Deconstructing Christmas

Since we're leaving for vacation this weekend, we wanted to get a jump on taking down holiday decorations and packing up. It's amazing how many "Baby's First Christmas" ornaments you can amass in one holiday season! Will's wonderful grandparents, aunts, and uncles bought some lovely ornaments for our tree that I'm looking forward to putting up next year.

I also wrapped up the books we purchased this year for next year's Advent. We're still far from 25 books, but I figure it will take a couple years to build up to that. So far we have:

1. A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker
2. The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree by Jan & Mike Berenstain
3. One Snowy Night by M. Christina Butler
4. The Nicest Gift by Leo Politi (a gift from my Grampa years ago)
5. A Snowman Named Just Bob by Mark Kimball Moulton
6. Twas the Fright Before Christmas by Judy Sierra
7. The Story of Christmas by Tom Paxton (from Aunt Karen)
8. Twas at Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (from Uncle Pat's baby books)
9. The Spirit of Christmas by Nancy Tillman
10. Merry Christmas, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt
11. The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L'Engle
12. Have Yourself a Furry Little Christmas by Naomi Kleinberg
13. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer
14. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
15. Harry and the Christmas Dinosaurs Make a Christmas Wish by Ian Whybrow

Not bad for year one, right? Only ten more to go (well, maybe eleven since the book in slot #15 is the most poorly written children's book I've ever seen and the editor should be fired, but I digress.)! In any case, I can't wait to see Will tear into his Advent books next year.

Baby's First Christmas

Three consecutive days of holiday parties with family, and our little social butterfly survived them all! Truth be told, he was pretty wiped out on Christmas Day, and starting to get fussy, btu he rallied when we got home and opened a couple more gifts with Mommy and Daddy.

The festivities began with the Ryan family's traditional Christmas Eve Eve party. He was looking quite dapper in a fisherman's sweater and plaid pants!

Will got to meet his second cousin, Kaeden, who is 3 weeks older than him. They were totally fascinated with one another.
Getting some quality time with Papa in his cute little jammies before we headed home.

Christmas Eve was spent with the Serafin family, at their traditional Polish celebration, Wigilia. The whole extended family was there, and we had a special visit from Santa at the end of the night. Will must've been a good boy this year, as many presents came his way!

Grammy and Dzia Dzia with all the grandkids: Jack (7), Ben (5), Sam (2), Will (5 months) and June (3 months).

Christmas Day began at home with a couple presents from Mommy and Daddy. He seems quite taken with the bow, right? The music set inside was a big hit, too, and we've been shaking the tambourine all.the.time.

The rest of the day was spent with the Stift family at Great Aunt Julie's house. I wish I'd taken a moment to snap a photo of the pile of gifts around the tree (covering half the living room floor)- it was nuts! It took a full 3 hours to get all the presents opened! Will spent some quality time with GeeGee and Grampa.

Finally, we settled back in at home and inspected the lad's haul. What a lucky little boy...not just to have all these fun presents to play with, but to have such a wonderful family to share his first Christmas!

Santa Claus!

Tis the season for Santa, so I took Will to meet the big guy yesterday. I was so proud of him! Not a single tear from our brave little boy. He cozied right up in Santa's lap, eyed his beard for a bit, and then even smiled for the camera. Of course, in the smiling picture he also had half of his fist stuffed in his mouth, so take #2 was better choice.

That's How He Rolls.

Will started rolling from his tummy to his back some time ago (we think he mastered this to let us know when he was finished with his tummy time), but going in the other direction took a bit longer. He finally went from back to tummy 3 days ago! The trouble is that he seems to have forgotten that he knows how to roll in both directions, and we he lands on his belly now he gets pretty upset and wants to be picked up by Mom or Dad. Not a big deal, until this happens in his crib...for every nap...and every night. I hope the little guy figures it out soon so he can sleep more peacefully!

Could This Hat Be Any Cuter?

The answer is no.

Oh, and you should see the matching mittens. TO.DIE.FOR.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

We're just a couple weeks away from Christmas. The tree is up, a wreath is on our door, Will has his own stocking on the fireplace, and we have a new Advent calendar on the wall. I realized two things recently: first, we probably won't be able to have a big tree next year for fear that Will might pull it down as a curious toddler; second, I really love Advent. The anticipation of Christmas, buying things for the people that we love that we hope they enjoy, and making our home feel a little more cheerful. When I was a little girl, my Grama and Grampa used to buy Advent calendars for us. Each night Colleen and I would excitedly pluck our tiny piece of chocolate from behind its paper door, counting down the days till Christmas.

I decided I want to do something special for Will to celebrate Advent for years to come, and I saw a wonderful idea on another blog recently!

I'll be creating a Christmas Book Advent Calendar for our family that celebrates our love of reading and will provide an opportunity for togetherness each evening- hopefully it's a tradition that will last many years.

We'll have 25 Christmas books wrapped and tagged for the days of Advent. Perhaps they'll live on the fireplace mantle, maybe under the tree, and each night Will (and future siblings??) can unwrap the book of the day, and we'll read it together with our other bedtime stories. Year after year, we'll reuse the same books, and I'm already excited to see which Will ends up choosing as his favorites.

Time to shop for some Christmas books, right? Right now, we have 4- not a bad start. One is very special to me, and I can't wait to share it with Will. When I was a child, my Grampa gave me a copy of The Nicest Gift about a little boy, Carlitos, who loses his dog in the mercado just before Christmas. It has always been a favorite of mine, and I'm happy that year after year, as I read it to my son, I'll do so with a smile on my face thinking about my Grampa.