First Christmas

Eliot's first Christmas was very fun. Well, the Christmas season was fun, and our trip to Tucson was very fun. Christmas day itself was a bit anti-climactic, but we'll figure it out next year. This year, Eliot of course did not notice or care that Dec. 25 was Christmas day. But since Brady and I have decided that we will spend Christmas in Tucson for roughly 10-12 days each year, we realized when Christmas day arrived and there was no one around his parents' Christmas tree ready to open gifts, and indeed all the gifts were supposed to be saved until the next day when ALL the family came over... that we had to figure something out for future years if we wanted Eliot to have a Christmas morning in Tucson. I think this is a struggle many new parents face who live far away from family: They want to see family at Christmas, but they also want to do Christmas at their own house, their own way. We want to do Christmas at Brady's parents house, but we still want Christmas day to be special for Eliot. Brady's brother and sister do Christmas morning at their own houses with their own kids (1-2 hours away from Brady's parents' house) and then come over to their parents house for an all-family event the Saturday after Christmas day. Christmas morning, the gifts are from Santa. On the all-family Saturday Christmas, the gifts are from grandma and grandpa. So, if Eliot is the only kid at grandma and grandpa's house on Christmas morning, and all the gifts under the tree are from grandma and grandpa... where's Santa? Brady and I had wanted to avoid lugging gifts down to Tucson during our Christmas travels, gifts that we would just be lugging back home afterwards, but it looks like that might be what we have to do. I think we have decided to give him a few small gifts from Santa on Christmas morning, to be opened with grandma and grandpa, and then do a Christmas breakfast of crepes, and then go for a hike, just Brady, Eliot and I, and give him one more small gift while on the hike. The hiking gift will be something nature related. Now we have to be diligent about implementing our new plans next year. It's sometimes hard to do when you're staying in someone else's house, even when they are as sweet and hospitable as Jeff (grandpa) and Ann (grandma).

In any case, the all-family Saturday Christmas was a lot of fun. The all-family event, in recent years since there are now five grandchildren, is an orgy of unwrapping, with all the kids peeling away paper all at once, because if we did it one at a time, we'd be there all night (Grandma loves buying toys). Eliot wore his very cute Christmas-y velvet overalls (which I had to take off him after taking pictures because the room got to be about 73 degrees and everyone was sweating, including Eliot; velvet in Tucson doesn't work very well). Eliot's favorite gift was the wooden bowl and spoon, which grandma had intended to be something he would actually eat from (and he does), but turned into something he loves even more to play with. He loves to hold the spoon for awhile and crawl around with it in his hand, and when he has the bowl to, he puts the spoon in the bowl and stirs. Aww. Maybe he'll be a chef?

There are lots more pictures on our flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradyandnatalie