Baby's First Christmas

I have always loved Christmas! It is one of my favorite Holidays! My parents always made it so special for us. As a child I couldn't wait to have a family of my own to make it a special day for them as well. Spending the day with my family is something that I always looked forward to. And now that I am married my family has grown. That many more faces to love and spend time with.
Our Christmas festivities started of with spending time with my family on Christmas eve. We went to Rayni's great Grammy's and had her wonderful homemade enchiladas and chili rellinos.  We opened some gifts. Rayni sure was spoiled. She got a new dress, a sweater, and a huggums doll. After that we went to my parents and opened some more gifts there. Rayni was also spoiled there too. She got some leggings, a little people's airplane and some little people, an and Ariel Barbie. The night was topped off by getting to Skype with Uncle Bubba who is still on his mission in the Philippines. Christmas Morning I said to Rayni, "we get to Skype with uncle Bubba tonight!" and she replied back, "bubba" I squealed! I said Bubba again to her and she said it back a couple of times. I was so excited that she was going to be saying it to him tonight.. hopefully if she would cooperate. When we were in front of the computer and held her up she wouldn't say it. She just stared at her uncle Bubba. Towards the end we tried again and she said it so soft and so sweet. He loved it. He commented on her beautiful eyes. It was such a sweet moment. We loved seeing him again... and can't wait till April.
The next morning was the morning that I always dreamed of... Waking up with my hubbie and my baby, pilling in our bed, reading from the nativity story, and enjoying each other's company all day. Just as it always was for my family.
When we and my brother would wake up in the moring we would run to my mom and dad's bedroom and jump on their bed. My mom always made it a point to make sure that we started off the day with the true meaning of Christmas. We would read from this book:

I loved sitting on their bed and listen as my mom read this story to us. When I got preggers I wanted this book so that I could carry on the tradition. At one of my showers my mom gave me this book. Because Rayni was born 11 days after Christmas I had to wait almost an entire year before I could read it. And I couldn't wait.

So being able to read it to her and with my hubbie was the best feeling. She loved the book at the beginning, but as most babies she got restless and was done about half way through so mommy had to quickly go through it.
Then we walked out to see what Santa had left us.
It was so fun to watch Rayni . She was confused and excited. She loved pulling things out of her stocking. Out of all that she got her baby food was her favorite thing. She didn't want to put it down.
After gifts were all done we had breakfast and went to spend Christmas with Zach's family.
It was a perfect day. And one that I will never forget!
Enjoy some pictures from our perfect day.

Santa made a stop at the Hoffman's home

waking up Christmas morning

Rayni excited to read our story

OOH I love this face:)

Reading our book

She like the animals in the book

she was done with mama reading it. She took over

walking out to see our surprises

she was a bit confused

squealing about her stocking

she loved pulling things out of the stocking

yay socks! She showed us every time she pulled something out and asked, "Wus dis?"

And the hit of the day... the baby food!

still not letting go of the food.

finally put it down to open some gifts

oh found the food again

Daddy got a gift too

He is so slow and opening gifts... it drives me nuts. Here he is telling me to be patient

 

Rayni got tired of waiting on him she moved onto other things

he was very sxcited

a blanket with all his favorite teams

Rayni can see what a nerd her daddy was even when she was little.

 

I love my little picture perfect family Christmas!

 

 

Oh Christmas Tree

With December being half way over, we finally got our Christmas out! It took us two days but we did it. Last night I started pulling it out. Rayni was in a very bad mood and wanted nothing to do with anything except for all attention on her. So we only got some decorations out. But not our tree. Today I was determined to get that baby out. There is something about putting my tree up that gets me all warm and fuzzy inside. It is a place that holds so many memories and special things.

There are people out there that have the trees that are all matchy matchy... not that this is a bad thing in any which way or form.

 I just love my old fashiondy-nick nack-modge podge-of memories-tree.

Each ornament that I pulled out tonight reminded me of someone and some memory.

My Grammy: The red silk ball ornaments that used to be on her tree when I was growing up

My great Grammy Williams: an old ball ornament that was hers at one point

My mom: My mom collecting my kiddy cucumber cat ornaments for me and the 100 year old bread ornaments she made.

The Thompsons (Uncle Gary, Aunt Jill, Cousins Brooke and Robin) The ornament they make every year and my very favorite and special Snow White ornament from Brooke.

Zach also has a few ornaments that were his growing up.

I love that our tree is a combination of his and mine. I love that we have made it our own. I love the that our star is held together on top of our tree with bobby pins and has had to be done that way since we first put up out Christmas tree 6 years ago.

I love that there are past memories that we think about when we look at our tree and that new memories will be added.

I L.O.V.E.D sharing this with my Rayni. Seeing Christmas through the eyes of an innocent child just makes it that much more special. It was so fun to see her excitement and wanting to be apart of it all. She makes all of our favorite and special moments in life that much more worth wild.

Enjoy some fun moments:

 

 

On the first day of decorating this is all Lou wanted was the bell

 

 

 She was very curious about the lights. She kept softly touching them.

 

 She kept thinking there was more in the Christmas tree box. Like it was my Marry Poppins bag and I would be pulling out a lot more that just the tree.

Helping mommy pull out the ornamnets

Trying to eat the bread ornamnets

helping mommy hang the ornamnets

She loves bags and boxes that are full of stuff for her to pull out so this was much entertainment for her!

Still wanting to look at the tree long after we were done

Daddy hanging our Jerry rigged bobby pin star

All finished

 

I have to mention my stockings. My Dad's mom has 9 kids. She started making these stockings for them when they were just kids. The tradition carried onto making one for their spouse then their kids. The stocking making was handed down to my aunt who continued to make sure that everyone in my dad's very large family had a stocking. When I got married to Zach he was made one. Well when it came time to think about Christmas this year I just had to have one for Rayni. I knew that the stocking making had kinda stopped. If you really wanted one my aunt would give you the materials and explain how to do it. I called her to ask if she could teach me so I could make one for my Lou. She said that she was already making one for her granddaughter and that she would also make one for Rayin since she was already doing it. I was so thrilled! When my dad brought it home for me and I looked at it it made me teary. All growing up we all had the same stocking. They all hung on the fire place oldest to youngest. I new that I had always loved my stocking but now that I have  a family of my own I love it even more. It makes me so happy that I am able to carry on a tradition that means so much to me.

 ( I don't have stocking holders just yet, but they will be hung soon)