Merry Christmas!

Whew! What a whirlwind! Here's how it all went down:

Christmas Eve:

This year I learned that there is such a thing as finishing up my shopping TOO early. I proudly and annoyingly declared to whoever would listen that I was done, done, done with my shopping as early as the first week of December. BUT!!! Combined with my knack for bargain shopping, and an innate need to shop til the last minute, I continued to shop to the very end (the deals got better and better as Christmas approached, I couldn't help it!) which led to overspending. But luckily for my family, they got lots and lots of presents. The tree at my moms house (see right) was overflowing with presents...I guess I wasn't the only one guilty of shopping too much!

And no matter how well I plan my lists, there is always someone that I forgot about out so we headed out for some last minute shopping on Christmas Eve morning. Peter waited in the car while I ran into Old Navy and SCORE!! last minute deals that were even better than Black Friday. Yahoo!



I dressed Lauren up in one of her many holiday outfits,
this time a red velvet outfit with green and read plaid bow accents and plaid ruffles on her butt. We attended her first Candlelight Service in the evening and I could've kicked myself for forgetting my camera. The congregation sang "Silent Night" while Peter carried Lauren and her face was softly lit by candlelight...it was so sweet and beautiful. It reminded me of attending these services as a kid with my dad and holding his hand while lighting our candles, being careful to keep the wax from dripping onto my fingers. I found myself missing my dad more this Christmas because I couldn't share Lauren's first Christmas with him.

After church, we returned to my mom's house to prepare our Noche Buena, a Filipino tradition of having a big family feast usually following midnight mass and followed by opening of presents. This year, our feast was made up of leftovers from the previous day's Luhuran (more on that in the next post). Chris came to join the festivities and when midnight came, the madness began. I changed Lauren into yet another holiday outifit, this time her Santa suit. I vowed to get more than 1 use out of each outfit!

Of course, Lauren didn't know what was going on. The packages were passed out but the opening of presents was delayed for a few minutes for a quick diaper change, I guess Lauren was passing out presents of her own (nyuk nyuk). We unwrapped our presents and wrapping paper flew through the air..literally!!! Projectiles of balled-up wrapping paper with trailing ribbons flew threw the air in our annual wrapping paper fight (more colorful than a snowball fight!) and though they were amused, both mom and Lauren had had enough by 1 A.M. and they retreated to her room where they went to sleep while we played with our presents.

Presents? Yum!

Our favorite presents? Lauren got an Ocean Wonders Mobile with a projection light show from Grandma, some super cute outfits, and a sippy cup with her name on it. I got some great books, a shiatsu massager (YES!), a digital photo frame, and Duran Duran's newest release. Peter got his wish, the HD-DVD box set of Planet Earth. But Peter and I both agree that our best gift of all was a little wriggling, bouncing, drooling, squealing package that didn't need to be wrapped in shiny paper or colorful ribbons.

Our favorite present!

And that was just Christmas EVE!!!

CHRISTMAS DAY:
We woke up Christmas Morning to open even more presents under the tree, this time at our house. We saved one gift for each of us...These will be our "Santa" presents when Lauren's old enough to get caught up in the hype. Peter woke up extra early to assemble Lauren's new bouncy chair...finally, a way for her to bounce bounce bounce without having to hold her up til our arms fall off! She LOVED IT !!! And what was in her stocking? Binkies, a teether, and hair clips.

We then headed out to Grandma P's house for Christmas lunch and even MORE presents!

Lunch was a crown roast of pork. Yummy!

What? More gifts?!

Whew, what a crazy couple of days. We went back to dinner at my mom's house and finally got some much needed rest and reflected on Baby's First Christmas. I can't wait for next year!!!