First Christmas!

Elijah’s first Christmas! Per the annual rotation schedule already in place (hehe), we celebrated Christmas in Grand Rapids this year, with my (Missy’s) brothers and their families, and my parents. It was so fun to all be together for a long weekend. The only downside was that Grandma was getting over bronchitis, Lexi, our niece, was sick, Andrew, our nephew, got sick, and Lori, our sister-in-law, got strep throat. And Elijah decided he didn’t like sleeping and wanted to continue being sick (he’s had a cold since early November). Still, it was a wonderful time together, and it was fun to see the kids playing together. Our twin nieces just love “Lijah” and “babeee”, as they call him, and kept offering Eli toys. Of course, he didn’t know what to make of this!

Before presents, we had a picture session for the kids – and Eli wanted no part of that at all, thank you very much. He wasn’t used to the loudness of other children (and older children). By the end of the weekend he was fine with it, but he wasn’t quite adjusted yet when the kids opened presents on Christmas Eve afternoon. Eli ended up sitting on Jon’s lap on the edge of the family room and watching everyone from a safe distance.

On Christmas Day itself we got together with my extended family, and Elijah got a chance to see my cousin’s babies who were born 3 weeks before him (Joshua), and then a month and a half after him (Allison). Eli was a total ham, as always. Even though it was close to his bedtime he kept on smiling and charming the crowd. We changed him into a red Polo sleeper before heading home, and it turns out that Joshua and Allison both had the same sleeper with them, just in a different color. So all the babies got in their Polo sleepers and posed together on the couch. Big Elijah on one side, big Joshua on the other (both able to sit up), and then petite little Allison in the middle. It was priceless.
The day after Christmas though, we had to head home and say good-bye. We were throwing a party for our friends from out-of-town on Tuesday night, and I knew that coming home on Tuesday would not leave me with enough time to get things done. So home we went! Baby’s first Christmas was a lot of fun though!