Grady's 1st Christmas - 2011

Our first Christmas with our precious little boy was a great one! I would have been completely happy if I didn't get a single present this year because he was all I wanted. I remember last Christmas, I was hoping and praying to be pregnant. Unfortunately, Christmas was a bit of a bummer last year because I found out that I wasn't. Thankfully, just a couple weeks after Christmas, I got pregnant it was the greatest thing that has ever happened to me!

This year, we decided to split Christmas into a 2-day event because it just didn't all fit last year. Christmas morning, we woke up and spent some first Christmas time with Grady and then headed to my dad's house to celebrate with the Shuberts. We spent a few hours over there, had some lunch and opened some presents. It's always great to see my dad's side of the family! After, we headed back to our house and got the turkey in the roaster as soon as I got home. I decided that since I didn't have a nice, sit-down dinner for Thanksgiving this year that I wanted to have a nice meal for Christmas. After the turkey was cooking, we played games for a couple hours. We had dinner and all of the food turned out great - including the turkey (hallelujah!). We enjoyed the classic, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, afterwards. The next morning, I made an egg/hashbrown casserole and my mother-in-law's wonderful coffee cake and my mom brought over some fruit and breads and the whole crew was back over for round 2 - present time! We instituted Secret Santa a few years ago with a $100 limit - but every year it has gotten more out of control and people (Mom & Grandma) follow the rules less and less. Plus, (even though they swore they wouldn't) they bought a mound of presents for Grady. I just can't imagine how much chaos it will be next year when he can actually open presents!

 A gift from my mom & Sam on Christmas Eve along with a voice recorded The Night Before Christmas book

Sock monkey hat from Uncle Tom & Dawn