Better A Week Late Than Never

I'm talking about my post describing Karys's first Christmas. We didn't come back home until Tuesday afternoon and then yesterday had a lot of craziness of it's own, so now that she's taking a nap, I can put up some pictures and describe the fun that we had celebrating Christmas (and New Years too, I guess!) with a baby.

On Christmas Day, I got up early so I could get ready before Karys woke up because we wanted to get on the road for our various destinations during naptime to make the best use of our time. When you don't go to bed until almost midnight, 6:30 a.m. comes really quickly! :) We started our celebrations here at our house, where Karys's big present was an ExerSaucer. She is really loving it! Here's one of the pictures of her playing in it:

I think we probably had a bit of present "overload" because we put her in the ExerSaucer first thing and then I kept pulling toys and things out of her stocking and putting them all around her. That looked like this:

Here at our house, her presents included: (from us) the Play Tray for her Bumbo seat, a book, plus the Exer-Saucer and stocking stuffers; (from Aunt Misty and family) clothes, adorable shoes, and a book; (from her great-grandmother, Mammaw) two fun toys; and (from her great-grand-parents, Grandpa and Grandma Jo) a cute outfit.

After that, we went to Ryan's sister's house here in town and exchanged gifts with their family. Karys got a really really adorable hooded ladybug towel.

We left there and were on our way to Forney to have Christmas with my parents and sister. They successfully spoiled the baby! One of her stocking stuffers was a small bear that said "Baby's First Christmas" on its tummy. Here she is loving on that bear:

From her grandparents, she got some great new headbands and hairbows, lots of books, a set of Baby Einstein toys, a rock n' roll guitar toy (because my dad plays bass guitar), and stocking stuffers. From her Aunt Julie, she got some great new outfits, a teddy bear, and a Care Bears movie (because my sister loves the Care Bears). I know there was other stuff too, but I just can't remember it all! Here she is once all of her presents were opened:

I was really thankful that we were able to stay with my parents from Thursday all the way until Tuesday. They were all so helpful and just loved doing anything they could for Karys. My parents even gave me, Ryan, Julie, and her boyfriend Six Flags tickets that they had and they kept Karys while we all went to Six Flags. It was my longest time away from her ever and I only called them once! :)

On Monday, we celebrated Christmas with some of my dad's family. Unfortunately, it was getting close to bedtime so we did not have a very happy baby. However, you'll notice in this picture that the shoes seem to be helping!

That seems to be enough for one post now, but stay tuned because after I post this one I'll be posting another one with a couple of other non-Christmas-related pictures.