Merry and Bright

Calvin checks out his first Christmas tree.

We set up our Christmas tree about a week after Thanksgiving. It's a little, fake tree because we don't like to buy a real one on the years that we are going out of town for Christmas. Fire hazard and all that. We took a video of the Great Lighting of the Little Christmas Tree, but it ended up being kind of a bust because only the bottom half of the tree lit up! We found the loose bulb and fixed it, and I think it is a very pretty little tree.

My family has a tradition that every year, each of us kids and my parents together would get new ornaments. So my brother and I each have one ornament for every year of our lives up until we moved out of our parents' house, and our parents have an ornament for every year of their marriage. When James and I got married, I started this tradition for our new little branch of the family and now that we have Calvin I am excited to do the same for him. 

I decided to forgo the typical "Baby's First Christmas" ornament care of Hallmark in favor of something that I felt was more unique and special for my little chicken. Here's a video of Calvin opening his very first Christmas ornament, which is also his very first Christmas gift!

We did another photo shoot to get a nice pic for this year's Christmas card. This time, at Crissy Field. I had this brilliant idea to make a cute banner with a Christmas message, but it was really too windy for it. Here are some of the photos we got:

We brought Calvin with us to a couple of holiday parties, including a Holiday Baby Bash hosted by a friend from the mom & baby group I go to. You might recognize these tots from the Halloween party pics. They are much sleepier in this picture! And sorry about the glowing eyes, I couldn't figure out how to fix it in a pic from my cell phone. 

A few days later, which was a few days ago, we got on a plane very early in the morning and flew out to Atlanta. So we are here hanging out with my parents, and on Christmas Eve we'll drive up into the mountains to spend time with James' parents. I am always thankful to get to spend the holidays with our wonderful families and to get to see some much missed friends while we are in town. More Christmas pics to come!