Eli's First Christmas!

I know we have posted a lot of "firsts" on the blog, but this is the mother of all firsts: CHRISTMAS! Sure, the first birthday is a milestone and it's always cute to see a kid hunt for Easter eggs, but Christmas is the holiday that everyone can be a part of and celebrate with the baby. Everybody has the day off and everyone has that "special gift" they want to give to the baby to make the event even more spectacular.

With this in mind, Kelvey and I set out to make sure both of our families could be a part of Eli's first Christmas. After contacting everyone months in advance, we devised a plan that consisted of 3 Christmases. First, we headed up to the winter wonderland of Boulder, CO to celebrate with my side of the family a few days before Christmas. The trip was awesome (the suitcase crib worked perfect by the way), but I wish we had a little more time to go sledding in the 4 inches of snow that arrived the night before we had to leave. We got back to Austin the night before Christmas Eve and had plenty of time the next day to grab a Christmas tree, finish wrapping our gifts, and make some tortilla soup for Christmas Eve dinner. We finished the night by reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to Eli and explained to him the ins and outs of Christmas. Once Eli fell fast asleep, we piled the gifts under the tree and tried to get a good night's rest ourselves despite our own excited anticipation of Christmas Day.

The next morning Eli woke up at his usual time, had a quick breakfast at the International House of Breast Milk, and then was introduced to Christmas morning. Eli was pretty excited as he was brought into the living room to see all the gifts, but he may have been feeding off of our excited reactions more than anything. Either way, it made for some pretty cute photos.

It was nice to celebrate actual Christmas day with just our family because it was a chance to start our own family traditions. It was also easier than having a lot of family together because we were able to work around Eli's schedule without having to burden anyone else. With all the naps and fits of fussiness, it took us 5 hours just to get through opening gifts! We kinda expected it to go a lot faster because Eli loves to tear up paper and magazines, but he just wasn't into it that morning. Instead, he would gently flick at the loose wrapping paper we had torn to help get him started with one of his little fingers and stare at it. Once the gift was unwrapped, though, Eli had a blast playing with it. The rest of the day was spent lounging around the house and playing with all the new toys and, of course, watching the Christmas Story marathon on TV.

A few days later, Kelvey's family came into town for Round 3 and this time Eli seemed a little more into the gift opening, probably because he had help from his 3 spritely cousins this time. After all was said and done, it was a pretty good first Christmas. Hopefully his excitement for the holiday will grow over the years as he does.