Lily's First Christmas

We just got back from Virginia where we spent the last five days celebrating Lily's first Christmas, and what a Christmas it was! As I've mentioned before, I think everyone was extra excited for this Holiday season, especially me. It was quite joyful! This Christmas was made extra magical by the fact that the entire time we were in Virginia, and even when we returned home, there was snow! Lily even got her first snow suit!

Last Wednesday we arrived at my parents house just in time to join them at the Pulaski Fire department Christmas dinner. I haven't been to one of those in years, but my dad wanted all of his family there. Check out that proud "Deano" holding both of his grand babies! There were in fact, many proud grandparent moments. Lily fell asleep with my mom holding her three different times and spend time snuggling with both of her Hall grandparents.












Both of our families went overboard buying special presents for Lily and we came home with our car fully loaded! In reality, this was much more fun for me than for her. I greatly enjoyed opening all of the cute clothes and toys and have already washed them so she can start wearing or playing with them!
This week was also special because of all of the family that Lily got to meet. At Josh's grandma's she met not only her aunts, uncles, and first cousins once removed (yes, Josh and I researched how these relationships work...I know...dorks), but also her new second cousin, Kyra, who is just a month younger than she is. On my side, she also got to meet some cousins and second cousins including my cousin Chris and his family who were in on a rare visit from Botswana!




It was truly a special five days filled with family, food, and fun. Everything a Christmas should be! I'm sure this is one I will never forget. Now I just can't wait for future Christmas when Lily can make memories of her own!

The Hall Family Christmas Card!

Did you know that those photo Christmas cards that everyone sends are expensive! Since we didn't send out birth announcements, I was really excited about making and sending Christmas cards this year. I set up a photo shoot in our guest room and took pictures of Lily in all of her Christmas outfits. I put together an extensive list of over a hundred people that we would want to send a card. I went online and researched the different companies that made cards. I was shocked at the prices. The cheapest I could find the cards was around fifty cents per card. Add to that the fact that stamps are forty-four cents per card and that gets quite expensive.

For those of you who don't know, Josh is quite frugal. He balked at the idea of spending around a hundred dollars to send Christmas cards, so we got creative. We realized that you can print 4x6 photos for ten cents a piece at Wallgreens and buy 4x6 envelopes for ten cents a piece at Staples. By using Josh's amazing Photoshop skills to create our card we were able to cut the cost of our cards almost in half! Below you will find a sneak peak of the Hall Christmas Card 2010! Check out that cute baby!

Gotta Love the Christmas Spirit!

Since having Lily I've noticed that when parking I tend to try to leave a little extra room on the driver's side of the car to make it easier to get her seat out. Today we were headed to Target which was pretty crowded and the spot that I wanted, close to the carts had a car parked pretty close to the line on my driver side, so I ended up parking a bit further over than I typically would. I intentionally checked to make sure that the car on my passenger side would be able to get out and, while I know it was a bit squinchy, it was not really that close. When I got back to my car after shopping, however, I found this note on my window. Seriously...who hasn't had someone park too close to them and had a difficult time getting in the car. Heck, I've even had to crawl across from the passenger side on one occasion, but I wasn't that upset, and I've never left a note. It amazes me that on such a cold day someone would go to the effort to find paper, write the note, and put it on my windshield. Some people...

Deck the Halls!

I don't think I have ever been quite so excited about Christmas. I know that Lily is still too small to really understand, but just having her with us makes this season so much more joyful! For the past several years Josh and I have been saying how much more fun Christmas would be if there were little ones running around. Now there are! Not only is there Lily, but my nephew is now old enough to actually get excited about Christmas. On Josh's side of the family one of his cousins also has a new baby and his uncle married a woman with two elementary age kids.

I believe that everyone has a little more Christmas spirit this year. My mom has already put up her outside lights and giant inflatable snowman, which haven't made an appearance in several years. Josh's mom brought Lily two adorable Christmas outfits which I washed today so I can put her in them and take pictures. Josh and I have spent the last two days putting up our tree and all of our Christmas decorations with a fire in the fireplace and Christmas music on the radio. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to have three stockings hanging on our fireplace, and I can't help but think of Lily when I hear "All I want for Christmas is You" or (probably slightly irreverently) "What Child is This"!

**I find the title of this post slightly funny since we, my family, are "The Halls"!

Traveling with Lily

This week we celebrated Lily's first Thanksgiving with a trip to Virginia to visit both sets of grandparents. Lily did great on the car trip down, sleeping all the way. There was one sticky point where we got into stop and go traffic and she got a bit fussy, but as soon as we were rolling again, she fell back asleep. She was pretty good on the way home as well. I was really worried about her sleeping in a strange place, but she slept fine in her daddy's old crib (Grandma and Grandpa Hall set it up in our room with a new mattress and sheet).

I must admit that it was hard for me to be out of our comfortable setting and routine with her, and I'm a bit relieved to be home. I honestly think she handled it better than I did. She ate, was awake, and slept on a pretty normal schedule. She really wasn't much more fussy than she is in a normal day, but for some reason, when we are around others, her crying makes me really stressed. I feel a lot of pressure to have her be a happy baby even though I know that our families understand and don't care. I've got to work on that. It's hard because I often feel like I'm the only one who can really comfort her and she does seem to get fussy sometimes when other people hold her. Perhaps she is spoiled, or perhaps I am.

I also find nursing her around others, especially my in-laws, a bit of a challenge. On one hand I feel like if the baby needs to eat, there is nothing wrong with feeding her, but on the other, I am a bit embarrassed to break out my boob in front of Josh's parents and his little brother, even under my cover. Around my family and our friends, I find it less of an issue. Again, I know that they wouldn't really care, but it's another one of the things that I need to work out and work on.

Overall the trip went very well and Lily really traveled like a champ...me, not so much...but I plan to work on it, and I think it will get easier.

Lily's First Thanksgiving

Lily celebrated her first Thanksgiving this week and I can't help but think of how thankful I am for her. It seems amazing that this time last year I was really sad and starting to worry that we would not be able to have this precious baby. I have so much to be thankful for!

Packing for Lily

Tonight I am attempting to pack to go to Virginia and visit our families for Thanksgiving, and realizing it is much more difficult to pack with a baby. In the past, Josh and I could just throw some clothes in a bag and head out. Now I have about a thousand extra things to worry about. How many diapers (wipes, outfits, socks, bibs, blankets, burp cloths, swaddles, etc.) should I pack? Should we take a swing or bouncy seat to entertain her? Should I take books and toys (even though she hasn't been playing with any here)? Should I pump and try to take breast milk? Should I take my pump to pump there? Should I take her bath tub or bath supplies? Should I take our monitor?

Not to mention my worries about how she is going to sleep in a new place. It's amazing how comfortable I've become in our "normal" routine. It is easy to care for her here. I know where everything is and how everything works. I realize, however, that all she really needs is clothing and food, which I keep handy at all times :), and she will be fine. I still worry that changing that routine and the normalcy of our days will make her upset, but from what I hear it's probably much easier on her than on me!