Christmas

Christmas this year was wonderful.  It was so fun celebrating Eleanor's first Christmas and starting some new traditions with our little family.

Christmas Eve we went to a service at our church.  Sadly, I don't have any photos of Eleanor in her Christmas dress from this since she was too busy before the service walking up and down the aisle and was too tired after the service to deal with having her pictures taken.  It is really nice to be in our home church to attend Christmas Even services.  Holding Eleanor and singing Christmas songs about the birth of Jesus was an amazing experience.  I love sharing those moments with her and those experiences that will help build her foundation for loving and following Jesus.  Before Eleanor went to bed we read the Christmas story out of The Children's Storybook Bible (by the way, it's a great children's Bible!  We love it!).

Before Matt and I went to bed we set out Eleanor's big gift and straightened up a bit in preparation of my family coming up the next day.

Christmas morning was relaxed and low key.  We woke up when Eleanor did and had a quiet morning together.  Eleanor absolutely loved her chair and likes climbing in it herself.

The first time she got to sit in her chair

A comfy chair is a great spot to curl up with a book.

Aside from that, Eleanor got a few books from us and a small handmade wooden airplane.

Playing with the wooden airplane

Eleanor gave Matt a gift of twelve daddy-daughter dates.  Matt really enjoys having one-on-one time with Eleanor, so he got twelve envelopes, one marked for each month.  At the beginning of each month Matt and Eleanor get to open the envelope to see what they get to do together that month.  All the activities are free or very low cost. In January Matt will take Eleanor to the pet store to look at the fish, birds, and other animals.  I'd share some of the other ideas, but I want Matt to still be surprised and he reads the blog...so I guess you'll just have to wait.  Maybe we can incorporate that into a monthly post :)

My mom and stepdad drove up to spend the afternoon with us.  We played games, exchanged gifts, ate dinner, and just spent some good time together.

Clothes from Nonna and Poppa

Nonna and Poppa got Eleanor a small rocking horse.  There was a brief moment of joy, quickly followed by...

this.  She will look at the horse, press the ears to make it make noise, and pet the horse...all while exclaiming "kitty!  Kitty!"  But we've only been able to get her on the horse one more time without her desperately trying to get off or holding on to one of us for dear life.  We aren't pushing it.

I'm so grateful they were willing to drive the two hours to come see us.  I've gone home for Christmas every year except last year, when I was too pregnant to travel that far away.  But Matt and I decided that now we have a child we really want Christmas morning to be in our own house.  We know that means we won't get to do the big Christmas celebration with one side of my family, which does make me sad, but it's really important for us to start our own holiday traditions now that we have a family of our own.

Having a yogurt snack with Nonna

Poppa getting "the look" because he ate something while he was holding Eleanor and didn't offer her any

Christmas dinner!  Salad, rolls, parmesan chicken bake, red potatoes, and asparagus

Speaking of traditions, there's one we aren't doing in our house: Santa.  There are several reasons why, and I'll also link some other blog posts that explain some reasons more eloquently than I can.  Here are a few of our reasons for not "doing" Santa.

-We don't really like the whole naughty/nice, Santa is watching, make good choices so you can get presents aspect of Santa.  We want Eleanor to make good choices because that's the right thing to do and what's expected in our family, not because she'll get gifts for doing so.  And part of the naughty/nice aspect of Santa is that you have to "earn" the gifts by having good behavior.  But we don't have to do anything to earn the love of God.  We just get it  In fact, we don't just get God's love, but he lavishes his love upon us.  Lavishes.  That's pretty awesome.  We would rather Eleanor know that she has a Father in heaven who loves her deeply, whose love she doesn't need to earn.  After all, that's what Christmas is about, right?  God loving us so much that He sent us Jesus.

-It's kind of hard for a baby in a manger to compete with a guy in a red suit who brings you presents.  Especially for younger children, it would be very easy for the focus to become Santa and presents instead of the birth of our Savior.

-Keeping it simple.  We would rather buy Eleanor a few things and let her know they are from us, because we love her, rather than needing to buy gifts from us and gifts from Santa.  Because that can definitely get more expensive.

-We also want to be truthful and honest with Eleanor.  We don't want to try to convince her that a man in a red suit brings gifts every Christmas, then need to tell her down the road that we lied to her.

All this being said, rock on if you choose to do Santa in your own home! :)  Truly, if you go all out for Santa, make him cookies, set out carrots for reindeer, the whole nine yards, have at it!  We know those traditions can be a lot of fun and we hope you and your family get joy out of them.  We will teach Eleanor that Santa is a character that is part of some people's family traditions.  If she wants to have her picture taken with Santa, that's completely fine.  But she'll understand that he doesn't come down our chimney and bring us presents.  We will, however, tell her the story of Saint Nicholas and how Santa is based on him.

Here is the blog post I mentioned earlier. It gets into a bit more than just Santa, but the author is much more well-spoken than I am.  And really, we agree with a lot of her reasons and with their family's approach to Santa/Christmas.

Family Christmas photo!  (we are wearing pajamas because my mom started a tradition where we stay in our pajamas on Christmas Day.  Usually we don't, but since we didn't have anywhere to be, we stayed comfortable for the day :)  )

In other Christmas celebration news, we traveled to see my family the weekend after Christmas.  We were able to spend some time with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on my mom's side.  We were also able to spend some time with my dad and stepmom, as well as visit with a friend I've known since middle school and her family.  It was a nice trip down and Eleanor loved being in a house with so many "kitty kitties!" (for those who don't know, my mom and stepdad currently have 14 cats - anyone need or want one?  They've got some sweet kittens who need homes!)  We do have a photo of Eleanor in her Christmas dress from this family gathering!

Christmas dress!

Rocking out with the musical instrument set  from Aunt Sarah, Uncle Josh, and cousin Aaron (outfit change was because that sweater dress got really hot!)

Tired baby girl after a full day of visiting, gifts, and playing with cousins

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas season!