The Waddell Family: Christmas

We had our first Christmas celebration with my Dad's family on Jeremy's birthday (December 17th) at our house. It was lots of fun to be able to host and to be able to use my Christmas dishes! It was also fun having three pregnant ladies in the house - myself, my sister-in-law, and my cousin's wife. It's going to be a really busy spring/summer! Here are a couple of pics from our celebration.

Aunt Jo, Jeremy, and Mandy

Mom, Hayden, Bryan, and Amye (and baby Bramlett)

Chris and Tiffany (and baby Bruce)

Papaw and Dad

Our next celebration was with Jeremy's mom's family at his parents' house. We were glad that Jeremy's cousin, Becky, and her husband, Jeff, were able to make it in from Tampa this year to celebrate Christmas with us. I think Cora enjoyed getting to play with Becky, and I'm pretty sure Becky enjoyed it too! :)

Cora got a tricycle from her great-aunt Reba and great-uncle Billy

She loved her Elmo camera from Becky and Jeff!

Becky and Reba

We had a wonderful Christmas morning, just our little family of three. This was the first Christmas that Jeremy and I weren't at one of our parents' houses for Christmas, since we were always traveling for the holidays. Granted, we always enjoyed Christmas with our parents, but it was a lot of fun getting to be the parents this year! I really enjoyed filling the stockings and putting the Santa gifts under the tree. Santa is something that Jeremy and I talked a lot about this year. We want to be sure Cora knows that Santa and gifts are not what Christmas is all about, but at the same time, we want her to be able to be a child and be imaginative and enjoy Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, and all that fun stuff. This year, we felt pretty successful in this. She understood that Christmas was Jesus' birthday, though she isn't quite old enough to understand exactly what that means. :) We also tried to not go overboard with the gifts, because while gift-giving is fun, we didn't want that to be the focal point. Cora enjoyed opening her packages from Santa and Mommy and Daddy, and then she got to play a bit while we got ready to go to church. It was nice to get to go to church to celebrate Jesus' birth on Christmas Day. Cora had been in church with us for family night a couple of weeks prior, then for the choir music, for the Christmas Eve service, and again on Christmas morning. She would sing SO enthusiastically with the carols that she knew from home, and she learned a new favorite song - "God With Us". She surprised us by singing it on her own at home, and she remembered the lyrics better than Jeremy and I did! I am so proud of that little girl! After church, we went to have Christmas dinner with my family.

Gifts from Santa

Cora got the hat from Santa - she wore it most the morning :)

Opening Santa gifts with Daddy

Daddy opening his gift from Mommy - love Cora's expression here!

Gift time at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Hayden really liked her Grandma's new purse

Mom and Dad

Surprise!

Amye and her new food processor

Cora and her new Super Grover from Grandma and Grandpa

The day after Christmas, we spent the day in Birchwood with Jeremy's parents celebrating. We had a yummy brunch, gifts, and went to visit Charlie the donkey.

Cora looking at one of her new big sister books from Nana and Papaw

Cora's ready to help clean!

Jeremy's parents opening their new knives

I also celebrated my birthday. That morning, Cora and I went to the grocery store. She was well-behaved for me and milk was on sale, so it was a good start to my birthday! A little later, my parents came over to spend the day with me...well, Mom did. Dad was busy working finishing the electric work in our unfinished room downstairs. :) We ended the day with a birthday celebration with our immediate family enjoying some lasagna and coconut cake. While I am a little bothered by being 31 years old, I really had a great day!