The Magic of a First Christmas.

Ok... so this is going to be a long couple of posts. Lot's went on over our Christmas holiday.. as you can imagine.. so settle in, this could take a while.

This year Charlie seemed to add a little something extra to our families Christmas. Everyone seemed to have a new take on such a wonderful holiday, made that much better with a new baby around I guess. Josh and I of course were over the moon, as we are everyday, but it was so wonderful to see our loving family members interact with sweet Charlie.. even if things were a little different this Christmas.

We started out to Carthage on Christmas Eve. Aggie was already in town and Lucy on her way. We enjoyed a quiet afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's. That evening we attended the Christmas Eve service and then a party in the home of some good family friends. This was Charlie's first outing in Carthage so of course he quickly became the center of attention. We had our Christmas with my family that night. As it snowed outside, picture perfect.

A surprise for Aunt LuLu and Aunt Aggie... and a picture mail for Aunt Monica

Early gift from NYC.

Playtime with Grandpa Dan

New Shoes

Our Happy Family

New Coat

Hanging out in his Christmas PJ's

A joke from my mom... I will explain... Josh had a tomato garden this summer that was constantly raided by our squirrels. They would carry the tomatoes up in the trees, eat half and then throw the other half down. Josh claims they ate all the good ones.

Cocoa in her new hat.

We woke up Christmas morning to some pretty slick roads. We (my dad and Josh) braved the ice and headed up 71 to Kansas City though. We spent the morning at my cousin Regan's house and had a lovely brunch. Charlie met his second cousins Jack and Ava for the first time, these two have the best imaginations and wanted little to do with the baby and more to do with the "robots" in the basement. Too funny. Christmases to come with be so fun with these little ones around.

Christmas Morning

Wide awake... did santa come?

Asleep already on Aunt Aggie

Miss Ava Luckenbill

Mr Jack Luckenbill

Charlie and the ladies.

With Great Grandma Alice and Great Uncle Jim

We then made our way on to the Ferrantelle's for a traditional face feeding with the biggest portions of prime rib you have ever seen. My uncle Dick was there from NYC and he and Charlie met for the first time. It was wonderful to all be together under one roof. We were truly thankful and lucky everyone was able to make it with the weather the way it was. Charlie did great, passed around from cousin to cousin.

The chaos that is my family... Love it though

Winos

Charlie and Will... finally another boy!

First Family Christmas

So much to take in... all that stimulation...

He slept right through the night! Loved it.

The prime rib... told you!

Meeting Great Uncle Dick... impressed with his pants.

All the girl cousins and Charles

With Great Grandma Lucy

December Pics

Here are a few pics of what we were up to in December! What a fun month it has been... so many changes in Charlie that we have enjoyed, such a fun Holiday Season this year.

Christmas time does not affect Gus...

still lounging... just with a holiday sweater!

Quiet night at home

Our first Santa attempt at Bass Pro, the tree had no line.

Hanging with Grandpa Dan

Taking a bottle from Dad, this is on his eight week birthday.

Our Tree

Sweet Eyelashes

Guy Time at the Habel Household.

Fast asleep in the Baby Bjorn

December is here.. and half way over!

Seriously, where is the time going? I can't believe my little fella is going to be eight weeks on Friday! And Xmas is next week?? My goodness. We have had a wonderful month so far. Charlie is smiling and cooing and Josh and I just eat it up! Love every minute of it! Our house is decked for the holidays and the Christmas cards are coming in by the handfuls. So fun to see the changes everyone has made in a year.

We attended our first Christmas party of the holiday season last night. A family party at the home of a family I babysat in college. Now the very children I used to watch were passing Charlie around.. very surreal. The McGees were also in attendance and Henry was also loving the attention. Charlie was going for the quietest guest award in the beginning, he really only woke up for about 30 minutes of the party, but he still was very well behaved.

Tonight the fun continues with the Provence Xmas Bash at Barbie's. Then two more this weekend! Such a wonderful time of year!

Minus the crowds and all. I can't deal with the Holiday shoppers this time of year! I guess I should go ahead and tell the story of Josh and I's not so great attempt at introducing our son to Santa. Friday night my dad stopped through on his way home from the cabin, we asked him to join us for a trip to Bass Pro to meet Santa, my dad could NEVER pass up a trip to Bass Pro. So we bundled and headed out, Santa only sees children from 5-8 pm on weeknights. Well, we were too late, he had met his quota for the evening. So Josh, the loving father he is, headed to Bass Pro on Sat morning at 9:30 to "get a pass" for later in the afternoon. Our time was 2:30 p.m. We arrived around 2:20 and braved the crowded line for about 20 minutes, when we had not moved an inch we both looked at each other and said what are we doing here. I was seriously on the verge of a breakdown at this point. So, we kindly handed in our pass and chalked the idea of Charlie meeting Santa this year at Bass Pro.We might give the mall Santa a try, he seems less popular. Next year, we are bringing Santa to us, stay tuned!

Almost Two Months

Monday we went for our eight week checkup, at seven weeks I guess. Didn't want to wait until the week of Xmas. Charlie had an awesome report.

Height: 22 3/4 inches

Weight: 11 lbs 2 oz

He also had to endure five vaccinations. Bless his little heart, I would have taken 500 for him. It was the first time he produced real tears. He has done great though, with the help of a little children's tylenol.

Cheeky

Just a post to show everyone how much Charlie is changing.

Cheeks are coming in FULL effect! And I LOVE it!

Road Trip!

So last Tuesday I loaded my newborn son and open minded husband up and we headed to Arkansas, just a short three hours later we arrived at the home of Mika Beth Edwards. The most amazing child photographer you have EVER seen. I think the pictures speak for themselves, I can't wait to get the proofs, these are just a sneak peak! I will let you all know when they are on her blog!