Christmas 2011: Audrey's First Christmas

I feel like Christmas came (and went) really quick this year!  (Don't we always say that, though?)  I thought with me being home on maternity leave I would have a lot of time to get all my shopping and decorating done way before Christmas.  Well, Miss Audrey kept me really busy, which is what my maternity leave is all about, and I found myself rushing at the last minute.  But it all got done and we really enjoyed the holidays.  I loved being home with Audrey during the Christmas season.  Everyday, we would turn on the lights on our Christmas tree, and I would sing Christmas Carols.  Audrey loved all the colorful lights.  We got a lot of new ornaments this year to signify Audrey's First Christmas.  I love keepsake ornaments.  Growing up, my Grandmother (on my Dad's side) gave us an ornament each year.  For 15 years (give or take) until Hallmark discontinued the collection, she gave us a Hallmark rocking horse (you can see a few of them in this picture).  It's a shame they discontinued the rocking horses, but I guess all good things have to come to an end.  My parents gave me all of *my* ornaments when I moved out of the house after college, and I love looking through all of them now.  It also has helped Carl and I learn even more about each other.  He has a lot of keepsake ornaments, too.  I know Audrey doesn't understand it all now but she will one day, and I love that we will be able to show her all of these ornaments to her so she can learn about our family and where she comes from.  And I look forward to having a collection of *her* ornaments that she can take with her when she has her own Christmas tree.  Here is a picture of our tree this year:

And here is a pic of our stockings... one for Carl, me, Audrey, and Chief.  I thought I had garland, but we must have packed it away last year with the Christmas tree that we gave to Jennifer when we acquired this new one from Grandma and Grandpa Bockelmann.  Next year, I'll get some garland to decorate the banister, and it will look really nice. 

Merry Christmas from the Larson's... our 2011 Christmas Card:

Since we celebrated Thanksgiving with Carl's family, we celebrated Christmas down in Forsyth/Decatur with the Patton family.  We left after Carl got home from work on Friday,
December 23rd, and we stayed until Monday, December 26th.  What a great, long weekend to spend with the family.  Of course my Mom outdid herself and we had delicious food.  She is such a good entertainer.  We had a lot of laughs, too, playing games and just hanging out as a family.  Here is our family picture on Christmas Day:

Holidays at the Patton house are all about family... and food!  Amber and Ashley were both at my parents' over the holiday, so we all could just relax and hang out.  That doesn't happen very often.  Christmas Eve, we had Eggs Benedict Florentine for breakfast, Chicken Braid for lunch, and a Portillo's dinner.  When I say Portillo's dinner, I mean Italian Beef, Chopped Salad (just like Portillo's makes it, complete with their House Salad Dressing), and Portillo's Chocolate Cake for dessert.  Yum!  Anyone from the Chicagoland knows what I'm talking about and is probably salivating right now.  For everyone else, just know that it's good.  So good that most times my Mom is in town, we go to Portillo's for a Chopped Salad.  It's that good.  We played The Game of Things as a Family... Amber, Ashley, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and me.  That game is so fun!

And we had some visitors on Christmas Eve... Cynda, Andy, and their new baby Colby stopped by on the way to Cynda's grandparents' house.  My parents and sisters got to meet Colby who was not yet 2 weeks old and just as precious as can be.  How did I not take any pictures of the 2 of them??  Gosh!  Well, here is 1 from the week before Christmas.  Colby was not even 1 week old and Audrey was 9 weeks old.  This pic doesn't even show off how cute they are.  They look just thrilled to be having their picture taken!

Christmas Day, we went to mass at St. Pat's Catholic Church in Decatur.  When we got there, Fr. John Burnett asked us to move closer to the front of the church because he wanted to use Audrey during his sermon.  During the sermon, he took Audrey and walked around with her.  She had the honor of representing the Lord Jesus Christ and all of our "rebirth" this Christmas season.  How cool is that?  And she was such a good little girl... she was asleep most of the time he was holding her, but she did wake up and look at him and look around a bit then fell back asleep.  What a good little baby!  And just so darn cute.  Look at her in her Christmas dress and furry white boots:

When we got back to my parents' house, my Grandpa Hahn said to me that it meant a lot to him that Fr. John used Audrey during his sermon like that.  How sweet. 

After Mass on Christmas Day, we had brunch (egg casserole, hashbrown casserole, and my favorite coffee cake). My Dad took this opportunity to read to Audrey:

I think he was reading her something about the Cardinals, which is surprising that she's so content in that picture. Ya know, being that she's a Cubs fan. I think she just really likes her Gramps and the sound of his voice.

Then we opened gifts after brunch. We were spoiled again this year! This was the first year our family drew names to purchase 1 gift for 1 other person. That worked out really great and a tradition that I think will stick around. And of course Santa and my parents were way too generous. I think everyone got everything that was on their wish list. We have a video of Audrey opening her gifts... scratch that, me opening Audrey's gifts. I'll post when it gets uploaded. She got some really cute clothes and neat toys.That afternoon, Carl, Audrey, and I went up to Crystal and Matt's house to visit them and drop off a gift for Maci who is 16 months old.  So cute!

Christmas Night, we had a fancy dinner with prime rib and scalloped potatoes.  Yummo.  Aunt Faye and Uncle Jim came over for Christmas Dinner.  It's always great to see them!  And they had some exciting news to relay to us from Keely and Matt who were in South Carolina with Matt's family...they are expecting another baby!  Yay!  Baby McClure will be due around the middle of September.  So this will be 3 years in a row of "first Christmases".  And now we're thinking about how we can "sync up" so that we are on the same Christmas "schedule" as them with the family and we can all celebrate together.

And then we had a special visit from Santa himself!

Audrey really enjoyed her first Christmas.  Can you tell?  What a happy little girl!

Then Monday, we came home and Santa had been at our house!  So we opened gifts and played with Chief and Audrey.

That night, we celebrated Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Larson.  Santa came to their house too!  And we were spoiled again by all the gifts.  We have another video that I'll upload of all of Audrey's gifts.

And then Christmas was over before we knew it.  What a special time!