It was a very Merry Christmas!!!

We made it through Lola's first Christmas!!! I must say...it wasn't easy....the holidays are never easy...right?!?!?!?

Even pre-baby, holidays were always a little stressful in our family. Why? Well, just trying to squeeze in everything in 1 day mainly. We usually try to squeeze in Christmas with my family, Christmas at my grandmothers and Christmas with Clay's family...literally all in 1 day! Basically, in the car most of the day with two dogs I might add.

This year was no different of course. What we didn't realize was that if you take the scenario above and throw a baby in there too things get much more difficult. Add in a baby with a cold/cough/ear infection and it gets even more difficult. Basically, it would have taken an act of God to make it all work. But, we tried anyway....End result...didn't happen exactly as planned. Now, keep in mind, I'm a planner so it's really hard on me when things don't go "as planned".

The anxiety I felt working up to the Holiday this year like others was pretty intense. I kept thinking..."How in the world are we going to make this work?!?!". Regardless, we thought we would give it a "go". In the end, despite the fact that things didn't go "exactly" as planned, Lola's first Christmas was wonderful!!!

We were actually able to spend Christmas morning with our little family (Amy, Clay, Lola, Lady Bird and Bella). Lo opened some gifts from Santa Clause. Of course, she really has no conception of Christmas right now so it was pretty uneventful but still real cute. I really loved our little family Christmas time and look forward to starting many wonderful traditions.

Then, we all jumped in the car and we went to spend lunch and the afternoon over at my Grandmother, Memaw's, house (Lo's great grandmother - Lo's middle name, Ruth, was named after Memaw) . I love going to Memaw's for many reasons...1) It always reminds me of when I was a child, spending time with family. We've been going to Memaw's for Christmas since I can remember and we'll continue this tradition with Lo. 2) The food is always fabulous at Memaw's and I eat more than my belly is capable of taking in. 3) The trading gift game always provides massive entertainment! The woman in the fam tend to be very loud. I wish I could record the laughter so you can really understand what I'm talking about. 4) I have to say out of all of this my fav reason is that Memaw always makes me feel so good. She says things like "You're so pretty...you look like a model". Yes, my friends...she thinks I look like a "model"...seriously. So, with that, who wouldn't feel like a million bucks after spending some time at Memaw's house.

After Memaw's, we went to pick up the dogs at our house and then headed to Midlothian to spend the rest of the evening with my family. More gifts of course. Lola's big gift was a black baby baby grand piano. It is adorable! Of course, after she banged on it for about 20 minutes, I realized the black baby baby grand piano may have been a mistake. Could shock the parental's nerves pretty quick. After opening gifts, we spent the rest of the evening watching old family Christmas videos and played some scrabble with the fam...Adam won!

The next morning we woke up, loaded the family up and we were off to Baird to visit Clay's parents. Once we arrived...more gifts of course. I have to say this gift thing in really insane...I'm telling ya...this child lacks nothing (tangible (gifts) or intangible (love)) Anyway, we spent the rest of the weekend eating and relaxing. Now I feel FAT, FAT, FAT...I mean SERIOUSLY...how much can one woman possibly eat?!?!?!? I feel like that girl on Willy Wonka that ate all the candy and ended up blowing up like a balloon and floating away. I'm not kidding...I really feel like that now! I have to start running tomorrow...no more excuses. Luckily, I've already placed to call into Angie, my running partner, to make sure that happens.

So, to make a long story short, everything didn't work out exactly as planned but Lola still had a wonderful first Christmas and received lots of gifts and love from everyone around.