My first Christmas!

This is going to be a long blog post, with lots of pictures, because apparently this Christmas thing is a big deal. Although we have been celebrating by going to parties and concerts, and visiting with Santa for several weeks now, the big celebration part started last night and continued this morning. Here's the story, with pictures so you can see how fun it all was!

Last night was called Christmas Eve. We went to church for a special service. During the service, Aunt Kati sang a song called "O Holy Night" with her friends Lou and Marcy. Now I know why she has been singing it to me multiple times every day...practice!

After the song, there was a kids play about the story of Christmas. I was in the play!

Mommy said I was the "second best baby Jesus ever." The only better one was...well, Jesus.

When church was finished, I got to see Santa again!

Mommy took a turn sitting on Santa's lap, too.

Then, we got family pictures taken by the Christmas tree.

Then we went home and Daddy opened the "first gift of Christmas". This is a "tradition" which means it's something we'll do again next year. Aunt Kati says it's to remind us what Christmas is really about.

(It's a music box and it plays Silent Night, in case you were wondering...)

Then, we each got to open one present. Here I am, opening mine (with some help).

My present was a cute, soft moose. I loved him so much, and had so much fun with him, that he is worthy of his own separate blog post. So watch for that in a few days...

After everybody else opened one present, it was finally time for bed. I was tired! While I was sleeping, Santa Claus visited our house and brought a whole bunch more presents!

On to Christmas Day...

First, we had to open the last box in our "advent puzzle". We have been opening a box every day for the whole month of December. There have been mini chocolate bars (Mommy loves those), scripture verses (telling the story of Christmas, from the book of Luke), and small figurines of people for the nativity scene.

The baby Jesus figurine was in the last box...

...so we put him in...

...and then the nativity was all finished!

Then, we opened our stockings. Mine had peach yogurt drops in it. They are delicious!

Then Mommy handed out the presents to everyone. She does this every year, and she is called "Elf Jocelyn" while she is doing that. Here I am with my big pile of presents!

(It was time for me to eat, so that's why I'm wearing one of my "Baby's First Christmas" bibs).

Then, everyone took turns opening their presents and saying thank you to each other for them. (And THANK YOU to all of you who sent us presents but weren't here to hear us tell you that on Christmas morning!) We also said thank you to Santa for the ones he brought us, of course. Aunt Kati helped me open my presents. I got lots of great toys. Some of my favorites were the maracas, phone, music table, frog for bath toys (and bath toys to go in it), magic Mozart music cube, music ball, dump truck spoon and fork, toy organizer, Baby Einstein books (and other books), Green Bay packers PJs and cup, soft blocks with cars, socks, shoes...okay, I admit it - I like everything I got!