1st Christmas!

What a great couple of days we've had!

Our Christmas celebrations began last night, (Christmas Eve) with our now traditional meal at Benihana! This is the 4th time we've done it, (I think), and it was a great time. Sweetpea enjoyed eating her rice and egg, and even some of the zucchini, and as always she took advantage of the great people watching opportunity. We sat with a very nice family, with three daughters.

After Benihana we went to my Nan and Grandpa's to chat and hang out a bit. We passed on our 2009 Benihana desk calendar to my Grandpa while we were there. There was more food, desserts, and tea and wine. Sweetpea opened her first Christmas present, from Nan and Grandpa, and spent most of the rest of the night playing with it there! We also read "The Night Before Christmas" with her. I picked up a beautiful copy, illustrated by Mary Englebright - I could look at it for hours, it's got so many details. Sweetpea seemed to like it as well, and hopefully it will continue to be interesting to her throughout the years.

This morning the three of us started off the holiday by (first making coffee and then) opening our presents to each other, and those from my DH's family in Austin. Sweetpea got so many beautiful and fun new things! Here she is "opening", (I did most of the work) her first present on Christmas morning! I think she could have stopped here and she would have been content, but there was much more to go. She received some beautiful books, a cute rubber ducky (that went straight into her mouth!), and some very cool toys that should keep her going for a long time. Here's a picture with her new best friend, who I think we'll call Leo, (I know, not too creative, but it was early in the morning... if you've got a better idea, let me know and I'll take it into consideration!)

We took a few breaks in opening all the presents for coffee refills and to hang back and enjoy what we'd already opened. Sweetpea needed some down time from all the excitement, so we read a book and played with some of her new toys.

DH got me a beautiful, large stainless steel pan... just like the kind I've been drooling over in all the cooking shows. I'm very excited, and used it to cook some of breakfast this morning when my parents came over. Anyway, that's what we did next. I made a (undercooked) baked french toast, with sausage, chocolate crescent rolls, and fruit salad, (which my mom brought). We had some more coffee, and mimosas, and opened a few more presents with the grandparents. And then it was naptime for the busy little baby, and crunch time for the busy parents.

We got ourselves cleaned up and worked to make some stuffed mushrooms to take to the Italian themed dinner at my Aunt's house. Here are just a few of the folks who were there!!

We had a very nice time, talking and opening more presents. Here's Sweetpea surrounded by some of her gifts! I feel like I can almost see a glimpse of what she might look like grown up here. The first thing she opened was a stacking toy that kept her engaged through most of the afternoon. She got so many beautiful things... this kid has more family that loves her than anyone I've ever known!! What a lucky girl she is... she will probably never fully understand how blessed she is!!

And of course, she's beautiful too!! Here she is modeling a couple of her new clothes.

After presents we sat down for dinner. We did Christmas crackers, so we were all royalty for the meal, wearing our paper crowns. I love that tradition... the jokes in these crackers were very cute, and the prizes were a bit nicer than normal... I got a shoe horn! Woo hoo! Sweetpea got her own special crown made from the cracker ends... it fit her well, and she wore it through the whole meal!

Of course, she loved the attention she got sitting at the end of the table. She ate a nice big meal of sweet potatoes, and washed it down with some bread and pasta from my plate.

Here she is sitting with her grandma after eating. We stayed a while after dinner for dessert and tea, and of course some games; guitar hero, pool, and a number of rounds (who's counting?) of Catch Phrase. Sweetpea conked out on my lap in the middle of the game. She was holding on as long as possible so she wouldn't miss a thing, but she couldn't hold out any longer. She'd only had two little naps all day. But she was such a good girl all day.

When she woke up, it was pretty much time for us to get her home. She slept in the car on the way home, and went straight to bed from the carseat. It was a very busy Christmas, but I think we all scratched just about as much excitement out of it as possible!

I hope your Christmas was as full of fun, food, family, and love as ours was!!