Christmas Season Recap 2012

*Disclaimer:  If you're not a close friend or family member, you might wanna just skip over this post.  Just lots and LOTS of pictures, pretty much!

I didn't want to let the year end without posting SOMETHING about our Christmas ... so, I decided to just put it ALL in one post.
Then again ... ALL of Christmas this year isn't much.
I was pathetic this year where Christmas spirit was concerned.
No, really .... pathetic.

The Christmas decorations in our house this year consisted of a tree and stockings.  The end.
(This is quite different from my usually decked-out halls!)

Due to the whole new-baby-in-the-household thing, we didn't get to do as many Christmas activities as we usually would, either.
No Zoo Lights trip. (too cold for baby!)
No Christmas lights parade. (again, too cold for baby!)
No visit to the good ol' mall Santa. (too long to wait for baby!)
No Singing Christmas Tree performance. (can't be away from baby that long!)
etc.

We did make cookies, watch Christmas movies, find Jingle (our Elf on the Shelf) daily, and read lots of Christmas books though ... and Lucy and Daddy went to our local tree lighting (two of them, actually) - so she did get to visit Santa at those. :-)

All-in-all, it was still a great Christmas ... and I doubt Lucy even noticed the things we "missed" this year.

First things first ... the great Christmas tree hunt.
(Which this year, consisted of walking to Nana's backyard with Ryan, Sherry, and Cam ... and cutting down the first two trees we saw!:)~

Love this photo of the dads and kiddos ...

 Making a gingerbread train with Nana ...

 (Amazingly enough, they still had a few candies left to decorate with when Lucy was done!:)~

Here's the finished product ... and Jingle going for a ride! :)~

Making sugar cookies with Great Grandma....

Christmas Eve at Nana's .... Nana dressed Lucy up like an elf and had her pass out all the presents.  I think Lucy had just about as much fun with that as she did opening her own presents!

The best presents of the night ... the gator! (Look out, world!  Lucy's got wheels!:)~

And the new microphone.
Here's Lucy "rockin' out" with Aunt Steph.

Great Grandma with the two littlest, Emma and Max!

Christmas Eve in our living room. :-)

Christmas morning! ....

Daddy and Max ... 

My BEST Christmas gifts .... :-)

This is pretty much what Max did ALL.  DAY.  LONG.
Apparently he was not too impressed with his first Christmas. :)~

Here's hoping your Christmas season was blessed and filled with lots of happy memory-making!

Be safe tonight ... and enjoy ringing in the New Year! 

We will be celebrating over a delicious dinner at a fancy-schmancy restaurant with some of our favorite friends ... a New Year's Eve tradition!  

And we'll probably be in bed by 10:00 p.m.  We wouldn't want to get too wild and crazy. :)~

But don't worry .... I'm sure Max will see to it that I'm welcoming in the New Year  - if not at midnight - then in the wee hours of the morning!  

...And really, there's no one I'd rather be "celebrating" with than my little miracle man .... the very best surprise and blessing of 2012 for me, without a doubt! 

Max = 1 Month!

How is that possible..?
Wasn't I just posting a photo of my 38-weeks-pregnant self in all its glory ...?
(Okay, okay ... it wasn't that glorious.)
But regardless, I don't understand how it's possible that my little guy has already been on the outside for a whole month!?!

I'm sure there's no way I've stared for hours on end at his chubby cheeks and perfect little nose for 30 days straight.
I'm sure there's no way I've spent 30 nights getting up to feed the little milk monster every few hours.

Wait ... yep, that must be it.
Lack of sleep.
And I'm therefore delusional and losing track of time.

I've gotta figure out a way to put a stop to that .... because if the rest of the months go by as quickly as this first month?  I might lose my mind.
And gallons of tears.

P.S.  I feel terrible about not posting more.  But taking care of a baby again has taken some getting used to!  ... not at all in a bad way, but just in a total re-vamp of the typical "schedule" around here, kind of way!

And throw the fact that Christmas is LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY (help me) in there, and .... well, I just don't have a lot of extra time.

Okay, yes I do.
But during that time, I'm holding my beautiful baby boy. :-)
And typing one-handed makes writing a (reasonably-sized) blog post a little difficult!

*Note to self:  work on one-handed typing.  

Now let's get to the good stuff!

Hi, Max :-)

I love this little guy!!!
He is so precious!  (If you haven't met him, you're just gonna have to take my work for it.:)~

And he LOVES to eat.  Wow, can he put the milk away!
(Lucy was not a big eater at all.  She still isn't!)  I think her little brother might pass her up on the ol' scale before long at this rate.

I'm only having to get up with him once at night (for the last two weeks now), so I really can't complain about being too sleep deprived, either.  I can handle getting up once at night, no problem!  Heck, I think I'm getting more sleep now than during my last couple of weeks of pregnancy!  At least now I can actually sleep when I lay down -- instead of tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable all night!

Anyway .... all-in-all, things are going GREAT, and we are all madly in love with him.  :-)

The laundry basket photo ....

I plan to take this same photo every month.
So don't let me forget, okay...?
I know it's gonna break my heart to look back at each month's photos next November 17th when Max is turning a year old, but I think it will be a fun keepsake, so I'm gonna give it a try!

By the way .... if someone doesn't come clean out Max's closet on occasion for me, he's going to have that outfit (and all of the others) still hanging around his closet when he's eighteen.
He's already growing out of his newborn-sized clothes, and it's killin' me!
(Am I the only crazy mama out there who is this emotional about this kind of stuff!?!)
Ugh.

Anyway ... hopefully, I will be back here soon.
I still have some BEAUTIFUL, GORGEOUS, AMAZING photos to show you from Max's newborn photo shoot.
(I posted a link to the photographer's blog a couple of weeks ago, so you may have seen some of them already!:)

Here's a little sneak peek ... and the photo on our Christmas card:

Another P.S. .... If you're accustomed to getting a Christmas card from us, and you haven't, it's because I ran out!  More have been ordered, so be patient with me .... hopefully you'll get one by New Year's! :)~