Christmas Highlights

Today was our first day back in the swing of things. David is back at school after his Christmas break was extended by a couple of well timed snow days. Wednesday's are also when I go to work each week for the day in a little church office, which means Fordycakes spent the day with his babysitter/adopted grandmother. We were all back at it.

Can I be honest with you? I was a little ready. I like the tiniest hint of a routine. I'm the type of person who needs motivation to put on real clothes. Left to my own devices I'd just be in my pajamas all the time.

I so throughouly enjoyed Christmas, though. Having David home and spending time with family is such a treat. Let's close out Christmas break with a little recap of Christmas highlights, shall we?

We took Ford to see Santa Clause. I had taught him all about Santa and upon seeing his likeness he would proudly yell, "Ho, ho, ho!" It is adorable. Naturally. Santa in person, however, was a different story. He didn't cry, but he did give Santa a very serious and skeptical stare down.

Christmas was much more exciting with Ford this year because he understood that things were different and special and he could participate in some of the traditional kid festivities of the season.

Look at this little baby last year during his first Christmas. 

Now direct your addition to this giant toddler. Where did my baby go? 

A seasoned Christmas veteran, he's actually a little Christmas ham. He thinks he is the funniest person around. 

This year we spent Christmas with my parents at the farm. It's a very restful place to be. We all took many many naps. Ford slept in the bed with my parents and was praised for being such a good eater each time he polished off another cookie. But whose to complain when Mommy and Daddy are getting to nap? 

As Christmas day drew closer, David and I (and everyone else, really) had a great time playing Santa. I was working on making Ford a teepee and on Christmas eve David and Jonathon and my dad all worked late into the night in the freezing cold to put together the rest of his toys. 

There was one among us, though who could not wait until Christmas morning to give little Fordy his gift. Uncle Jon Jon was so excited to give Ford his present that he gave it to him the day before. He couldn't stand to wait any longer. How sweet is that, I ask you?

But Ford did not complain because his present was AWESOME! It's a little jeep that's like a big wheel and Ford can drive it himself when he's bigger but for now it operates by remote control. 

Ford thinks that it is amazing and that he is an exceptionally skillful driver. 

All he wanted to do everyday was ride in his little jeep. Thanks Uncle Jon Jon for loving this little guy so much and for such a fun gift. 

Here are my two fellas on Christmas eve. This is just after my family's annual snack supper, which is one of David's favorite traditions and maybe now one of Ford's . He ran around all night using his charm and good looks to con people out of the food on their plates. Few can resist him. 

This is what Santa had ready for Ford on Christmas morning. I was so excited about how well his teepee turned out. I'll do a separate blog post with the details about it.

We had to wake the sleepy head up on Christmas morning. We were much more excited than he was.

But it did not take long for him to wake up and realize there were new things to play with!

He really liked opening presents this year. He couldn't quite understand why he needed to stop playing with one present to open another, though. I'm sure if we dwelled on that for long we could draw some good metaphors or life lessons from it, but let's just keep opening presents for the time being, ok? 

After opening gifts inside, there was still a present from Papa and Mema for this outside loving little boy- A big play set. 

You'll notice that Ford is dressed for success in his Christmas long all, bear hat, camo jacket, and John Deere boots. He's very fashion forward. 

One thing that is not forward is his slide technique.

It's the way all the cool kids are doing it these days. 

Besides Ford's antics, the thing that kept us most entertained during Christmas was my Dad's new cows. 

There was even a baby born on Christmas eve!

Sweet sleepy girl. Being born is rough stuff. Every time Ford saw the calves he said "Awwwwww." 

Hey, Mama.

Cow whisperers. 

Ford also says, "boo" instead of "moo." It's funny every single time. 

We had a great Christmas. We got a lot of fun stuff, but more importantly we enjoyed being together. I'm thankful for our little family. I'm thankful for the Christmas season and the freshness that Ford brings to our traditions.

As we move into the season of Epiphany, I have taken our Christmas decorations down but have also encountered a slight problem. The baby Jesus from our "Little People" nativity scene is MIA.

"You will find him wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manager…" or perhaps we will find him covered in goldfish crumbs stuffed in the couch cushions.

May we all seek and find Him this year.
Blessings to you in this new year.
Melissa

Baby Christmas

Happy New Year, friends! I hope that the holiday season was wonderful for you and yours. Ours was great. We spent time with family, enjoyed watching Ford experience another Christmas, and spent most days in our stretchy pants. What's not to love? Ford and I will be very sad when Daddy has to go back to work on Monday and everything goes back to normal.

Just before Chrsitmas, we had a little party at our house with Ford's little play group. We have the best group of baby friends and mommies. All of the babies are first children and were born within about 5 months of each other. We have SO enjoyed spending time together. "Play group" is really just code for mommies gathering for advice, support, venting, laughing, and getting out of the house before we kill somebody.

Anyway, we decided to get everyone together for what came to be known as BABY CHRISTMAS!

We are in a new house and it was fun to decorate it for Christmas this year. Below you'll see our traditional Christmas Ukulele. And there appears to be a Christmas Sprite, as well. Someone needs to do a better job staging these pictures. 

You'll see our semi-baby friendly tree is perched high out of reach. 

I put out lots of stars because it's an object that Ford can identify. And I taught him to say "ho, ho, ho." Adorable. 

But back to the party. We had it in the morning and everyone brought yummy brunch treats and the babies wore their Christmas PJs.

My mom brought us cookies from a sweet little bakery in Fitzgerald, called Our Daily Bread. Aren't they cute?

And little gingerbread cookie favors with each of the baby's names on them.

Christmas china? Check.

Stripy straws? Check. 

Individual Milks? Check. Looks like a party to me. 

It's getting harder and harder to get a picture of these tots all together. They are much too movey and squirmy now. And they have their own ideas about what they want to do.

The nerve.

This one's pretty good, but we're missing somebody.

Oh, there she is. No pictures for Zoey, thank you very much. 

Ford decides to steal Emmaline's snack.

And then run away. 

Shesh. 

Babies played with the Nativity set, listened to Christmas music, ate snacks, and kept us busy running from room to room.

We also made a little Christmas craft.

Painting baby feet is easiest when they are in a highchair- although they are confused and curious about what you are doing to them. 

This was our end product- footprint Christmas trees!

It's such a joy to watch these little rascals grow up together and to get to celebrate holidays in special baby ways. We may have sippy cups instead of mimosas but we are enjoying it together! 

Ford's Christmas Quilt

For Christmas this year, David had my wedding rings resized to fit my chubby post-baby-you-ain't-22-anymore fingers. I'm extremely grateful to be an honest woman again after months of walking around without my rings and a baby on my hip.

I gave David a ukulele.

That's right. A ukulele.

He didn't ask for it, but I had the sneaking suspicion that he would like a tiny, quirky guitar. 

And I was right! He loves it. He serenades Ford and me around the house with an eclectic mix of tunes ranging from "You Are My Sunshine" to Sufjan. 

The best gifts I've given David over the years have been, like the ukulele, risky. Probably 10 years ago, I gave him a bow tie...long before they graced the necks of nearly every fellow on southern college campuses. 

The first year we were married, I gave him a pipe. 

And now...the uke. 

Back off ladies. He's all mine!

I mentioned in my last post that we just gave Ford one gift from us for Christmas. I wanted to give him something special that he could keep forever as his first Christmas gift, but I also wanted it to be fun and useful to him (or us) now. 

Soooooo....I decided to attempt my first quilt for my first born. I've wanted to make a quilt for a long time, and this was the perfect reason to take on the project.

I think it turned out pretty well!

 

A quilt fit the bill for being something that was both a useful gift for a baby boy and a keepsake. I didn't use traditional "baby" colors because I want to able to use the quilt for many years. I chose fabrics that were bright and boy-ish but that also represent things about our family. Some squares have guitars, bicycles, and cameras to represent our hobbies. There are squares with travel scenes, starfish, and even wood grain to represent places we like to go. 

Here's a larger version of the above picture so you can see the fabrics a little better.

I added a stripe of leftover fabric on the back to jazz it up a little.

And I embroidered a little inscription on one of the back squares. I wanted it to look like it was carved into a tree trunk.

The quilt is about 72 inches square, which is a little shorter than a twin size quilt. I modified THIS PATTERN from Cluck Cluck Sew (a great quilting resource) for a baby quilt to make it a little bigger. I largely based my fabric choices on this quilt from Joy's Hope, another lovely blog.

This is a great pattern for a beginning quilter because you don't have to line up squares to make corners.  It only took me a couple of days to make this (with plenty of interuptions from an 8 month old and mostly working once everyone had gone to bed!) Once you cut out your pieces, you sew them into rows and then sew your rows together. 

Because I wanted my quilt to last for a long time, I decided to have a long arm quilter put it together for me, rather than doing the actual quilting myself. The result is a wonderful "old quilt" feel- it's just the right weight and delightfully crinkly. 

We are already enjoying cuddling up with Ford's quilt...almost as much as we are enjoying listening to David play his ukulele. I hope that they'll both enjoy their gifts for many years to come!

What was your favorite Christmas gift?

mel