Baby's First Christmas

Well, Brayden's first Christmas has officially come and gone. We had a wonderful weekend celebrating with our families and I wouldn't have asked for it any other way!

On Friday night, we began by visiting with Jason's dad, exchanging gifts, and having dinner.

Brayden was as tall as his gift bag!

Bonus: he loved playing with his gift, too!

Madalynn saw all of the gift excitement and thought it was her turn...

Sadly, I told her she had to wait just a few more days!

Christmas Eve was nice and laid back. I decided not to run that morning but instead to sleep in. I definitely needed to catch up on my sleep and that was the perfect time to do so! It's amazing how much you prioritize sleep once you have a baby...you never know when they are going to wake up (sometimes in the middle of the night and sometimes not)...it's just so unpredictable!

Our church hosted a Christmas Eve service this year instead of a service on Christmas morning. My husband played in the orchestra, so Brayden and I got there early with him for rehearsal.

While Jason was rehearsing, I hung out in the coffee shop. The coffee shop was officially closed, but cookies and coffee/hot chocolate were available at no charge. After a few minutes, it was apparent that they were desperately in need of help. The "self serve" station idea was not working...like at all. Thankfully, my parents walked in the door at that moment, so I was able to give Brayden to them, then run over to help out in the coffee shop.

Ever since having Brayden, I only help out in the coffee shop on special occasions or when they need me. It was nice to be back there helping once again!

Our Christmas Eve service was a beautiful one filled mostly with music and a short message from our pastor. We finished off by singing Silent Night to candle light.

I loved it and Brayden did well in service up until about the last 10 minutes or so when he became restless.

After service, I had Jason's sister snap this picture of us. :)

For dinner that night, we had my parents and Jason's parents over for chili. It was delicious and we had a great time with them on Christmas Eve!

I love our Christmas countdown! It was so much fun to watch as the day drew closer and closer! 

 

Santa stopped by for a quick gift drop off! :)

One final Christmas Eve tradition - watching "Holidays in Concert" from 1998. It was on the Disney Channel and featured NSYNC among others. Notice where they are sitting? That's also a tradition - taking a picture in Germany every time we visit EPCOT! :D

I was super pumped for Christmas morning and Brayden's first Christmas!

Someone else was excited, too!

The doggies FINALLY got to open their gifts...and boy did they tear into them! They crack me up!

I have to share one of my awesome gifts that was given to me by a friend. She was on the opening team of Shanghai Disney and sent this awesome Alex & Ani bracelet from Shanghai to me!  I couldn't have been more excited to see this! (She spent 12 weeks there over the summer and was there 6 weeks before the park opened and 6 weeks after..such an incredible opportunity!)

Most of Brayden's gifts consisted of toys that lit up and made music! He loved them!

Our main gift to him was a Mickey Mouse walker...which he also loves!

On Christmas Eve, our brand new AC unit decided to act up. Yes, we had the AC on during Christmas weekend. Thankfully, it still blew enough cool air to keep the house somewhat bearable. My dad's oven also went out on Christmas Eve. SO, Christmas dinner ended up being at my house! I was excited that I had the opportunity to use my Christmas dishes three times in one weekend!

After dinner, we went back to my dad's house for gifts between my parents, my brother and his wife, and us.

My peeps :)

My sister in law captured my most favorite picture from our Christmas weekend! Love love love it!

Thankfully, I was off work on Monday and able to go for a run around the neighborhood. I had Gone for a Run's Virtual Catch Me If You Can 5K to run, which I did with my new Garmin and loved it! (More about this run tomorrow!)

Again, the weather was warm and humid, so I was in shorts. This weather is crazy, y'all. Freezing the past two weekends and hot on Christmas. Sheesh.

Brayden (of course) decided he would attempt to open a few gifts on his own. Now that he knew what to do with them, he wanted to open them all!

Breakfast consisted of a few leftover goodies which were yummy, of course!

That night, we celebrated Christmas with Jason's family...the whole giant lot of them!

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun on Monday night!

Brayden loved playing his new xylophone with his great-grandmother, too!  I just love precious memories like these!

In all, I'd say Brayden's First Christmas was a great one, despite the business of everything! We really enjoyed spending time with our families and seeing brothers and sisters that live out of state! The warmth and love that flowed between everyone we shared our time with is exactly what I love about Christmas. I cannot wait until next year!


Only 361 days to go! 

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How was your Christmas?