Abel's first Christmas

Abel's first Christmas was filled with family, laughter, games, new toys and yummy food. Of course all he noticed were the hugs, smiles and love from everyone as he passed from one set of arms to the other. He loved it!

Ian and I on the other hand were kind of overwhelmed by all of the gifts; Carhartt overalls, books, rattles, felted wool blocks, fun outfits, toy monkeys, fleece suits and more! Frankly the kid made a killing. We did realize that before his first birthday rolls around we'll have to establish a no electronics rule for gifts (ie. no batteries or cords), all of the gifts this time around will be Abel powered and we're really hoping to keep it that way.

Ian and I realized shortly before we started making Christmas dinner that we wouldn't be ready to head home after dinner, which was about Abel's bedtime, so we decided to try our first sleep over. It was great! We stayed up late drinking eggnog and playing games with Kate and Mona and in the morning I got to sleep in while Abel hung out with everyone. I told Ian we could have sleepover's every weekend!

Thanks to everyone for making Abel's first Christmas so memorable, for Ian and I anyway, it was perfect.

Homemade Christmas decorations

Ian and I have very few Christmas decorations, to be exact at the beginning of this Christmas season we had four Christmas tree ornaments and two strings of white Christmas lights. Jesika, my oldest sister, gave us the ornaments as a gift a few years ago, they're from REI; a tiny sleeping bag, hiking boot, backpack and tent. We like it that way, less stuff to store.
Because we have so few ornaments every I make decorations for the tree. This year I made decorations out of large silver coffee bags from Starbucks, red ribbon and cranberries. Maddie ate about half of the cranberries, very carefully nibbling off just the cranberries and leaving the string, so the lower half of the tree looked kind of sparse, but it was fun to make decorations and our tree was decidedly unique.
In addition to making tree decorations I made Christmas stocking this year out of upholstery remnants Jodi gave me. The are pretty nontraditional and I love them. They are large enough to hold a 22 ounce beer. This was pretty intentional, every year I give Ian a 22 ounce beer in his stocking and it never fits! I will never have to wrap another 22 ounce beer for Christmas! The stockings are also sturdy enough to really fill full of good stuff and hang. I have worried so many times about ripping off the loop of stockings, or the stitching coming out, that should never be an issue with these stockings.
While I'm sure our box of Christmas decorations will slowly fill over time, I just hope it keeps filling with homemade decorations that remind us of where we were when we made them and the fun we had in creating them.

First family portrait!