ThankGivens: Hailey's First Christmas

We love Christmas time in our household and this year was even better with Hailey around! It was fun thinking up what traditions we want to pass onto her and keep in our family for years to come. First things first, instead of shopping for gifts on Black Friday, we got up bright and early to shop for… our Christmas Tree! Of course, the lot wasn't even open at 7am, so we turned around and went home to have some coffee and kill time until a couple hours later and THEN we shopped for our tree!

Hailey found one she liked!

Tree Shopping!

Once we trucked it home (one of the only reasons we love having Joe's truck) it went in the house and we got decorating!

Hailey's First Tree Decorating

Evil mommy that I am, Daddy wasn't off the hook just yet. After we got the tree decorated, Joe put up our lights. Have I mentioned what a good man he is?

Don't worry though, I let him relax a bit too with some video games… and a sleeping baby strapped to his chest. He's a pretty good multitasker.

Later on, we made a trip down our favorite local Christmas tree lane… Eucalyptus in San Carlos. This street is insane with their Christmas lights every year and we were ecstatic to show Hailey. Hailey was so excited about it all, that she had to take a nap… through ALL of it. Oh well, she'll see it next year :)

Believe it or not, those are christmas lights from ONE house behind us

Just a tad bigger than the one we have at home

Love this guy

Reindeer flying a Jeep… Classic.

One of our favorite outfits for Hailey lately is her Polar Bear costume, a gift from her wonderful Grandma Sue. It's the softest thing in existence and I've decided that when she's in it, she's basically a real life Ewok.

Snuggles!

I cannot stop grinning when I hold her in it. SOOO FLUFFFYYY!!!

One of our final Christmas prep traditions is when we go to see the lights in Palo Alto. Christmas Tree Lane is another one of our favorites, but somehow we started the tradition of picking up LOADS of Chinese food from one of my favorite places growing up, Rickshaw in Foster City, and then we eat it in the car, parked at one of the cross streets where the lights are. It's definitely weird and we look ridiculous doing it I'm sure, but MAN do I love it. We'll see how this tradition goes once Hailey's able to eat solid foods… it may get a bit messy in future years.

Cheers!

I'll take one of just about everything please. Thanks.

Hailey had fun watching Mommy & Daddy pig out

At least she was awake for this one!

Finally, Christmas Day was here and you guessed it…. Santa came! We got up promptly at 6am and got started! I'd like to say that we did this because our daughter was up that early, but really mommy and daddy were just too excited to sleep in any more and these early birds will probably be waking up Hailey almost every Christmas, begging her to get up and open presents.