The First Christmas

If this Christmas is any sort of sign of things to come, we need a much bigger house. Our presents (Josh's and mine) were reasonable--a couple CD's, DVD's, books (of course), and the fabulous orange Le Creuset pot to start off our collection (thanks, Mom!). As we have moved into a much smaller house than we previously owned, and are trying to get back into a simpler lifestyle that we enjoy much more, I really didn't want much for Christmas. However, all the stops were pulled when it came to Iris' gifts (I should have guessed). All in all, she has five new pairs of shoes (three from Mommy alone--you can tell what my fetish is!) several outfits, half a shelf of new books (yay!), and a boxload of new toys. I guess we don't have a choice on whether to get a toybox or not! They are now sitting in cardboard box in her room until we make a run to Ikea!
Christmas was fun and everyone loved to ooh and ahh over the baby. For our present, she gave us two nights in a row of eight hours of solid sleep! (She reached nine+ hours last night, but that was probably recovering from vaccinations!) Merry Christmas! However, Iris managed to sleep through all of the present opening, both on Christmas Eve with Josh's family, and on Christmas Day with mine. Next year I am anticipating even more fun with her. I can't wait to take her to pumpkin patches on Halloween, and watch her open Christmas presents and play with the boxes and wrapping paper instead of the gifts! (Unfortunately, we were so busy that we didn't get many Christmas pics, so I'm waiting for other people to send them to me so that I can post them later.)
Though Christmas is my favorite holiday, I am glad for it to be over. Having every weekend filled up with activities with family and friends can get a bit tiring. Now with months of no plans except our first vacation with Iris in January (Canon Beach-yay!), classes starting for me, and the Emerald Bowl tonight (go Beavs!), I can finally relax. Maybe even get some work done! New Year, new start. Here's to a great year with my new family!
P.S. I wrote this blog yesterday, but didn't post because I was waiting for pictures. Beavs won the Emerald Bowl last night (thanks to Iris, our lucky charm in her Beaver shirt), and Iris performed her first stomach to back roll this morning!!! Hooray for our strong girl! She's even about three-quarters of the way to rolling from her back to her stomach--we were watching her at Grandma's house the other day and thought she was actually going to do it! How am I going to keep up with her? =)