Our Christmas Celebrations

Well, I know I am way behind in posting this, but here goes! We had a wonderful, family-filled time celebrating Christmas. Our Christmas morning at home celebration gave way to our celebration in Atlanta with my family later that afternoon. Unfortunately, Caroline threw up before we left our house. After waiting a couple hours, we decided to go ahead and make the trip since she'd held down water and crackers. We were hoping maybe it was an isolated incidence brought on by to much excitement combined with more sugar than normal Christmas Eve and a pretty rich breakfast casserole. But that was not to be the case. She threw up again on the way there and continued to do so once at my parents' house.

Here she is, in the position she remained in much of the 25th and 26th. Daddy helped her open gifts from my parents and brothers. We could tell she was really sick since she was basically motionless as we exchanged gifts!

Uncle Tim gave her these books, which Daddy read a bit to her. At some points, she was even too pitiful to want to be read to and just wanted to lie there on the couch!

Poor thing...

This one, on the other hand, was in good health and pretty decent spirits. Cecilia enjoyed the gift-giving and mostly the wrapping paper. Uncle Stephen read her a book, which she obviously thought was a real treat! He also gave her an extremely noisy toy, and she very much appreciated it.

The next day, we had more celebrating when my brother Mike and his wife Crystal joined the fun. They came over for an afternoon of more gifts and more food!

I love the messiness of Christmas - the wrapping paper everywhere, the gifts piled up on the coffee table, lots of people... uhh, dogs...

Uncle Mike and Aunt Crystal gave Caroline a Jan Brett book. Caroline had gone to even more pitiful, as she was still unable to hold anything down and hadn't been able to for more than 24 hours when this picture was taken. She didn't want me to read to her - just wanted to lie there and stare at "kid TV" - but she let Aunt Crystal read the new book to her!

And here's my mom in her element... I realized I didn't have any pictures of my mom cooking. She loves to cook and does it quite well for a crowd! We had our big Christmas dinner this day, so that all my brothers could be there. We had beef tenderloin, roasted brussels sprouts, and shrimp and grits (made with the grits that Stephen gave her from Charleston). The night before, we'd had a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans... yum!!!

Here is Caroline in one of her slightly energetic moments. Notice her t-shirt is one of Mike's old shirts (by "old," I mean that he wore it when he was about ten, and now he is 23). She'd already puked on a few of her own shirts, so we decided to not waste any more and just put her in the old shirt.

Cecilia found an old friend - Dutch. He also became her first real word. She has said "ba" for baby and "mama" for Mommy, but it has been very inconsistent and not definitely deliberate. But it was quite clear what she meant as she crawled after Dutch yelling, "Utch! Utch!! Utch!!!" I got some good video of her sying his name. She enjoyed a repeat of getting licked in the face repeatedly and was fascinated by Dutch's stumpy, waggly tail.

I should've put her in a Christmas outfit for this picture - ooops. Caroline sat in this sleigh for pictures by the tree when she was a baby, too. Cecilia is holding a non-breakable ornament in this shot. I did not take pictures of her eating the paint off a glass ball ornament - yikes!!! It probably had lead in it!

What a cute Christmas present - the best one of all! Cecilia and Gramma had fun with this bow for quite awhile. She kept trying to put it back on her own head after it fell off.

Where'd it go?

When we got back home on Sunday after an extended stay to ensure the puking had passed, we came back to celebrate with Chris's parents. In retrospect, I am so glad we ended up in Atlanta for the puking sickness... nobody else got it, and we had help and distractions to get us through it! Caroline is looking a bit better here, but she was still so weak from not having much to eat.

Cecilia hugs her new baby doll that Gran and Grandad brought from Chris's grandfather. She enjoyed another round of gifts and wrapping paper although the timing was such that she had to take a nap in the middle of the fun. She didn't seem to mind!

Caroline got bride and groom dolls that she'd seen at a friend's house. Notice she was interested enough now that she sat up instead of lying down pitifully on the couch!

And, more food, of course! I did a bunch of heavy appetizers for our dinner. Okay, so Trader Joe's did a bunch of appetizers due to our extended stay in Atlanta... three-later hummus and pita chips, Mexican fiesta dip and tortilla chips, mushroom popover thingies, veggies and dill dip, cheese and crackers... and we set it all up on my pretty new red tablecloth that my mom gave me for Christmas. We used our Christmas dishes and lit our Advent candles and the white Christ candle in the middle (I wonder - am I supposed to keep lighting the Advent candles along w/ the Christ candle throughout the Christmas season? Hmmm...).

We had a wonderful time celebrating with family! What a great start to the Christmas season!