Brynlee Ann's First Christmas

The Christmas season has always been my favorite time of year - not only is it fun to decorate and sing lots of fun Christmas songs 24/7, but it is absolutely amazing to me to watch people celebrate the birth of our Lord. To me, at least, I felt like more people openly proclaimed Christ as the "reason for the season" this year than any other year. Maybe it's because I'm placing such a high importance on Brynlee Ann learning to love Jesus from an early age, or maybe (and hopefully) it's just because people, in general, are truly seeing the love & sacrifice God made to send His ONLY son to be born sinless into a sinful world and die for each of our sins.

This year I had a hard time getting into the "Christmas spirit" at first. At the beginning of December I was packing for a move to our new city and I missed out on having decorations put up the day after Thanksgiving. As soon as we had access to our new home I put up the Christmas tree, and one of the first things I unpacked when we fully moved in was Christmas decorations. Even after doing all that and getting so very excited about hosting our families for Christmas at our new home, I still was still just not feeling it. One day, while taking a quick selfishly long bath in our luxurious new tub I realized that although I had gone through the motions of celebrating JESUS's birth, I hadn't taken it to heart & paused to celebrate His life myself. As soon as I did, the lights turned out in my head, the Christmas decorations were a bit sweeter, and my enthusiasm for teaching Brynlee Ann about the true meaning of Christmas was second to none!

We started off our Christmas celebration time by taking Brynlee Ann to see Santa at our local mall. I was so impressed with the sweet ladies who were helping Santa at his little village in the mall and Santa was just too cute! He was so sweet with Brynlee Ann and held her like a pro! Brynlee Ann was unimpressed and didn't really care about smiling, but considering she wasn't spitting up, pooping, or screaming for a bottle during the whole Santa encounter, I think this is a winner! *Praying for next year to go smoothly*

Next, we got ready for Grandma & Granddaddy, and Papa John & Granny Nanny and Uncle Matthew to come visit! Brynlee Ann traveled with us for all of our shopping, visiting friends, and even experienced sweet caroler kids from our neighborhood coming to our door to sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer!

On Christmas Eve we got all dressed up for church and visited a great church just down the road from us! We enjoyed how they incorporated beautiful music, media effects, and especially children into their Christmas Eve service! (We'll definitely be going back to try out their Sunday morning service!)

After church, we went over to Aunt Hildy's house for her traditional Christmas Eve dinner - tamales & chile...I was in HEAVEN! After we got home from dinner, Mommy & Brynlee Ann left out ginger bread cookies for Santa - those are his absolute favorite kind of cookies!

I would say he enjoyed them because the cookies were gone and the glass & plate were in the dishwasher when I woke up on Christmas morning :-)

Now begins the plethora of pictures from our Christmas morning. A tradition that we wanted to begin with Brynlee Ann is receiving a letter from Santa explaining her gifts and then having her open those gifts first. Here is Brynlee Ann's letter from Santa:

(if you'd like a copy of this letter, just leave a comment & I'll email it to you)

Here is Brynlee Ann with her 3 gifts from Santa - her gold gift (representing gold the wise man brought to Jesus & a gift that brings her joy), her silver gift (representing Frankincense & a gift that will bring her closer to Jesus), and her red gift (representing myrrh & a gift that will cloth or protect her).

 Excited to find out what Santa brought her!

Her lamb that plays "Jesus Loves Me", piggy bank to store "bag money" from Granddaddy, and a breathable crib bumper to protect her in her crib.

Her favorite gift by far is Sophie the Giraffe! If you have a teether or little one who likes to put things in his/her mouth, Sophie is PHENOMENAL! Have not known a baby who didn't love it. Brynlee Ann is OBSESSED!

While we waited on lunch to be ready, the guys joined in a friendly game of Texas Hold 'em -- new tradition?

We all ate a yummy lunch while Brynlee Ann napped in her swing. Aunt Hildy brought over twice thrice baked potatoes and beef tenderloin, my mom brought a ham, and I cooked scalloped potatoes, broccoli & cheese, yeast rolls, and mint brownies for dessert. Brian also picked up a Mrs. Smith's apple pie from Kroger to add to dessert. 

I had seen a video circulating around Facebook of a house near us who had dancing Christmas lights to the Aggie War Hymn. The YouTube video said the town where the house is and I found out it was only 20 minutes from our house so we tracked it down! Brynlee Ann & Papa John really liked this memory.

Here is the video I took of the dancing lights to the Aggie War Hymn:

Pretty cool! 

We then traveled to a downtown area next door to our town and watched their fun Christmas lights. These were REALLY fancy dancing lights and I could've sat there for hours watching them, but alas, family was getting tired, Brynlee Ann needed diaper attention, and it was getting late. So we headed home and called it a night on our Christmas celebrations!

The really fun part? Mom & I and later Brian, Brynlee Ann & I went "day after Christmas shopping" and got some AWESOME deals -- including a new tree for next year! Can't wait to share next year's Christmas celebrations with Brynlee Ann as she begins to understand more and more each year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled the the TRUE spirit of Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ!