First Christmas

Despite this picture, I'm pretty sure Anneliese had a great time during her first Christmas.

This is her in her Christmas Eve outfit my best friend Larissa sent.

And Christmas Day!

I actually made our stockings this year since mine and Matthew's are in storage and Anneliese didn't have one yet.

Just a small portion of her haul.

And opening her first gift. She needed lots of help though.

In typical baby fashion, more interested in the wrapping than the gift.

We got her some blocks and Matthew tried to spell her name out but her name has too many E's in it.

In front of the big tree.

She got hot and lost her pants before all the festivities began. This is the stocking her Grandma got for her.

And I may get hurt for posting this photo of everyone before they had a chance to take a shower and get dressed, but I can't resit. They all wanted a photo of Anneliese in front of the tree too.

This was her favorite game after all the gifts were open, She had a blast throwing the bows and knocking them off the tray on her chair.

So many firsts in this photo. Our first Christmas in Hawaii since being married, our first one living here, first one as a family of three.

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Grand Wailea Tree Lighting

A few weeks ago we went to the tree lighting ceremony at the Grand Wailea.

The Betsill family photo.

The gingerbread village.

Our first Christmas as a family of three.

Yup, best gift ever. Even when it's covered in spit up.

And of course a gorgeous sunset.

The tree featured in the lighting ceremony on the right. Sorry it's blurry, but it's the only photo I took.

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Christmas Photos

I took these pictures the other day to commemorate Anneliese's first Christmas. I think they turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

And then the outtakes. This is the talent they send me?! Somebody wipe the drool off the model.

The pups wanted to be a part of the photo shoot too, they just didn't realize that they weren't in the frame for most of the photos. Anneliese is the star of the show here.

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Christmas in May?

Don't you hate it when you write a blog post up then forget to post it? Anyways, here what we did a few weeks ago.

Well it's not July (or December for that matter) but we decided to celebrate Christmas anyways! We planned on celebrating Christmas as a family after we moved since it didn't make sense for us to fly in December when we were moving in January. So after we finally got settled and now that Matthew's brother finished university and is now home as well and some coordinating of some busy schedules, we celebrated Christmas in May!

Matthew dug out his Christmas shirt.

Decorations and presents are required. Christmas music was also played.

Setting out dishes for our yummy dinner.

We had a delicious Christmas dinner. Janet did an amazing job at decorating. It really did feel like Christmas. 

I kind of love the idea of celebrating Christmas at a different time in the year now. New tradition anyone?

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Christmas 2013

This past Christmas was the first one without my mom. I knew it was going to be a really difficult day to get through (and it was). While I was thinking about what to get Matthew for Christmas I was reading a book about mourning through the holidays and one of the suggestions was to spoil someone else and make them happy. A few days later I saw an article for the actual cost of the traditional 12 days of Christmas, and then a light bulb went on, what if I were to make a 12 days of Christmas themed gift for Matthew?

The more that I worked on these gifts for Matthew, the more happy I felt. I was actually becoming excited about Christmas! Granted, the pain and sorrow was still there (it probably will always be there) but instead of dreading each day that brought Christmas closer, I had something to look forward to everyday with finding ways to give Matthew his gift for the day. I started giving him the gifts so that he would get day 12 on Christmas day.

Matthew loved all his gifts and was really happy that I wasn't moping around being a Scrooge. Let's be honest, the saying 'happy wife, happy life' exists for a reason.

Day 1: A new iPod touch (his old one accidentally got put in the washing machine, oops)

Day 2: Two tickets to see The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug (part 2 of the Hobbit trilogy)

Day 3: Three screen protectors for the new iPod

Day 4: Four hours of frustration while installing a new hard drive for his computer

Day 5: Five assorted meats and cheeses

Day 6: Six undershirts

Day 7: Seven pairs of new underwear

Day 8: Eight reasons I love him and think he is the best husband

Day 9: Nine chocolate truffles

Day 10: Ten pairs of socks

Day 11: Eleven packs of gum

Day 12: Twelve months of pre-planned and prepaid dates for 2014

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Our First Christmas

Both Matthew and I were really excited about celebrating our first Christmas together. We felt very blessed when we were able to have our first Thanksgiving at our house with our parents, so when we were able to host my family for Christmas we were ecstatic.

Our family at Thanksgiving.

Our first step was to decorate the house.

The dogs even got in the spirit, though I think Milton was hoping to get some of Santa's cookies.

Ornament my mom gave to us for our first Christmas

All done.

Then we went to Matthew's holiday party for his office at Buca di Beppo. We ate so much that night.

Matthew got his P.E. license in the mail Christmas Eve, he was very elated about getting it so soon.

Christmas Eve with my family. Milton jumped up on the couch at the last moment and posed for the picture.

The kids were playing a game.

Catching up with the family and enjoying the food (note the cheese-ball). 

Our first Christmas ended up being a white Christmas, lucky us!

We planned to go to Arkansas the day after Christmas for a mini vacation, but because of the snow we decided it would be safer if we stayed at home. So we made a snowman.

Angelina hates the snow. Milton likes to eat it.

I think he turned out pretty well.

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