Brooklyn’s First Christmas

Just a fair warning: this post is going to have picture overload. Hey, it happens when it’s your first baby’s FIRST Christmas, right? :)

We made the rounds to both of our families’ houses for Christmas as usual. We spent several days (from Saturday to Wednesday morning) in Trussville with my family. They don’t get to see Brooklyn too often since they live 2 hours away, so they were glad to have us stay for longer than a quick weekend trip.

We had some down time, which was nice, so Travis and I went out to eat for our anniversary, went running twice, and were able to just take it easy, It was great! Brooklyn also enjoyed being in Trussville…

Waking up from a nap in my crib away from home :)

Sporting the “mad scientist” look…

On Monday the 23rd, we celebrated with Mom’s side of the family. Jenn and Chandler came over for a little while before they had to leave for a dinner with Chandler’s parents.

Brooklyn and Aunt Jenn

This was Brooklyn’s first of THREE times to “open” Christmas presents. It was also probably the most interested she was of any of the times. A.K.A. I could actually get her to grab the wrapping paper a little bit :)

Thanks, Gran, for my presents! :)

 On Christmas Eve, we opened presents with Mom, Dad, Jenn, and Chandler before heading over to Uncle Gary and Aunt Ann’s house for supper.

The future Bares family! :)

Brooklyn definitely had the biggest pile of presents!

This would be the cutest picture if B wasn’t blurry from moving so fast! :)

This time, Brooklyn wasn’t very interested in her presents. In fact, she kept trying to crawl away while I was opening them for her…haha!

 Examining a new toy from Gramps and Rae Rae

Cheese!

Brooklyn was much more interested in eating Cheerios than opening presents…

More Cheerios, please!

She did think this little car was pretty neat!

I made her an “ABC” photo book back in the fall and saved it for Christmas (Thanks for the idea, Caitlyn!). Hopefully, she’ll really like looking at it!

Then, Rae Rae wanted to have a photo shoot with her favorite granddaughter, so of course Brooklyn was happy to oblige…

I thought they turned out cute! The photo shoot ended rather abruptly though when Miss B decided to accidentally hit Rae Rae’s tooth with her new toy. Ouch!

Santa must have known we were still in Trussville on Christmas morning because he left Brooklyn a couple more toys (like she needed any more!).

 How do you use this thing?? I can’t walk!!

We said our goodbyes after breakfast, loaded up all our stuff (which BARELY fit in my car), and headed to Waffle House to meet Nate, Becky, Aaron, and Emily before going to Cici’s house. Just a side note: I had no idea that so many people went to Waffle House on Christmas! It was packed! It was great to see our friends for the first time in several months and catch up on each other’s lives though.

We got back in the car, and I could tell B needed a diaper change. Usually, I can change her diaper in my lap with no problem. Well, not this time! Brooklyn hadn’t had a diaper explosion in several months, but this one made up for it. Somehow the poop got on MY pants and not hers…haha. Don’t ask me how that happened! Even with lots of scrubbing, we could still smell poop all the way home (a 1.5 hour drive!). Merry Christmas to me! Brooklyn had no clue what she’d done…she slept the whole way back :) Gotta love the adventure…

After a quick pit stop at our house for a change of clothes and unloading the car, we finally made it to Cici’s house! It was great to spend the afternoon with Travis’s family. We’re not all together that often since Emily’s in college, so we have to take advantage of it when we can!

Our little family :)

The whole fam! (Back row: Travis, Cheryl, Brooklyn, Tyler; Front Row: Me, Melissa, Emily, Alisha)

By this round of presents, Brooklyn was pretty much over it. I opened all of her gifts for her while she crawled around :) I’m sure next year will be totally different!

The hit of the day was the xylophone! Brooklyn really liked it!

Of course, she would have rather gotten a cell phone for Christmas. Why is she so obsessed with phones??

The prettiest present of all…

Cheesin’!

By the end of the gift opening extravaganza, it was time for the thumb-y. That’s when you know she’s had enough :)

Too much Christmas fun wears a girl out!

Overall, it was a really great Christmas. We loved spending time with our families and just relaxing. It was so nice for Travis to be off work for that long too. Even though Brooklyn didn’t care too much about the presents, she seemed to enjoy being around everyone and getting lots of attention. She also ate a TON of food at our Christmas dinners (just like we did). Now we just have to find room in our house for all these toys! If she gets any toys for her birthday, I guess they’ll have to be kept in the backyard!!! ;)

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!