This year we spent Christmas at home with the kiddos. We were invited to spend the holiday with some of Peter's family in Georgia but decided to stay home and have a quiet holiday. The kids are growing up so fast that we won't have many "quiet" holidays in the future. Ainsley continues to grow up too fast! She weighed 12 pounds at her 2 month check up and she has started smiling a lot…such a sweetheart!
my little goofball
Ainsley - 2 months old
I love decorating for Christmas, we have a couple boxes of decorations and I look forward to dragging them out and making the house look festive. We always have a fresh tree, we didn't go out and cut it down, maybe we will start that tradition when the kids are older, for now we just pick one out at the store. In the past years we have used candles on our tree, dangerous but absolutely beautiful. This year I used electric lights instead. I think the candles will be put on hold for a few years till the children know to be careful around the tree. Normally we set the tree in the corner of the living room by the window. This year I put it in the corner of the piano room. It wasn't as pretty but we were able to close the french doors and keep "Thing 1" away from the tree.
Wythe helped me decorate the tree by pulling the ornaments out of the boxes. We were pretty lucky this year and only had one or two casualties of the ornaments.
"holding on to my little sis"
We spent Christmas Eve with our neighbors, it was a lovely time. We are blessed to live in an area where we have such great neighbors to spend time with. By the time we got home that night Wythe was asleep so he forgot to set out cookies and milk for Santa. Fortunately he had remembered to ask mommy to help just in case he forgot!
I told Peter that this was probably the last Christmas that we would be able to sleep in past 6AM! We had the luxury of being able to wake up, fix a cup of coffee, give Wythe some breakfast before opening presents. We were festive of course and used our Christmas mugs and wore our Santa hats!
Wythe emptying his stocking
Wythe and Ainsley didn't get a lot of presents this year. We decided to keep it small since they don't know the difference at this age. Peter didn't think we should get anything for Ainsley but I told him that we might feel bad when she is older and asks what she got for her first Christmas. Now we can tell her she got a rubber ducky and a rattle! I'm sure she will be impressed. Wythe got a few trinkets in his stocking, a wooden airplane and helicopter, a rubber ducky and some Gerber Puffs.
Wythe was excited to rip open his present but he didn’t understand what was going on. I guess by next year he will be old enough to have a little bit of anticipation for Christmas. This year we gave him some Lego's and a book, he loves his Lego's. He spends hours everyday building things, we wonder if he is going to be an architect.
Wythe and his bear from Aunt Kara
gotta love the wrapping!!!
Santa was good to me this year, I got a computer and a diamond band for my wedding ring set! I also got windshield washer fluid…the kind with de-icer! (That is what was wrapped so nicely!) Peter got a DVD set that he wanted and a stereo set for his office. It was a great holiday, very much a family affair!
'til next time...
We went to Richmond that Friday to celebrate Matthew and Dad’s birthday and inadvertently exposed everyone to the stomach bug! We weren’t feeling well that day but thought we might have had food poisoning since we all got sick at the same time. I was feeling ok by the time we went to Richmond but Peter was still feeling rough. Since everyone else got sick a couple of days later we had to conclude that we had a stomach bug and not food poisoning. Poor Kara and Roger got it while trying to drive straight home to Texas, instead of 22 hours their tortuous trip took 55 hours! However, we had a good time despite the sickness. 
