Henry's First Christmas

Between the Christmas holiday, New Year's, a trip to Colorado, and my first day back at work, I have taken quite the hiatus from blogging!  I honestly thought of quitting all together, but I know that I will love looking back at Henry's first year one day when I convert this thing into print.   So here we go, starting from Christmas....

Christmas kicked off for us on the 23rd with a brunch at Marty's dad's house followed by a lunch with Henry's godmother and her sweet daughter Katie!  How adorable is this sweet thank you note from Katie to Henry?  Love, love, love!  It always makes me smile when Henry receives his own little pieces of mail! And it reminds me how far behind I am on Christmas thank you notes!  Eeeeek!

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the year!  We thought we were so sneaky to attend Christmas Eve mass at 3:30 instead of the evening or midnight mass, assuming we would miss the "crowd."  How naive!  We arrived 10-15 minutes early and the church was already standing room only!  Let me tell you...our 16+ lb baby can get quite heavy during a Christmas mass!!!  Following mass we exchanged gifts with my mom and the baby spoiling began!   We all then drove around listening to Christmas music and checking out some of our favorite Christmas lights, before heading to a festive dinner at Michelangelo's! It was the perfect spot, with a pianist playing Christmas carols throughout our meal. Henry was a little trooper for it being such a busy day!  The day was so long in fact, that I forgot to change Henry into his special Christmas pajamas I had hanging in the closet for MONTHS!  I also forgot to set out the carrots and cookies we had purchased especially for Santa!  Bad mommy!

We kicked off our whirlwind Christmas Day with Henry "opening" his presents from Santa!  The highlight of our morning was that he could actually tap on the keys to his little light up Baby Einstein piano toy.  My Dad and Suzanne came over to our house (with lunch in tow) for another round of present opening and Henry spoiling! We then all headed out to celebrate Christmas with my Mimi and Aunt's.  We completed our  day back at our house with dinner (thankfully Marty cooked) with Marty's Dad, Rula, and Azad!  Quite a busy day considering we still had to pack up Christmas night for our Colorado trip the very next day!  More on that later...

I must say having a baby brings that "magic" back into Christmas!  I can't wait until next year when we can  bring down the Elf on the Shelf (we named ours Barnaby...after this guy) and all of the Santa fun can begin!

Oh, and here is the aftermath of my emergency trip to the Container Store as a result of all of Henry's Christmas loot (you can also see the bottom half of Marty's nutcracker collection on the top shelf.  I keep saying those guys deserve a post all their own)...