Brady's First Christmas

Well, Brady survived his first Christmas as our child. He is still not old enough to realize what all a Christmas in our family consists of. It consists of moving from place to place every day for a series of at least 4 days or more.

Now Adam and I never once thought of ourselves as Christmas professionals (we may never achieve that), however we were accustomed to the hectic schedule and to the fact that we need at least 2 days to re cooperate from the travelling, food, and family stimulation (no offense to anyone). Now that we had an almost 1 year old to tote around, this was an entire different ball game all together.

For all of the different places he had to go, and meals he had to eat, Brady I feel did better than we did. Brady's first Christmas schedule was as follows:

Day 1: First Brady and I drove to McLeansville for a small get together with my brothers, their families and mom. After a few hours we all headed to Greensboro for lunch at Dad and Jill's. There Adam joined us after having to work a few hours that morning. All the cousins had a great time together which caused adorable chaos.

From there Adam, Brady, and I continued driving to Burlington to spend the night at Adam's Dad's house. On the way though we stopped back at Mom's house to visit with all of the Arnolds that had congregated there for their Christmas bash. Once in Burlington we had a wonderful meal at Ma's house before finally hitting the sack Christmas Eve at Ronnie and Denise's house.

Day 2: There, Brady woke up to his first Christmas morning. He enjoyed all of his gifts, but not as much as the Christmas trees.

Later that day, we headed off to Yancyville to Denise's mom's house (Adam's step grandmother). From there it was back to our own little house to regain our second wind. Christmas for us, was only halfway over.

Day 3: The next day we headed to Roxboro, for Christmas with the Bradshers (my Mom's side of the family). There, all six little cousins were all together for the first time. Again, there was much excitement as the little ones ran around, soaking up all the attention. Brady took a fancy to Jade and they spent a good bit of time on the fire engine together. Jade who is over a year old, let her 11 month old cousin push her around. Brady, who has just been learning how to walk behind something, was more than happy to push her around.

Jade has a brand new, 5 week old baby sister. Adam was dying to get his hands on her and she quickly fell asleep in his arms. Now, last time he held one of my cousins brand new babies (Jade to be in fact) I became pregnant with Brady. As wonderful as that was, I'm hoping this will not have the same effect as of yet.

After a long but good day, we headed back to our home, to prepare it for the final day. On Sunday all of the Hortons (Adam's Mom's side) would be coming for lunch. Why our one bedroom, one bathroom house got chosen to seat 14 people, I will never know, however it was absolutely wonderful, and I'm just glad everyone gets along. Katie and Deboranell were wonderful cooks and there was much entertainment with Izzy, Brady and Cy and Kristina's new puppy. Joe, was kind enough to come over and take a photo of our handsome crew. Unbeknown st to half the people in this photo, most of them were standing in dog poo.

Our Christmas was finally technically over (Brady and I had one more casual stop on Monday night). We survived our first Christmas with a baby. Although we were very tired and our pants felt a little tighter, we loved every minute with every person. Just maybe perhaps, we will host more Christmases at our house especially since Santa will come to see Brady next year. Until then we will rest and prepare ourselves for it...I have a feeling Christmas for us, will not be getting any easier. Happy New Year everyone!