Christmas Day

Santa came to our house!

The stockings just gave up and laid
right down on the floor.

This has been pretty much the best Christmas I've had in years.  Not that the past Christmases have been bad, but there was a whole new joy in watching my daughter open her first gifts and see her smile shyly at the toys as if to say, "Is this for me?" and start playing with them.  I'm sorry that the next few pictures all look like the same thing, but I had to include them because you can see Jane sort of figure out how to open up the paper.  (Also, the scarf around my neck was a gift from Michael.  Isn't it pretty?)

I was surprised that Jane could actually handle opening everything we had for her, we just went very slowly.  We let her figure out how to pull off the paper (and kept her from putting it in her mouth).  Then she'd play with the toy for awhile and when she got a little bored we just brought out a new gift.   We were actually done opening everything in about a half hour.

This is the only toy that didn't work out.
It scares Jane to death.
We'll try it again in a few months.

Michael even got some fun things, too!

When Jane was done opening everything, she just laid back against me on the couch and started playing quietly with her toys.  Moments like this make me almost giddy, like when she's watching a show and lays her head against me, or other times when she takes my hand in hers and I think, "My baby is holding my hand."  I get a thrill like a teenage girl having her hand held by a cute boy that she likes.  Except it's my daughter and it blows me away that I've created something that is now holding my hand and smiling at me.  It was extra special to have a moment like that on Christmas morning.

This book was Jane's gift from Santa!  She loves it.

Christmas morning was just our small family, but later in the day we had Michael's Mom and Dad over for Christmas: Part Deux!

Jane got this pretty red dress from Grandma, who bought
it before she was even born!  That's thinking ahead!

We opened a few more gifts and then we had a dinner that I made, Norman Rockwell style.  Okay, it's not a turkey, but if you look closely you can see that chicken is stuffed with a juicy orange and surrounded by a rendition of my Dad's famous dressing.  Yum!  We also had a cranberry salad (red and green is the way to go on Christmas), a yummy corn dish from Michael's Mom, sweet potatoes, and an apple pie that I didn't get a picture of.

After dinner Jane played with toys some more and then Grandma helped me give her a bath and put her to bed.  I think Jane had a very merry Christmas, and we did, too!