Christmas 2012: Our 1st Family of 3 Christmas!

This is a little late, but we've been a little busy!! Our first Christmas as a family of three turned out really well.  We spent a lot of time with extended family and even had a little time on our own.  I want Christmas to be a time of year that Aubrey knows is about Jesus' birth and how he came to earth to save us and die for our sins.  I want it to be a time of year that we have traditions with family member, as well as within our own little family. 

One thing we do every year is to send out Christmas cards.  This year was fun because we got to send one with pictures of Aubrey and the three of us! 

We also decided to take Aubrey to see Santa.  We don't really have a mall around, so we went to the next best place...Bass Pro.  I honestly wasn't too thrilled about my baby's first picture with Santa being made at a place targeted toward outdoor activities that I don't like...but ended up being surprisingly impressed.  They had a little workshop set up with a pretty ligit looking Santa!  She did really well...no tears!  He told us that normally comes next year. But we got a nice free picture!

The Saturday before Christmas Josh's mom, her husband Tony, his sister Meghan, and her boyfriend all came over to our house to celebrate.  It was fun to have everyone over and to celebrate all together with them. We opened presents and had dinner.  

She got a fun little barn!

And thoroughly enjoyed snacking on the paper.

Aubrey with Aunt Meghan and Grandma.

Sunday we got to celebrate as our family of 3!  We went to church that morning.  I'd made candy cane cookies for Aubrey to give the ladies who keep her in the nursery.  That was fun because I'd never been on the giving end of giving a gift to my child's teacher!  That afternoon Aubrey took a nice nap and Santa came while she was sleeping!  We decided it would be a good time to exchange gifts between the three of us.  It was nice because it was quiet and simple.  I would love to keep it that way in years to come! That night we went to church for the candle light service.  I've been to very few of these so I was really glad to be able to go.  Aubrey sat nicely in the floor and played.  It was a great service and we read and sang through the Christmas story.

Checking out what Santa brought!

Snacking on a book...

...or 2.  Oh wait...is that a Sophie the Giraffe teether for her to chew on and she's still going for the book...

There she goes:)

Hanging out while Daddy gets ready for the candle light service

The next morning we woke up early and drove to Atlanta to celebrate with my side of the family.  It's something we've done every year since I was 3 years old.  We made it just in time for lunch at my Mimi and D-Daddy's house.  We ate and then opened presents.  I brought Aubrey's pack n' play, which turned out to be a wonderful idea!  She was able to take a nap and was in a much better mood that night at Granny's house.  We ate dinner and opened more presents.

Every year at my Granny's house the 6 granddaughters all squeeze on to this love seat to open presents and take pictures.

This year we added all 4 great-grandbabies!

Now, when I was little (aka before I was married) we would drive back home, put out cookies for Santa, and Caitlin, Madeline, and I would all sleep in one room together.  This year it was a little different!  We also used to get up about 6am...we were able to push it to 7am... Thankfully Aubrey stayed asleep for a little longer so she wasn't super fussy all day.  We got to see what Santa brought, and then opened presents from each other.  Aubrey woke up just in time to nibble on a few bows and a little wrapping paper!

She got some baby Uggs!  They are adorable!!! But the fuzz isn't so tasty...

Her favorite present...my old cell phone cover is now officially hers.

Rolling around in the presents!

Aunt Madeline wants Aubrey to follow in her footsteps some day...she forgot that her mom and dad are Auburn grads;)

Silly face playing with all of her new toys...and a laundry cup...silly kid!

And now the end of the longest blog post ever!!  At least there were plenty of pictures to keep your attention.  We had a wonderful Christmas and were so blessed!! Here are a few more random pictures to finish off the post:

We went to Matt and Rebecca's house to celebrate and look at Christmas lights!

Aubrey got a chair to match her room with her name on it from her Papa in Colorado.

She's modeling it with her 7 month onesie.

A late Merry Christmas from our little elf!

And last but not least...a fun video of her "dancing" at GG's and Big D's house...