Baby’s First Christmas

This was a special year for us and our families as we celebrated our babies first Christmas. Hunter is the second grandchild on Timothy’s side of the family (by one year) and the first grand kid for my family. Every moment of a babies life is special but first holidays only come once and each of our families made sure we celebrated in style.

It’s tough planning family visits during the holidays especially when they live in different cities, but our families have always been wonderfully understanding about our situation and have never pressured us or used guilt to get us to visit. We do know they wish they could see us more but they also understand we are doing the best we can to spend time with everyone.

We got a late start on decorating our house but we did join my brother to cut a Christmas tree which has become a fun tradition. Timothy put up some lights and changed out the bulbs in our backyard to a more festive color and I brought out the garlands and Christmas decorations.

This year we started our Christmas vacation in Las Vegas and spent Christmas eve with my Uncles and cousins and their nine kids. It was a wild night as all of my second cousins (is that what they would be?) are between the ages of 1 and 11 and most are under 5. Hunter is the youngest and everyone enjoyed meeting him. It was a long night but Hunter did great and we knew this was only the beginning.

The next morning we spent with my dad’s family then went over to my mom’s for a nice Christmas dinner.

The following day we drove down to Tucson and spent the next three days with Timothy’s family. Both of Timothy’s sisters were there and his nephew Reagan who is 13 months was enjoying his first Christmas as a toddler. Hunter and Reagan are exactly a year apart so next year there will be two little ones running around the Swartz house (should be a crazy time!!!).

Here’s a photo of us trying to get them to sit still for a photo. Better luck next year!

We want to maximize the amount of time Hunter has with his grandparents and they’ve all given themselves easy names for him to use such as papa, nana, mima, and tutu. I think my dad will just be grandpa. Hunter’s best mood is in the early morning just after he gets up and our parents were also up at this hour so they could really spend some quality time with each other.

Hunter hit a few milestones this Christmas as he sat up on his own for the first time or rather balanced on his own while seated. It’s more like a hunch over but he’s not falling over. He also found his thumb in Tucson and has enjoyed alternatively sucking his thumb and his hand. It’s sooo cute but we are reluctant to let him get into this habit as we know it can be difficult to break and not good for his teeth.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we are looking forward to an amazing 2012!