Christmas Cheer

This past week has been filled with lots of family activities and Christmas spirit. Even though Aspen won't remember this Christmas, I think all in all she had a great time.
We started our holiday off with an earlier dinner with Aspen's Poppy the weekend before Christmas. We were headed off to Midland and wanted to have a dinner with my dad before we left town. Jason made an amazing roast duck with potatoes, fig apple sauce (yum!) and carrots. It was a great meal and wonderful company. We set up the tripod to capture the moment and this was the best shot...I guess Layla really wanted to be part of the memory.



We headed off to Midland on Wednesday morning once Aspen woke up and finished eating. She did great on the drive, although Jason and I didn't have high expectations, so it wasn't hard to please us. Actually Aspen did amazing the whole trip. She is really starting to warm up to people more (other than her mom and dad), which has been nice to give us a break every once and awhile.

Our nephew Cameron wasn't so sure about sharing his Nanny's attention with his cousin Aspen at first.



I had to document as much of Aspen's first Christmas as possible. She woke up early that morning (of course!) and was in such a happy mood. I guess she was ready to open some of her presents.



Of course she didn't really know what was going on, but Aspen did enjoy the wrapping paper. We probably could have just wrapped boxes with paper and she would have been has happy as can be :)



We had to set up a photo shoot of the three cousins. For those of you that don't know, my two sister-in-laws both had children in the past two months--Jessica in October and Trevor in November. The three of them had matching "Xmas" pj's provided by their Aunt Sarah.

We started the shoot out with all four cousins and Papa.



Then we had to get some shots of the three little ones. This continued on for a while and in the second shot (which we slipped Cameron in) Trevor and Aspen had just about had enough. I couldn't resist posting the second picture. It's the perfect example of a bunch of parents wanting one thing from their kiddos, but ultimately the kiddos are the ones running the show.





I was a little worried with all the excitement, pictures taking, etc. that Aspen would burn out at some point, but she kept high spirits all day. I got this great shot of her wiggling around in her "Santa's Helper" outfit.



Aspen has been eating her rice cereal now for about a week and a half and has continued to love it. After all the excitement of Christmas morning she sat in the high chair and ate a nice large serving of cereal. She seemed content in the high chair so we left her in it for a while and all of sudden we looked over and she was passed out. To adorable for words...



We had a great first Christmas as a family this year. The whole experience also gave me more confidence as a parent traveling with Aspen. She exceeded both of our expectations. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday this year!