Christmas 2012

Christmas has come and gone; we had a steady stream of family in our home.  We hosted Christmas for the first time, and it was great!  We enjoyed having people in our house, and it was nice to not pack up half the house and travel.  The kids raked in the gifts, thanks to our wonderfully generous families, and they haven't complained of boredom yet.

Every Christmas season we spend time focusing on Advent.  On Christmas morning, we lit the white candle, and left it lit all day-something we've never done before since we've never celebrated Christmas in our own home.  Here are a few shots of Advent time on Christmas morning.

Then we opened gifts:

Isabel made this at preschool:

My in-laws came on Christmas Eve, and we went to church.  We opened gifts with them on Christmas morning.  After that, more of JD's family came and we ate, opened more presents and visited.  There was a lot of baby holding:

 (My sweet new niece, Caroline)

Lots of people got some Julia love:

 Mom and Dad came up the day after Christmas and stayed for a few days.  We opened more presents and more food, played and held Julia some more:

And now the house seems empty, and I dread the routine of school in a few days.  I've enjoyed not rushing around in the morning and the extra family time.  Just three more months until Easter break.

Baby's First Christmas

Julia at 5 months

Julia turned 5 months old this week.  She continues to be a smiley, happy, chatty, and social baby.  She can roll over both ways now, but she still prefers her tummy. If I lay her on her back, she promptly rolls over and stays on her belly and plays.  She still has trouble rolling from her back to her belly in her crib; I guess because it's not a firm surface, and she has to go uphill a bit to completely roll over.  She's reaching for things and holding on to things more, and she cut two teeth.  Overall, she's sleeping well, but we went through another rough patch where she was waking consistently at 4 AM.  I even took her to the doctor because she was so out of sorts, and I was kinda hoping for a medical diagnosis.  The doctor said it was teething; thankfully, no infections.  She seems to have worked through whatever was ailing her because she's back to her sweetness.

 We all love her so:

Grandparents' Day

I love so many things about the school our "big" kids go to, but one of my favorite things is Grandparents' Day.  Grandparents (and special guests) are invited to a special Christmas chapel, and all the students perform, grandparents and special guests are recognized, and the story of Jesus' birth is told in very creative ways.  This year JD's dad, grandmother, and two aunts joined us, and Granny won a gift card for being the oldest grandparent there!  I'll have more pictures later (I hope), but here are videos of the kids singing:

Hands taste better

 

Christmas Frocks

I took this picture just before we left for church last Sunday morning.  The kids are all sporting new Christmas frocks from Nana.  I consider it a small Christmas miracle that we actually had enough time to snap a picture before heading out the door.