First Christmas...Five Christmases!

Claire was a busy and very popular little lady this holiday season! Our first of five Christmases was earlier in the month with my immediate family. The actual holiday was a beautiful flow of mass chaos...running from one place to another and praying for decent weather! It was a perfect plan that we pulled off almost flawlessly! Whew!

Christmas #2: We left home Mon night after I got home from work (for fear of ice stopping us from leaving on Tue morning) and drove to Mackey. Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Mona were there to great us with great big open arms! We had dinner Christmas eve with the whole clan... Grandma and Grandpa gave Claire some awesome little outfits, a fun snail bath toy, and a sweet little book about Noah and the Ark. Uncle Jake gave her one of the neatest gifts...a HUGE piggy bank the size of Sophie (with some money, of course!)

Hanging out with Uncle Jake.

"Are you...talkin' to me...???"

Christmas #3: Adam and I drove back home that night with Claire to do the Santa thing on Christmas morning at home. Claire was super excited to see what Santa had brought for her...I woke up our ever-happy daughter at 7am since we had places to go and people to see...and we hurried downstairs for a few pictures in front of the tree!

Okay...under the tree, since Miss Claire couldn't seem to contain her excitement and SIT in front of the tree! (She kept falling over, so all I have are a bunch of blurry pictures of her halfway falling down in front of a Christmas tree!) Doesn't her face just say it all!? I'm sure I'll see that same expression when she's a teenager! Ha!

Merry Christmas!

We have video of her "opening" gifts...which really looks more like banging on boxes with her hands and then Mommy opening her presents! Dad couldn't do both pictures and video, so we opted for video! Santa Claus was good to Claire...bringing a musical seahorse thing (think...modern day Glo Worm!), a few books, and the alphabet drum.

The aftermath...falling asleep in Dad's arms only 15 minutes after gifts! Poor little one!

Christmas #4: We left from home Christmas Day to Spencer/Bloomington to celebrate with my extended family. After a lunch and gift exchange at Uncle Dave's, we spent a night at Grandpa Roy and Mamaw Carol's house. Claire got an array of cute clothes, a book from Great Mamaw, and two toy cell phones (she's already more technologically advanced than old Mom!)

Mamaw and Claire enjoy an evening nap after a busy day!

Christmas #5: On Friday, we celebrated our fifth and final Christmas of 2008 with Grandad Joe and Grammy Nancy in Spencer (my Dad and stepmom). Claire didn't feel well and was pretty grouchy throughout the day...but also seemed to have a good time. She hadn't seen them in several months, so it was also great to catch up. More toys came in the way of a push-toy/walker thing, a play mat for the floor, a few cute pairs of winter socks and a cute little top!

After all the chaos and traveling, it was a blessing to finally be home last night. And today, while I was at work, Claire had some time with Adam to rest and catch up. (And I got to leave work early since we were overstaffed to spend some rest and relaxation time with my family!) She's been really snotty and even had a low grade temp yesterday, but seems to be doing much better today. I really think it's teeth trying to cut through, since she seems to be happy and feeling good most of the time. Teething, here we come!

She had some fun playing with a "grown-up" spoon after lunch/supper today!

"I can do it myself, Mom and Dad!"

Nothing like passing out where you are at 7:30pm!

Watch for more updates! She's growing and changing so much and we can't wait to see what 2009 brings!:) Holy cow...we're only 6 short months away from having a ONE YEAR OLD! Oy!