Baby's First Christmas (2012)

This year Christmas was all about Austin!!  Of course he had no idea what was going on but I think everyone enjoyed having a baby around to watch and play with.  Our Christmas holiday has always been busy.  Tayt and I usually feel like we are running around Texas to visit all the family.  Hopefully some day soon everyone will come to us and we can host the holiday festivities.  I'm pretty sure we will have to buy a bigger house before that can realistically happen. We decorated for Christmas the weekend before Thanksgiving since I am off work that whole week but by the time Christmas rolled around I was more than ready to put it all away.  It was hard to have things out that a baby can't play with.  Make note of our tree for 2012...ornaments started in the middle so they were out of baby's reach!  Austin was unimpressed with Santa and even more so the elf that was dancing all around in front of him trying to get a smile.  We got a half smirk which was funny.  We were anticipating the "crying baby with Santa" picture and would have gladly taken that but our boy was not the least bit scared of the big guy!  Yay!  And The Todds sent out our very first Christmas card this year.  Sorry if you didn't get one.  I ordered 30 and sent out every one.  Next year I'll be ordering more.  Okay, on to the pictures.  Be warned, this is a LONG post with lots of pictures!!

Here is the timeline of our Christmas' of 2012:

1. 12/22/12:  Todd Family Christmas:  Christmas at Tommy's house with Tommy, Dee, Joe, Heidi, Tracy, Summer, Hali, Amanda, Tyler, Rhiannon, and Summit.  BBQ, presents and good company in Cedar Hill.  I know the Todd family was very grateful to have Tyler home from the Navy for Christmas this year.

2.  12/23/12:  We had planned to go to  Killeen for Christmas with Tayt's mom but Austin had a fever and we had to postpone.  Instead we stayed home and Santa came early to our house.  Austin got a HUGE connecting tent, ball pit, tunnel play place.  We had no idea it would take up our entire living room.  Austin loved it!

3.  12/24/12:  Christmas Eve: Church at Christ Church in Plano and dinner at Marcia and Rick's in Prosper with my extended family.  As we headed to meet my parents for church, we got a call that Tayt's niece Hali had been in a bad car wreck and was being Careflighted to Parkland Hospital.  Tayt dropped me off at church and rushed down to the hospital.  Thank God she is fine and walked away with only some bumps, scrapes and bruises.  After church Austin and I went to Marcia and Rick's with my family, where we ate and played charades.  We missed Tayt and I'm sad I never got a picture of the three of us all dressed up for Christmas Eve.

 

 

 

4.  12/25/12:  Christmas Day:  We woke up and headed to my parents for the day.  We opened presents, had a yummy breakfast, watched Austin play, Tayt, Grant and Trent tried to install a new thermostat for my parents (most of the day), my mom and I set up her new Kindle fire, we ate a delicious dinner and just relaxed all day.  One of the big highlights of the day was the SNOW!!!!  It started out rainy and then by mid day it turned to beautiful,big snowflakes...YES, SNOW IN TEXAS ON CHRISTMAS!  It covered everything and stuck around for a few days.

 

 

 

 

5.  12/30/12:  Christmas in Killeen:  We finally headed down to Killeen and spent the evening with Terry Lynn.  Again, we ate a yummy meal, talked and watched the Cowboys lose. :(  Austin had a rough night and cried most of the night.  Poor boy was still sick with a cold and cough.  The next morning we drove home to spend New Years Eve cuddled up at home as a family. 

Yes, it was busy but I love getting to see all of our family in such a short amount of time.  It is times like this that I am reminded how many people love our little family of three.  We are so blessed and treasure all of our family.  In my opinion, family is the greatest gift we could get and they are all the first thing I thank God for every day.  I pray everyone had a wonderful holiday and was able to spend it with the ones they love as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Love, The Todds (Tayt, Allison, Austin and Tanner)

{P.S.-Thank you Blogger for letting me publish such a long post with lots of pictures!}