George's first Christmas.

Dude.

I love the word "dude." Depending on the intonation you put on it, it can convey so many meanings. But that only works well verbally, so allow me to expand on my use of the word here in writing. Duuuuuuuude. Picture a little dual eyebrow raising and a little exhale through rounded lips with a little upturn at the corners.

If this was baby's first Christmas, how crazy is it going to be in future years? Our living room needs to be bigger, is what I am saying. And I need to not be nursing a cold at future holidays. And my neighbors need to not throw a party until 4 a.m. on Christmas morning.

But we can totally repeat doing Christmas at our house. This was our first year ever getting to enjoy the holiday in the home where we have been building our family for the past few years, thanks to my generous mother-in-law for cooking the meal. This was also our first year celebrating with both sides of the family in the same place.

And of course, it was our first year with George. Nine and a half months old. Crawling, but not walking. Just beginning to pull up. Capable of ripping off one piece of wrapping paper which then becomes the toy rather than the actual gift we are trying to get him to unwrap. Loves everybody and everything. In other words, the optimal age I would pick for baby's first Christmas (because I have SO. MUCH. EXPERIENCE! with babies at holidays. We've had, like, three whole holidays with him since he was born! Hire me for consultation on planning the timing of your conception/adoption/stork visit!).





We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house, hanging out with my eldest nieces before they headed back home to do their own holidays.





We learned wrapping paper is awesome.





Like, really awesome.





We were reminded what suckers we are for a cute baby.





I suckered people into taking photos rejoiced in the kindness of my dear family for taking photos of me with my baby.





I really ran with that generosity and dragged El Hub in the action.





We pretended we are a Norman Rockwell painting (I doubt my skirt would fly in that time period, though).





Rob and I laughed really, really hard about inappropriate things. Seriously. Some things don't belong on the internet.





My nieces got in on the portrait-with-George action.





I am related to such pretty people. Don't you want to be able to pull off a bob like that?





We do over-accessorize sometimes, though. But it is so fun.





George unwrapped his first ever Christmas present, courtesy of his Mammaw. I am going to call my mother when he figures out how to make that thing laugh maniacally, and I am going to make her listen to it. Every day. And then she is going to stop taking my calls, and I will suffer alone until I wise up and take the batteries out. Also, I am totally in love with George's distal pointing in this photo. Go, George's developmental milestones, go!





The girls decorated George. I think they wanted me to have a girl.

The evening was a pretty good warm-up for the actual Christmas day. It was nice to know that George could kinda-sorta-in-a-way rip off wrapping paper, since we learned way back at the baby shower that it feels kind of strange to have everyone stare at you while you open baby gifts. Please stare at this beautiful baby I birthed instead, thank you.





George's first gift? From his Nana, his very first Christmas ornament, all the way from London. Take my word that it's a silver metal teddy bear, and what you are looking at is George very intently inspecting the bear's butt. Babies are weird.





Do you see what I mean about the size of our living room? The big box on the right ended up being a PlasmaCar, which I confess El Hub has had more fun with than George so far. (Go. Go read the reviews. You will want one.)





Holiday Decorating Tip: I decorated our tree with the holiday cards we received from our friends and family. I wanted a free, baby-safe alternative to our existing ornaments with metal hooks since our cats love knocking stuff out of the tree. The result was colorful and cheery and reminded me how lucky we are to have such wonderful people in our lives.





Suckered someone else into taking photos of me and the butternut.





We ate. So much. My family raved about my mother-in-law's cooking.





A kiddie table! In our house! Seriously, our house feels that much more like a home after this Christmas.





Gift unwrapping in action.





More gift unwrapping.





And toy playing.





And game playing.




And cleaning up.

So. Dude. Dude. I loved it. It was awesome. I can only imagine how much more fun it will become in the future as George grows and he "gets" it more. But give me about a year to recover before the next one, okay? The living room especially, it still looks like a toy bomb hit it.

(Shhhh, don't remind me that George's first birthday is in a few months.)