Riley's first Christmas

Compliments of our move from South Dakota, we brought the area's first White Christmas in many years. Christmas Eve started off with rain and sleet, making travel conditions treacherous. We decided to brave the elements to attend an evening candlelight service at a local Methodist Church. It was a community effort involving pastors and congregation members from six local churches. It was tranquil and lovely. Riley wore Christmas outfit number one, prompting two recurring comments: 1) "AWWWWWW!" and 2)"I wish they made outfits like that in adult sizes."

Christmas morning, we awoke to a nice dusting of snow and lots of presents for Riley under the tree. Santa must have had a harried a delivery night because along with the cookies and carrots (for the reindeer), he also pilfered some Tylenol and left the bottle next to the empty treat plate. Watching a six-month-old "open" presents involves quickly realizing that the true joy is in the bows (yummy blue bow) and wrapping paper, not the gifts. (Adorable raspberry hat was one of the best surprises under the tree -- a gift from old neighbors in Rapid City).

We had plans to host dinner for 10 at our house Christmas afternoon, and for a while it looked like we might be celebrating alone because of the slippery road conditions. The backup plan to tackle the 27 lbs of turkey defrosting in the fridge involved seating Bauer at the dinner table to see how much he could polish off in a quasi-civilized manner. Luckily, the ongoing flurries made for slow travel, as opposed to no travel, and all of our guests arrived; thus thwarting Bauer's chances to hone his fine dining etiquette skills. It was a wonderful evening with friends, family and food, and after the last guests departed late into the night, TJ and I stayed up covering leftovers, washing dishes, rearranging the furniture and eating more dessert. It was 3 a.m. before I finally hit the hay. Note to self: Riley does not care if Mom stays up until 3 a.m.
Next day.
Train wreck.
But overall, a holiday filled with lots of nice memories of a first Christmas with the greatest gift I've ever received.