Baby’s First Christmas!

I’m kind of late for this link up, so I think it’s closed now, but I’m doing it anyway!  It’s been a busy week, and I didn’t get on the computer much.  I have been going to bed way too late, and even now it’s 12:15am, but I am posting this, even though I should be sleeping.  This will also be a very photo heavy post!

I’ll start by talking about our Christmas weekend, then onto the pictures!  On Christmas Eve, we always go to church and then head over to my parents neighbor, who is also the mother-in-law to my mom’s second cousin (follow that?), to eat, socialize and exchange gifts.  We skipped church this year (bad Christians, I know) because we had to go to the neighbor’s earlier than usual so we could still get Bean home at a reasonable time for bed.  Hubby’s family was also coming that evening, so we had to get home to them as well.  On Christmas Day, we always go to eat at a local restaurant that serves a Christmas Day buffet, and my grandmother kindly pays for everyone’s meal.  We eat yummy food until we’re so stuffed we can’t move, and then usually we would head to her house to exchange gifts.  Another change in plans this year – since my in-laws were here, we couldn’t all go to my grandmother’s place due to space, so everyone came back to our house for the afternoon to open presents.  Bean loved ripping the wrapping paper!  He also wanted to eat it, but everything goes into his mouth these days!  And as for the gifts?  He’s not spoiled much, no sir…  ;)

Here’s a recap of our holiday season through photos:

  Bean’s very first meeting with Santa!  He didn’t cry or get upset at all.  He likes everyone!   :)

Shots from our Christmas card photo shoots:

With some outtakes:

“Mom, what are these things on my feet!?”

Bean’s second meeting with an old-fashioned Santa (The baton group I teach for had a fundraiser night at a local Friendly’s, so we also offered pictures with Santa – so please excuse the crane game in the background, it was a small place with nowhere else to put Santa):

  

 

 

Christmas Day:

Bean’s stocking – it will be personalized with his name, and a few embellishments added, but I didn’t have time to do it before Christmas, so I will have to get it done before it gets put away.  We plan to actually use the letter to Santa pocket when he is older.  We will get him to put his letter in there early, and then we will buy an Elf on the Shelf, and tell him that the Elf will take the letter to Santa when he reports back, that way we can see his letter early, and he knows where it disappeared to.

 

 

 

 

 

This picture does not do justice to the amount of presents there were.

 Bean wearing mommy’s Santa hat.

“Oh boy, I’m rich!”  (This was one of 2 $50 bills.  We think we are going to create an ING savings account for him and deposit this money.)

  Riding his new rocking horse from my aunt.  One of his bigger gifts this year.

The gifts:

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He got a few books, some clothes, the very cute bear paw mittens, and toys consisting of the rocking horse, a V-Tech laptop, V-Tech steering wheel, V-Tech monkey jungle, V-Tech nursery rhyme “book”, ball poppin’ dino, Tumble Fun Park, Crawl Along Snail, an Eeyore rattle (obviously my choice), a stuffed Grover (because Hubby likes him best), his very own baby smart phone, a taggie blanket, some teethers, the bumble bee, a Hess truck and race car, a fire truck ornament, and not shown here is a wooden wagon from my mom.  Along with the $100!  See?  Not really spoiled…   ;)

Hubby and I received restaurant gift cards to Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden/Red Lobster, and Outback.  We also received cash, and a few baby’s first Christmas ornaments.  He received a batman computer game from his brother, the new Zelda Wii game and some underwear from me, a Roku 2 for our bedroom from me and my parents, a programmable thermostat from my parents, and I received a baby bullet system from my in-laws (can’t wait to try it out!), a cell phone case and car charger from my parents, and of course the cell phone itself and Harry Potter DVD collection from Hubby that I got earlier this month.

It was a very nice Christmas, and I’m kind of sad that it’s over.  From here on it’s just dreary, drab winter that lasts way too long.  But I will always remember Bean’s first Christmas!  :)

And here’s my little family (minus the cats, who got a stuffed sushi tray for Christmas):

Hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year!  Bean’s 6 month post coming next – half a year old already!

Holiday Traditions

Third post in the link up series!  This week’s post is about holiday traditions that we have or plan to start. 

1. We always put up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving day, or at least by the end of the weekend.  This started when Hubby and I lived at the apartment in NJ.  We do use a fake tree, and we didn’t really have the storage space for it there, so my parents would bring it and all the decorations with them on Thanksgiving since that was the only time they would be coming to us before the holiday and would have a way to transport all the stuff there.  So, now we still do that even in our house.

2. I always make a ton of cookies for people.  I usually end up staying up until 4am multiple nights to get them all done.  I don’t think that will be happening this year, but I am having a cookie exchange party with some friends, so maybe we can make that an annual tradition.

3. On Christmas day we always get up, open presents here at home, then meet my family at a restaurant for lunch.  After that, we head to my grandmother’s to exchange gifts there and spend the day with each other.  I’ve never been a fan of eating out on holidays, but this has become our tradition and my grandmother loves it, so it will continue.

4. On Christmas Eve we always go to the early church service, then afterwards go to my parents neighbor who is the mother-in-law to my mom’s cousin (follow that?).  My mom’s cousin and her husband stay there every year at Christmas, since they live across the state.  So, after church we head over there for some food, gift exchanging, and spend time together.  We’re usually there until very late in the evening.  I guess starting this year, we will have to do things earlier now!

5. Last  year Hubby and I drove around looking at other people’s Christmas lights while we drank warm beverages and ate gingerbread man marshmallows.  Bean probably won’t appreciate that very much until at least next year, since he sleeps during car rides a lot yet, but it’s something I would like to continue to do.

6.  Bean isn’t allowed to watch much TV (he does get some TV time though, due to us watching something), but Polar Express is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and Hubby gave me the DVD for Christmas last year, so I’d like to watch that with Bean at least once every year during the season.

That’s all I have for now.  Maybe we’ll start to come up with new traditions as Bean gets older.  I love Christmas season!

Frazzled Excitement

So, I have a long to-do list this week, and all of it is stuff I really want to do (not like cleaning or other chores), and sometimes I get the motivation to do this stuff, but I don’t know where to begin, or I feel really scattered with it.  This is my frazzled excitement. 

So far, I’ve at least started a few things.  As you can see, I added yet another new page to this blog – Photography.  There’s only four photos in it right now, but I definitely plan on adding more as I continue to watermark them.  There’s just a lot I want to add, so it will take me some time, but at least I have four to share with you so far.  Go peek at them, you know you’ve been waiting for it!   ;)  Well, I know you haven’t really been, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.   :)

I got my time and abilities sheet from my church a while back.  This is the sheet where you sign up for all the stuff you want to volunteer for.  I never fill mine out and send it back, especially considering I lived in NJ for 3 years, and the church is in PA (but they were still sending me stuff in NJ!).  I haven’t been to church at all since, let me think…my wedding day!  That was 3 years ago, and wasn’t even a church service.  I’m surprised they still send me stuff and haven’t ex-communicated me yet, lol.  But all kidding aside, I’m not an extremely religious person.  I do believe in God and Heaven and all that, but I don’t necessarily feel you have to go to a church every week, and give all your money to them (after all – God isn’t the one needing my money) in order to have your beliefs.  I apologize if I offended anyone here.  To each his own.  This time, however, instead of just throwing the form away, something made me look it over.  Now I’m thinking of signing up for a couple things.  I love working with kids – they are looking for vacation Bible school helpers (and I even just told my hubby the other night how much I used to like Bible school).  And who ever knew my church has or is starting a dance group?!  Obviously I love dance, I’m even trying to start my own dance business (which I offered classes to the church’s preschool, but was sadly declined), so definite check mark on that one!  However, in typical fashion of me, I am late in returning it.  So now I have to write a note to add to it apologizing for my tardiness, and find out what that dance stuff is all about.  Really?  Dance group in a church?  It also got me thinking maybe I should go to church more often, especially if I’m volunteering.  I’m not a morning person though, and I am not a fan of the long, drawn out services on a Sunday morning, so I’m thinking of attending some of the Saturday evening services.  Maybe I’ll go with my Grandmom.  Anyway, I filled out the sheet, now I just need to write the note, send it back, and see where to go from there.

We have new members to Thunderbolts, and I have been working with them a little.  I have been wanting to work on a routine or at least help out and collaborate with another instructor on one, and I mentioned this to the director.  I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes in the group, since they’ve been around all this time, and I went away for 3 years.  But last night I got asked to get together with one of the instructors to work on the new routine.  YAY!   :D  So I’m excited about that.  I even stayed up way too late last night listening to music and trying to find some good ideas with that twirling ear of mine.

I am thinking about starting a “Scrapbook Saturday” post on here.  It might not be every single week, since some Saturdays get busy with other activities.  I have a TON of scrapbooking stuff to work on from the wedding, bridal shower, honeymoon, etc., that I bought but then never got around to completing.  It’s still all here, and all of those events were 3 years ago!  It’s about time I get to it, and I thought some motivation might be to do a post on here.  I would plan to create at least one page (more if the creativity and time allows), and post it on here every Saturday (or every possible Saturday).  So, hopefully I’ll get started on that this week and you’ll see something by Saturday night (or “Scrapbook Sunday” if I only work on it Saturday and finish late).

So those are a few of the major things I’ve been thinking about, trying to start, or need to work on.  But those things, along with a never-ending to-do list of other things, makes me feel all frazzled.  I just don’t know where to begin, or I want to work on 3 different things at the same time because I’m excited to, and I get all “aaaahhhhh!”.  Ever feel like this?  I’m sure all you moms have…