Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
Ok, so Christmas was a month ago, yes... But it's never to late to let you all know what a great time Madisen had her VERY FIRST CHRISTMAS!

December was an exciting month for our little family...

It was so great to be able to show Madi what the holidays are about... All the lights on the trees, the endless baking with Grandma & Aunt Jen (along with all her Cousins and Mommy too, of course!) learning how to unwrap presents (also learning to leave the presents under the tree and not touch them until Christmas) lots and lots of shopping, and spending tons of time with our family! Madisen loved every minute of it! We started off the season with some hard-core Black Friday shopping! After spending Thanksgiving at my brothers house ( and eating WAY too much yummy food! Madi LOVED the sweet potatoes!) Madi & I ( along with Aunt Ashley) hurried off to sleep so we could get ourselves up at 4am to go grab some good deals! I thought Madi would sleep through the whole thing but she woke right up and was wide awake quietly taking all the craziness in..She did great! I hadn't done the black Friday shopping in years.. it was definitely worth it though, we were able to take home some great gifts and didn't have to push too many people out of our way to get them along the way! :0)
Next it was time to get the perfect Christmas tree... We usually go out & cut our own tree down, but this year we thought we'd check out our very local tree farm (it's just down the street from us) Since we had Madisen with us we thought it may be easier to get a tree a little closer to home. We bundled Madi-cakes up and set off to pick out our Tree... Madi loved checking them all out... it didn't take long for us to find THE one. Taking it home was a bit of an adventure...the guys at the tree farm were nice enough to "tie" the tree to the roof of our SUV. Looking back though, yes, we should have been more concerned when they looked puzzled at each other, then turned to us and asked if we were going very far? But alas, we were just happy to have a tree and excited to get it home to start decorating so, off we went... 2 turns and 1 stop light later though, the tree was hanging off the side of our car ready to fall off at any time... I thought maybe if we opened the sunroof I could grab it and hold it while we drove the rest of the way home..surprisingly (haha) though I couldn't reach it & we ended up pulling over. Brendan was able to get it back up on the roof & we (I attempted then B took over) held onto it through the sunroof all the way home. Next came the lights and the ornaments ( including a special "First Christmas" one for Miss Madi-cakes) and then many many "no's" and "Hands off the tree" followed as Madisen learned that we look at the pretty tree... we don't take off all the pretty shiny things and chew on them.... eventually she got the idea and left it alone (for the most part).
After we brought the tree home we headed off to the mall to introduce Madisen to Santa Claus for the first time... She was not too sure of this man in red, but Daddy sat with her for a picture and that made it ok.... that is until daddy attempted to let Madi sit on Santa's lap... she was not shy about making it known she wasn't up for this and made a lunge for mommy... maybe next year she'll be up for it. :0) She did have fun though, checking out the pretty ornaments on Santa's Christmas tree. :0)
We spent Christmas Eve , as per our tradition, at my moms house. We had lots of fun with the whole family eating the yummy goodies we had spent days and days making, talking and laughing lots then ended the evening by opening gifts. This was Madi's first time getting to rip open packages, She caught on immediately and enjoyed ripping all that paper!! She was totally into it until she opened one particular gift... once she saw what was inside she wanted it and it alone... "Mom can open the rest for me... I'm going to go play with my brand new Baby Doll!" That was the hit of the night for her!
The next morning we all got up to find that Santa had made a stop at our house (wonder how he made it in without a chimney?) Madi had by this point mastered the art of opening gifts and was not shy about tearing into her packages. She was even glad to help Mommy & Daddy with theirs. We were also lucky to have Aya be able to spend the holidays with us as well, making it feel like the whole family was back together again! That afternoon/evening we hosted our families Christmas dinner, I made the ham while Brendan took charge of making the yummiest Prime Rib! Madi loved being able to try all the traditional holiday goodies!
We ended the year looking back at all the changes that have come to "Our Little Family"... so many things have happened & we have had SO much to be thankful for and to celebrate. Brendan and I have been so lucky to have this beautiful little girl in our lives and to be able to share so much with her. Each day just gets better and better ( and I swear she keeps getting cuter and cuter!! ) We are looking forward to another great year with lots more "firsts" to share with our Madi-cakes! Happy 2010 everyone!