It's true. Babies make everything more fun...especially holidays! Listen, I've always loved Christmas. I mean, loved it. Like, we put up our tree the first weekend of November. But this year Christmas was even more fun!
Most of our Christmas fun started the Sunday night before Christmas. We had my parents and my sister's family over for snacks and Christmas treats. We even managed to get a great family picture where everyone is looking and smiling...everyone except Emery, who looks like she is thinking really hard about something! :-\
Emery got to open her first present that night. She loved all of the wrapping paper and bows!
This sweet girl was a great helper and showed Emery the ropes for her very first time opening presents. She also gave us all the sweetest gifts that she shopped for herself at the Christmas shop at her school. I got a precious heart-shaped pink gemstone key chain that said "Aunt". I love it *so* much.
Nana got a sweet necklace.
And Uncle D and Gampa both got screwdrivers...which Vanna announced right before they opened them! :)
As the night went on, Emery definitely got the hang of opening presents...
...and continued to enjoy the boxes and bows! :)
The next day we had our annual cookie baking day at my mom and dad's house. My mom, sister, sister-in-law, nieces, and nephews all get together to bake, decorate, and eat tons of Christmas cookies! And I didn't take any pictures of us with the cookies! I only took these pictures of Emery playing with one of her favorite toys at Nana and Gampa's house.
She *loves* this jack-in-the-box and tries to say "uh oh" every time the clown pops out...except it comes out like "uh uh". :)
On Tuesday night, we did one of my favorite Christmas traditions...getting Starbucks and riding around looking at Christmas lights in our PJs. We call it Jammy Cocoa Christmas! Daniel and I have always done this tradition, but we started calling it Jammy Cocoa Christmas last year. It just sounds more fun, right? :)
We got a few pictures by the Christmas tree before we headed out.
She had to try and grab for a few ornaments. :)
Ready to go!
Christmas music on Pandora! I think Michael Buble Holiday is my favorite Christmas station ever!
It was a rainy night, so Daniel had to keep his eye on the radar. I'm telling you, I think he was a weatherman in another life. He loves it. We even went to an all day storm watcher training seminar one year. I remember nothing, he remembers everything. Anyway...
We ran through the Jim 'N Nick's drive through for dinner...
Then we were off to Starbucks!
Just for fun, we did this Christmas light scavenger hunt. We found almost everything!
Emery was awake part of the time, but hardly made a sound. By the time we got home, she was out! I think it's so funny how she wiggled her hat all the way around!
Of course, she woke up when we got her out of her car seat. She threw herself a little party in her crib...
But she fell asleep before too long.
Daniel and I spent the rest of the night watching Home Alone...one of our favorite Christmas movies.
We didn't do much on Christmas Eve except go to our church's candlelight Christmas Eve service. I love this service and Emery did great at her first one!
She started to get a little restless toward the end, but it was nothing a few Puffs and an empty Mentos gum bottle couldn't take care of! ;)
We snapped a quick family picture when we got home...
Then we read Itsy Bitsy Christmas {seriously one of the *sweetest* children's Christmas books!!!} to Emery and let her open one of her presents.
She was worn out and fell asleep with her feet poking out of her crib rails!!
We fixed her feet and she fell right back to sleep with that little booty in the air! <3
Then we got to play Santa for the first time! So much fun!!
Ready for Christmas morning!!
Emery woke up nice and early and we could barely get her to sit still for this picture!
She was after that elephant!
She definitely enjoyed more wrapping paper and bows!
And she seemed pretty excited about her presents, too!
She didn't hesitate trying out her new Wubbanub...
Although she did take a second to inspect it after she tried it out. :) It was like she realized all of a sudden that it looked different than her other ones.
We played, rested, read, put together toys, and played some more before it was time for Emery to take a nap!
While she was sleeping, Daniel and I exchanged gifts and...wait for it, started taking down all the Christmas decorations! I know, it's crazy, but for us, when it's over, it's over. We put it up early so we can enjoy it for a long time, but it comes down on Christmas day! We've never taken it down in the morning before, but we both got kind of crazy and decided to go for it. We were so glad it was done when we got home that night!
We headed over to my parents' house that afternoon for Christmas lunch. Emery was super tired...she barely slept for her first nap. I think she was too excited about all of her new toys! Thankfully, she took a good nap once we got to my parents' house!
Emery had a great time playing with all of her aunts, uncles, and cousins!
We had our annual Dirty Santa gift exchange...always good for lots of laughs!
While we did that, Emery had her own little party by the Christmas tree!
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