Christmas is here!

Christmas was a busy time around here. We ended up having three different Christmas functions to attend, and we had fun at all of them!


First, the weekend before the 25th we had Christmas at the farm in Giddings with my grandparents, both of whom are in their 90s. They love seeing Emma, and they were especially excited to see her crawling. This also happened to be Emma's first time to try to open presents. Uncle Stephen was enlisted to help Emma, so that Kevin and I could watch and snap photos. We quickly learned that Emma's favorite part about opening any presents was trying to eat the wrapping paper!



Next up, we celebrated Christmas day at our house with both Kevin's family and mine - a total 15 adults and 3 kids. We had a house full! Kevin and my brother Philip stayed up all night smoking a brisket outside on the pit, and the results were delicious. Emma started out the day opening presents in her pjs and just being surrounded by people, including her cousins. After lunch, a nap, and a wardrobe change, she had a few more presents to open and lots of play time!

 

Finally, the Saturday after Christmas we got together with the whole Banes family clan and celebrated. There were lots of people who had never met Emma and lots of kids to play with. But even with a house full and tons of of things to do and people to watch, Emma still managed to sneak in a two hour nap. 

 

  
While the holidays can often be so busy for people that they become overwhelming, we feel blessed by the fact that we have so many friends and family members that are a part of our lives. It truly is the most wonderful time of year, and we can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for our family!

Click here to see more pictures from Christmas!

Starting Some Christmas Traditions

With this being Emma's first Christmas, Kevin and I were definitely excited to add some new traditions to our usual Christmas routine. Of course since Emma was only 8 months old and probably had no clue what was really going on, it wasn't necessary for us to do EVERYTHING this year (no Elf on the Shelf here - phew!).

Decorating for Christmas

Some of our nativity scenes and
our new advent calendar

I love decorating for Christmas time. There's just something about the tree, the twinkling lights, and the carols that make it all so magical. It's something I've loved ever since I was a child, and I guess it's because Christmas time means family time - a time to come together and celebrate what we've been blessed with and thank God who has provided for us.

This year we had to add to and update a few of our decorations to celebrate with Emma. First, that meant getting new stockings to hang by the fireplace so that Emma could have one. Then, when it came time to putting up the Christmas tree we actually had to think about where to put ornaments on the tree so her curious little fingers couldn't get to the breakable ones. I also found a really neat advent calendar of the nativity scene at the Sugar Plum Market where each day you add a character to the story of Jesus' birth.

A bit of our indoor decor

This year I also wanted to update our outdoor display to reflect Emma's addition to our family. Normally, we have two metal moose out in our side yard, and year after year, people stop to ask us about them. So this year we added a third moose and jazzed them up a bit to reflect that now mommy, daddy, and baby live here. (And yes, I know female moose don't have antlers, but it just wouldn't look right otherwise).

  
Creating a Christmas Card
I've always loved getting people's cards at Christmas because it's so cool to see how families grow and change over the years. However, I've never sent one out because it felt weird to me to just send pictures of Kevin and I (and maybe the dog). But this year, we had cuteness to share with everyone! Now, I kind of got a late start on getting this together, and I really didn't want to do fancy formal pictures and have to wait forever to get them, so we settled on pajamas in front of the fire place because let's be honest, that's how we roll in this household.

Emma's watching BabyTV
while I try to snap some pictures

Now if you've never done a photo session with a baby, then you don't know the rigmarole that goes into getting one to look at the camera and smile. Or just be still. Or not put her hands in her mouth. Or not ooze with drool. Those monthly pictures of Emma just don't happen by magic. Usually Kevin is dancing around, making goofy noises, and engaging in all kinds of hullabaloo so that I can capture that moment. Emma always smiles for him. So what do you do when daddy needs to be in the picture?

Well, you turn to uncles, Pappy, and BabyTV to make the magic happen. I tried to get a leg up on things by snapping some cute pictures of Emma on my own, and oh boy, was that an adventure. My dinky little Canon Powershot has seen a lot of use and is getting so slow, which meant the shot I wanted had already changed by the time the camera snapped the photo. But we persevered and I bribed her with watching BabyTV on my iPhone to get my shots. When it came to doing our family picture, Uncle Stephen tried to take the pictures and entertain at the same time, but it wasn't working. Emma was as stoic as could be. So the next day, we had my mom take pictures while Uncle Philip and my dad (aka Pappy) goofed around, and again Emma was stoic and tired of taking pictures. I think we took a total of 200 pictures over the 2 days (we were using the burst function), and ended up with 2 shots that were decent enough to put on our card. It just proves that Emma's daddy just has the perfect touch in getting that girl to smile!

Here's the final product:

Here are some of the pictures that didn't make the cut.

Can you tell why?

  

 

Visiting Santa
As a little girl, every year my mom and dad took me downtown to see Santa Claus. It was a big deal because I got to visit my dad at work, we all got dressed up in fancy Christmas clothes (cause this was when men still wore suits to work), we'd go out to eat at nice restaurant where I'd get to have dessert, and then head to Foley's to take my picture. Back in the day Foley's did a big display with all the Santa Claus figures throughout the world, and it was so neat. I loved looking at it year after year, but more importantly I loved having a special day out with my parents.

So accordingly, I wanted to be able to start that tradition with my own kids. Now unfortunately downtown Foley's/Macy's doesn't exist, so I was on the trail to find a legitimate looking Santa somewhere where we could make it a tradition to go year after year. After asking around, our friends the Neils suggested we check out the one in Brenham. Some googling and a phone call later and we were set up with an appointment to meet Santa!

We weren't really sure how Emma was going to handle meeting Santa for the first time. She's pretty good around people, even strangers. But we've all seen the kids meltdown when it comes to meeting Santa, and when Kevin had put a Santa hat and beard on at home, her bottom lip would just start a slow tremble. So, Kevin and I plus my parents piled into the car on the first Saturday in December despite the rain and chilly temps and headed off to Brenham. The inauspicious morning weather coupled with a cranky Emma did not make me feel very confident. But a car ride, bottle, and wardrobe change later, and Emma was set to go. 

We got to the store early, so we'd have time to show her Santa and let her observe for a while. She loves watching people, and the fact that there were so many kids to watch was a definite bonus. We were doing well until the little girl in front of us had her turn. She looked at Santa and started wailing, and Emma just watched and watched. But luckily, the crying wasn't contagious! When it was our turn, we went up to Santa and played and talked a little, and Emma was captivated with the fluffy ball at the end of his hat. She did so well, and we got the excellent picture below.

Emma's first Santa Claus picture

Afterwards, we did a little shopping and stopped in at Must Be Heaven for a yummy lunch. Emma was happy because she got to people watch, and Pappy let her eat crackers! It was a fun outing for everybody, and one I look forward to again next year!

Emma at lunch - sitting in a big girl high chair!

Playing catch up - Emma at 8 months

Phew! The holidays are over. With such a quick turnaround between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it's been a dizzying flurry of activity at our house. A good flurry of activity, but a lot of it! So now as everybody heads back to work and we are easing back into our daily routine, I finally have a moment to get some stuff posted up on the blog. I think I've got enough to do two more entries after this!

Trying to stand in the crib

Emma's been growing by leaps and bounds and becoming quite the adventurer. It seems like she went from starting to crawl to starting to pull up and cruise around the furniture in a matter of days. Of course, she didn't just do it in safe, supervised, pillow padded situations either. She started pulling up and standing in her crib, which meant Kevin had to lower the mattress yet again and that I have to stand on my tiptoes to reach over to lay her down. Then because she was standing in the crib, she found that she could chew on said crib. Thus, our sweet child turned into quite a little busy beaver and that meant it was time to put the crib rail protectors on. Needless to say, there's a lot of cause and effect learning going on at our house for all of us - mommy, daddy, and baby. 

Oh, and don't forget - what goes up, must come down. And usually Emma comes down with a less than graceful thump which is sometimes coupled with a head bump and tears. Good thing she mostly lands on a padded bottom!

Now another side effect of this newly developed motor skill is that we needed a quick infusion of new toys to keep Emma entertained (and out of trouble). So Christmas came a little early as Kevin and I decided that the Playskool Laugh and Learn house we were planning on giving Emma needed to appear sooner rather than later. Can I tell you how much this toy has been a lifesaver? Emma has played with it for hours on end and keeps discovering new activities. Also I have to admit, it's pretty fun playing with her too. There are lots of different ways to play peek-a-boo, and it is fun to surprise her by putting things in the mailbox. Plus, it's sturdy enough that she can pull up on it, which keeps her away from the things she shouldn't be getting in to. I would definitely recommend this toy!

Emma supervising construction

Endless hours of fun

Lastly, Emma's been working on both her verbal and nonverbal communication skills. We always laugh looking back at old videos to see what the sound of the month was - it seems like she only works on one at a time, and we get at least a month of that one sound before she moves on to another. Currently, she's working on the long I sound and subsequently, we've been working on saying "hi." Now, I'm not sure if she's actually saying hi or just making the vowel sound, but she definitely has started to learn when to say it. When she sees Lizzy or someone she knows, she'll say it. When playing peek-a-boo, you sometimes get a "hi," and the best one is when she sees herself in the mirror. She loves that silly baby in the mirror! We've also been working on high fives and waving goodbye. The high five gesture kind of gets stuck on repeat, and you get more like a 20 or 30 by the time she's done though. It's a work in progress - no one can just be cool over night. Waving goodbye has been quicker for her to pick up. We think it's cute because she can't decide whether to wave her whole arm or to just move her fingers. But either way, she knows what she's doing. The other day she was watching BabyTV and the characters on The Cuddlies always wave goodbye at the end, and she sat there waving back to them. I wish I had caught it on film! There's a lot more I could tell you about what's been going on, but I'll save that for some of our Christmas posts.

Video: Emma says "Hi!"
 

 

Click here for more pictures and videos from this month!