Christmas

It's Christmas! Sammy's first and our first by ourselves as a family. We've had plenty of guests, but everyone is gone now, so today's been nice and quiet. Having a little one sure has opened up a whole new side to the holidays - the pretty paper, the anticipation, the sparkly tree, the contagious smiles, the countless carols. Everything is so tantalizingly new.

The tree was an exciting addition to the living area of our tiny apartment. It's only about four feet tall but still takes quite a bit of space. Sammy is into the twinkly lights, the shiny decorations, and the poky needles.

I'm just happy we finally got it standing after sawing at the knot on the bottom with every sharp instrument in the house. Next year I'll be checking the trunk diameter before we leave the tree farm.

Sammy loved all the presents. We let him open them with just a little help. He wanted to eat the bows, the paper, the ribbon, the boxes, and of course the gifts themselves (especially the tags). As you can tell, everything goes straight into his mouth - the more dangerous, the more buttons, or the more wires the better.

I think his favorite gifts were a cute teddy bear named Sam and a board book with textured pages. He loves to give kisses to Sambear and has already paid more attention to the puppy storey than all of his other books combined.

All the excitement didn't last long for a seven and a half month old. Pretty soon he was completely overstimulated and we had to spend some time quietly in his room. Now I guess I need to work on that Christmas dinner while he's sleeping.

p.s. The little one started crawling today. No forewarning - just started moving.

Merry Christmas everyone!