A Belated "Merry Christmas"

It is January 7th (11:32 P.M. at that!) and I'm just recapping our Christmas. Good grief. Although I'm not surprised. I drive my husband nuts sometimes all the time with my amazing procrastination skills. What can I say...I work better under pressure...?

Our tree before we brought all the gifts to their Christmas gatherings.

For Audrey's 1st Christmas I was really confident that I would be easy going and didn't set expectations too high for certain things. I mean, come on, a 6 month old isn't going to be able to open all her gifts by herself, stay awake for every holiday meal, or keep her dress on for more than a few hours. Turns out I got a heavy dose of reality for Christmas.

Audrey barely slept all day on Christmas Eve. I guess all the anticipation that Santa was coming really got to her. About 15 minutes before my whole family arrived at my parent's house for Christmas Eve dinner, she finally fell asleep (go figure!). When she woke up from her super short 30 minute nap, she was in no mood to eat and refused her Christmas feast avocado and oatmeal cereal combo, screaming in protest. I finally gave in and took my husband's advice and just gave her a bottle.

I was so excited to get her into her sparkly dress and headband I had custom made to match, but Audrey had different plans. I managed to get her in it for about an hour before she got the sparkles from her dress in her eyes after rubbing those tired baby blues. She did enjoy opening a some presents  eating some wrapping paper with the family. We went to Midnight Mass with my parents and instead of her fancy outfit, I sadly admitted defeat and put her in her Christmas PJs. We ended up leaving Mass early so we wouldn't have a tiny version of the Grinch in the morning. She still slept through her 1st round of gifts on Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve, before we ditched the dress

Please note that her adorable headband switched sides a few times, no idea what happened here.

Ok, so I feel like I'm complaining now....let me explain myself a little better. It's no lie when I say that our daughter is seriously one of the easiest babies alive and yes, I know every parent says this, but I really mean it! She is always super happy and easy going (albeit, energetic and curious as ever!), but all the Christmas cheer proved to be a bit overwhelming for our tired girl, that's all. And apparently, although I felt like I had really low expectations going in, turns out Mommy was a little too aggressive with all the "Christmas-ness" for rookie-Audrey.

On Christmas Day we drove south to be with Zack's family. My husband and I have always loved the movie, Elf so for the first part of the day we chose to wear our Buddy the Elf and Jovie costumes (yes, we are that cool!) while Audrey wore a "Raised by Elves" onesie. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of us dressed like this on Christmas but this pic is from Halloween...you get the idea.

Audrey was still tired and slept through gifts from Santa a second time but later had a blast playing in the boxes with her 1 year old cousin, Abby. Grandpa Midles entertained the girls for quite some time pushing them around the living room in their boxes. It's totally true that kids care about the boxes more than what's in them! The girls were moving too fast in their race cars boxes to get a good picture from my phone but here is one of Audrey trying to swipe Abby's toy. Seriously so excited for all the years of fun with these two growing up together!

Adorable "cat-hat" was a gift.

This girl just LOVES to be in boxes!

It is totally true that Christmas is a million times more fun with kids...even if they aren't seasoned veterans yet. Zack and I agreed to make a contribution to Audrey's college-fund instead of getting her Christmas gifts this year. We figured she was going to be spoiled by grandparents and aunts and uncles and she wouldn't remember this year anyways. But after making this deal, I figured she needed her stocking filled at our house in addition to her other stockings from both sets of grandparents. She also just couldn't go without some new clothes for her closet (because it's just sooooo empty). Finally, this 6 month old is obsessed with our cell phones so I found her a toy phone that was designed to look like our iPhones. I never thought I would be that mom, but oh well. What's done is done :-)

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and that this New Year is full of blessings, health, and happiness! Can't wait to do it all again next year...351 days to go!