Christmas Christmas

Well this picture says it all! We had a wonderful first Christmas as a family of three. Santa came to see Shelby and we got to spend time with lots of family. We are lucky to have lots of traditions with both of our families and that the times of each event coordinate so we can go to all of them. On Christmas Eve we had an fondue lunch with the Peterson group and got our presents from the Christmas Eve Elf. This very special elf is my mom's personal helper. When my niece Ashley heard about this Elf she didn't really believe my brother David and informed him that only Santa brings us presents. We all tried to explain that this elf is Grandma's special helper. I think she believed us, but her side smile spoke a little otherwise. After fondue and presents we went bowling with the Dukes. I love this tradition even though I am EXTREMELY bad at bowling. I didn't do too bad this year, but I use bumpers, yes I do. The first year I went with Casey's family to bowl, I did so bad. When Casey tried to help me by correcting my form, I just got really mad. Now I use the bumpers because then I have fun and actually score points. It always amazes me how I can do so many mentally difficult things and I fail miserably at all sports involved activities. After bowling we went back to Casey's parents and ate and got into our jammies. We stayed up way too late and had way too much fun.

Christmas morning we met back at Casey's parents' to open presents. We had to be there at 7:30 am and we made the mistake of waking up the baby. Boy was that a mistake. She spent most of the day sleeping off her crankiness. So she slept through presents and breakfast and most of the rest of the day, which believe me is not normal for her. That night we went to my parents' house for dinner. My sister Wendy was here. I love having her in Utah. It was a lot harder for me to see her between the baby and work, but she's one of my best friends and it's not really Christmas without her and Bryan. I tried to take lots of pictures of Shelby on her first Christmas. I took the one at the top under our tree. I cannot wait for next year when she knows what is going on and gets excited. Until then, I think her favorite part of the holiday was being with everyone. She recognizes people now and prefers some to others. She smiles and talks all the time. She's a bit of a momma's girl, but she loves her daddy. He's the only one who can really make her laugh and let me tell you that her laugh is the cutest sound in the world--I promise.