone so far.


Christmas Eve started at about 7:30, which is still a little early for me and Brad on a vacation day. We did a couple hours of cleaning. How festive...I know! Next, came packing which happened according to Jo Jo's (that's her new nickname) mood and naps. We were sure to have everything ready to load in the car before she was ready for her next bottle. With a two hour trip ahead of us, we needed her to have a full belly. The drive, thank goodness, was uneventful. We got to mom's at about 3...let the fun begin. We had a couple of calm, quiet hours before Andrea and the girls got there. They are always full of energy and excitement, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Since Aaron had to work, we did a lot of snacking and hanging out while we waited for him. While we waited, we also let Kherington "open" her gifts since she was getting a little cranky. (She is the most even tempered baby in the world, until we go to someone else's house. Then, she acts like a dang fool. Crying and whining...only wanting to be held...being very particular. Our families are going to start thinking we are lying when we brag about how good she is.) Anyway, she "opened" her gifts. She got lots of cute clothes and some diapers and money from Mom and Andrea. Mom also got her a glowworm. Glowworms have come a long way since we were little.

Finally Aaron got there, so we all opened our gifts and played the white elephant gift exchange game with gift cards. Our family always seems to do things a little different...maybe even wrong. Other families usually live to steal someone else's gift, even if they don't love it. It's just fun to take it from someone. Not us. We went through the entire game with not one stolen gift card. The game ended in about 2 minutes. I got a gift card to Olive Garden (Aaron, here we come) and a ticket to the Independence Bowl. Once all the presents were opened and the piles of reindeer paper were picked up, it was times to play games. Andrea and I kicked some major tail at Catch Phrase and Guesstures! And...that's pretty much all we played. The other game doesn't even deserved to be mentioned as far as I'm concerned. :)

One of the best things about Christmas this year was Mom getting up with Kherington for the night since we stayed at her house. Jo Jo sleeps through the night for the most part, only waking up for her paci, but it is still annoying to wake up in the middle of the night. It's nice to have a night of uninterrupted sleep.

Christmas morning came too early...8:00. We got up, fed Kherington, and headed to Dad's. Their house was packed, just as on any Christmas morning. Dad, Mary Lynn, her three kiddos + one boyfriend and one friend from the Marines, and us three + 2 husbands and 3 kids. For the first time in YEARS, Andrea beat me there! There is something so wrong with that picture. Not long after we arrived, we opened gifts. Kherington got a cute stuffed bunny, a pretty quilt, and lots more cute clothes. I got money (ummm hmmmm) and stuff to start a scrapbook for Jo Jo. After gifts, we had breakfast and sat around the dining room table listening to AD's antics as usual.

After going back to Mom's for a few hours, we came back to Tyler, but not for long...

I am the big loser whose camera died during Christmas. To see pics, visit Andrea's Blog. :)