Come back soon

We had such a fun time with Uncle Brian and Auntie Brittany! Lots of snuggles and play time for Owen. We made lots of memories driving around in a 15 passenger van (the party barge) and staying up till midnight playing Monopoly Deal. Come back soon Brian and Brittany! 

Christmas day

We woke up at my parents house to the smell of apple oatmeal in the crock pot. Owen was the last one to wake up, I'm sure that won't be the way it is when he's older. We opened our giant hand made stockings together and then had the most delicious breakfast. I'm not much of a breakfast person but Christmas breakfast is one of my favorites. Apple oatmeal made overnight in a crock pot, egg casserole with green chili's, sour cream and salsa, cinnamon rolls and fruit salad. yum. After breakfast we opened our presents together. Everyone picks out special gifts for each other and we open them one at a time. We spend the rest of the afternoon being together as a family and slowly opening each others gifts. It was fun to see how excited Owen was about opening presents. He loved the colorful ribbons, ripping the paper off and trying to put the tissue in his mouth. It was very cute! He is such a little snuggle bug. It was a wonderful first Christmas with our boy. 

My boy and his boat

Growing up my parents gave each of us a special ornament on Christmas eve. Paul and I looked and looked for the ornament we wanted to get Owen for his first ornament. I was sitting at home one afternoon and remembered a little wooden boat I had of my Grandpa's. I decided that would be perfect for my boy. I loved my Grandpa. It will be sweet telling Owen stories about him and the memories I have with him when he gets a little older.

A new tradition we may start is giving him a new pair of jammies on Christmas eve. We bought him a soft set of mint stripped Christmas jammies. They say you have to do something three times for it to be a tradition, so we shall see. 

We ended the night driving around looking at Christmas lights with all 10 of us in a borrowed van. I love the excitement for the next day as you get in bed. I have so many fun memories with my family from this time of year. I am excited to make it a meaningful time with our new little family! 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Christy, Paul and Owen! 

Family

My brother and sister in law arrived from Oklahoma yesterday. It is so fun to all be together as a family. This afternoon the guys went out for a quick round of golf, GG is baking cookies for Christmas and the rest of us are finishing wrapping and getting things together. Starting tonight we are all spending the night at my mom and dads house. Its fun to stay up late playing games and wake up early to hangout while your still in your jammies.

Jingle bells

Owen and I have been home sick for the past week and a half. We have spent most of our time snuggled in my room with the humidifier on. We both went to the doctor yesterday and are on antibiotics now, Owen has a sinus infection and I have bronchitis. I can't wait to be able to do all the fun festive Christmas things. My little brother and his wife fly in on Wednesday! I can't believe its only 8 days till Christmas! Luckily I did most of my shopping online before I got sick. There's been a fun flow of packages arriving every couple days. Paul went out the day before yesterday to try and get the rest of the items on our list for me. I'm sure it was quite a site for all the lady's at Michaels seeing Paul on the frame isle trying to pick out all the specific items. I text him a list of different colors and styles of frames I wanted and then he happily called me when he got there saying, "I found a nice black one, I'm going to just get a whole bunch of these!" In the end we got all the frames but I don't know if Paul will want to go back to Michaels any time soon.


The photos are from a couple weeks ago when we were putting our Christmas tree up. Those bells never made it on the tree. They are his new favorite thing to play with. He enjoyed himself sitting there watching mommy and daddy put the lights and decorations on the tree. I'm sure he will have a great time once he can put some on himself.

Christmas snuggles

It is starting to look like Christmas in our apartment. I have had pandora christmas radio on non stop. We got the lights on the tree and then I slowly put the ornaments on over a couple of days. It is fun to take the ones that are baby friendlyish and show them to him. He has always loved lights so he gets very excited with the lights on the tree. If he gets to close he lunges his body forward and yanks the lights off the branch. The other day he was napping on my lap next to the tree and woke up and instantly got big bug eyes looking at it. We have already had fun snuggling and enjoying our tree. 


I'm excited to do some Christmas shopping. I love getting to pick something out special for the people I love that they wouldn't normally buy themselves. I still haven't been able to decide what to get Owen. I want to make him a quilt but maybe I'll do that without the pressure of getting it done before Christmas. There are so many fun gifts to choose from that he would love, a Sophie for the bath, stripped long john jammies, his very own swing, a cute stuffed animal, maybe a new book, Salt-Waters to save for spring, a fire truck, Paul is sold on a funny bobble penguin.

Off to find a tree

Every year we go up to the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. We all pile into my parents suburban with Grandpa, Grandma, GG, Uncle Tim, Aunt Amy and the three of us. We drive way up to the top of the mountain to try and find a Silvertip. I had envisioned Owen's first trip to get a tree, all cute in his white little snow outfit, galavanting around in the snow hunting for the perfect tree. When we got there it was a lot colder then we thought. Owen and I literally jumped out of the car for the 2 seconds it took to take that picture and then jumped back in. We decided it would be better to keep Owen in the car (you can see him longingly looking out the window at all the trees in the top picture). We had a fun time playing in the car while Paul went and picked out the perfect tree for us. We loaded up the trees and headed home with our hot cider and co co. It wasn't what I had expected but it was a fun adventure!


Now that Paul and I have a baby we have been thinking about what fun things we want to do as a family to celebrate Christmas. I have so many fun memories growing up as a child with my family. Traditions were a fun way to celebrate together, christmas tree outings, ginger bread house competitions, christmas casserole and apple oatmeal on Christmas morning. What traditions does your family have around this time of year?