December 2011

Oh my sweet girls.  December is my absolutely favorite time of the year, and I was so excited that the two of you were here to share in the excitement of the holiday season with me.  I scheduled family pictures for the day after Thanksgiving, so we could send out cute Christmas cards.  You were such good little girls, and you definitely know how to work a camera!

I also tried to take my own pictures of you, but even when confined to a box, the two of you would not stop moving.  You were both babies on the go, and you did not want to sit still at all.

Once I had put the tree up and had (fake) decorated presents under it, it was impossible to keep the two of you away from it.  You were so curious.  You wanted to touch the tree and rip the paper on the presents.

In December 2010, while I was still pregnant, I learned that Hallmark made a Winnie-the-Pooh Baby's First Christmas Ornament.  I decided right then that those ornaments would be your first because my first ornament was a Winnie-the-Pooh ornament.  Grandma and Grandpa gave them to you for Christmas, and I cried tears of joy when we hung them on the tree by my first ornament.



The two of you got right into the holiday spirit, and we listened to all sorts of Christmas music together.



You still look pretty similar to how you looked when you were eight months old - so, so beautiful.

You both learned a new trick this month - how to pull yourselves up to standing.  Tannah was the first, but Harper, you were right behind her.  By the end of the month you were both cruising around furniture like you'd been doing it forever.  Neither of you ever had problems getting yourself down either.  Once you could get yourself up, you could also get yourself back down.

We spent Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We took you to mass on Christmas Eve.  I had about five holiday themed outfits for the two of you:)

Grandpa was very excited to take a picture with you in your Santa hats.

We continued our family tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve.  You got to open Christmas PJ's.  Grandma had planned ahead, so they were already washed and ready for you to wear that night.

We were up with you bright and early on Christmas morning.  We had to wait to open presents until Aunt Brynne and Uncle Joe got to Grandma and Grandpa's.  Adding the two of you and Uncle Joe to the family meant that we had a lot of presents under our tree!  You can kind of see out the window in the picture below that your first Christmas was a green Christmas rather than white.  That's the first time that's happened at Grandma and Grandpa's in a long time.

I think the two of you had the most presents that morning.  You were spoiled little girls for sure.  You thought your new toys were nice, but you really liked tearing the wrapping paper.

It was a very merry Christmas!

 

We spent the whole week in Michigan, so we got to spend New Year's Even with Grandma's side of the family.  We got to see lots of my aunts, uncles, and cousins, as well as Great Grandma.

You were asleep when the clock struck midnight, but I gave Daddy a kiss, thought about how amazing 2011 was and how I could only imagine that 2012 would be even better with the two of you around.