Holiday Family Time

we didn't get to spend thanksgiving with daddy and lisa because she had pneumonia and i did not want to expose claire to it since she is still so young. so we invited them up to our house on dec 6th to have lunch and then go watch the mtn brook christmas parade. i was so excited to have them up because this was the first time i actually cooked a full meal for daddy and he had never seen my christmas decorations before. talon fried a turkey (which was sooo yummy!) and i cooked green bean casserole, homemade mashed potatoes and some espresso brownies. i decided to use nanny's china to eat on and it worked out perfectly! april also brought rich so we had exactly enough seats at our table and plenty of arm room since we had nanny's dining room table now. everyone enjoyed lunch and then we got ready to go the parade. we thought there would be much more traffic, so we decided to get there a little early. it was a beautiful day and felt very "christmassy" since it was so chilly outside. the parade was great and tons of people showed up right before it started. claire enjoyed a lot of the singing and it was nice to do something festive with our family. toward the end of the parade, the wind started blowing so it suddenly felt much colder. it definitely ended at the perfect time because we were all ready to get into a nicely heated car! after the parade, we went by april's apartment so daddy and lisa could see where she lives and meet her roommate. then we headed back to our house for some much-needed coffee and brownies. overall, it was a good family day and i look forward to hosting again very soon!

Let it Snow!

so its usually extremely rare that we actually get snow here in alabama - especially around christmas. but this year was an exception because it did snow during the holidays, on the morning of dec 5th. the night before, it started snowing around 11:30pm so talon and i spent some quality time on our back deck to enjoy it before going to bed. the next morning, talon had go to work but we both got up early so we could take some photos with claire since this was her very first snow! it was mostly a dusting of snow over the ground, but it was still snow in december! we got all bundled up and went outside to take our pictures. claire was so cute! she just kept looking around and trying to touch the snow-covered rosemary by our mailbox. i made a snowball and held it up to claire to see her reaction. she kept trying to touch it, but of course couldn't because she had mittens on. i held it up to my mouth and touched it with my tongue and then she did the same! it was so cute! we threw our snowball at talon and she even laughed! it was such a perfect holiday moment. it was really special to have her first snow this year because just a few months earlier, we had a nice snow when i was still pregnant. it was on march 1, which was 12 days before her arrival and i was very pregnant! so in a way, she had two snows in her first year! i can't wait until she is older and we can have a real snowball fight and make snow ice cream together!

Here Comes Santa Clause!

the morning of dec 3, we woke up excited to go see santa. talon came home that morning, so we had breakfast and then we hung claire's 1st christmas ornament together. her ornament is super cute and the first of a 5 yr series. its a baby bear in pjs with a paci and holding a bottle, while reaching up to the tree (which is shaped as the #1). it really fits claire perfectly!

later on, we all got ready to go see santa. i think that i was definitely the most excited out of the three of us! on our way to the mall, we picked up april so she could go with us. we were a little nervous about claire being afraid of santa and crying during the picture, but we were wrong! she did really well! they told us to place her in his lap with her back to him, without actually seeing him. she was laid back and just hung out with him. we never got much of a real smile out of her because she kept sticking out her tongue. but i'm glad we were able to get that in her santa photo since she loves doing it right now.

after seeing santa, we walked around the mall and stopped by hallmark to look at the ornaments. my mom loved hallmark christmas ornaments and it was always a tradition to get a new one every year. i sort of started this back up last year with talon, for our first real christmas together in our house. we bought an ornament for "our new home" and also a fireman santa for talon. this year, talon was super excited to get new ornaments for our tree. we went to a couple of hallmarks to pick out which ones we wanted to get. its so cute to see him get so excited about christmas traditions we are starting together. he loves our christmas tree and all the decorations i put out for the holidays.

this year, i had some of my mom's ornaments for the tree, which helped fill it up even more. and i also had nanny's christmas village, along with her porcelain christmas tree and some festive figurines. i use my mom's christmas carousel for the mantle too. even though i miss them more than anything, its nice to remember them during this time by using some of their favorite christmas decor and ornaments. every time i look at each piece, i have a vivid memory with both nanny and my mom. i look forward to sharing these memories and traditions with claire for many years to come!