When Out in the Cradle There Arose Such a Clatter, I Sprang From My Bed to See What Was the Matter

With a three-week-old in the house, Christmas '09 happened through a haze of chronic sleep deprivation. Hazel is a joy and a blessing, but she is a terrible nighttime sleeper, even by newborn standards. The adrenaline of the birth now wearing off, we were hitting the wall.

So we skipped several of our Christmas traditions this year--notably we didn't do a tree or any Christmas decorations or baking etc. At times leading up to Christmas I felt a few pangs of regret, but by the time the holiday actually rolled around, I knew I was lucky to just still be standing and we were right to not take on too many extra projects.

We did still enjoy some of our holiday traditions, however, including getting together with family. For Christmas Eve we were invited over to Drew and Tricia's. They moved into a new home with Tricia's mom this past summer, and with a fire going in the fireplace and Christmas cookies and all their decorations and some cranberry wine, there was plenty of Christmas cheer to go around:

Hazel got to meet her aunts and uncles and cousins for the first time. Uncle Drew is checking out her tiny fingers:

Dinner was delicious beef Stroganoff. I took this picture from across the room because of course Hazel started crying to be fed about the same time dinner was being served. Cora had the same uncanny ability as an infant to know when I should be sitting down to eat:
A photo courtesy of my dad--I didn't have one that showed Cora's little Christmas Eve outfit very well:
Cora gets introduced to the cello by cousin Ashley:




On Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents. I unfortunately don't have any pictures of Christmas morning because I had forgotten my camera at Drew and Tricia's the night before. Cora did help tear the paper off of her packages, with much guidance and instruction, and was excited to see each of her gifts. After a couple weeks of being warned away from the pile of gifts we would be giving, I think she was surprised to see a pile of gifts she could actually touch--she kept insisting they were all "Uncle Drew's," but we told her that, no, they were hers and she could open them. She also, in typical toddler fashion, wanted to get absorbed in playing with each one, instead of moving on to opening the next one.

We had our now-traditional breakfast of eggnog French toast and cranberry-apple compote. I love it because both are prepared the night before, and just popped in the oven or on the stove top in the morning.

We eventually got ourselves together and headed off to my mom and dad's to meet up with the rest of the family for the afternoon/evening.

Here we are at the gift-opening portion of the evening. Cora's angelic halo was slipping out of place a bit by this point, and here she has torn some paper off Aunt Sarah's gift.

Cora got plenty of great gifts of her own, as did we all. I'm amazed and impressed that despite getting gifts from so many different relatives even in different states, neither girl got any duplicates or near-duplicates.

Is Cora giving a friendly hug here, or a bossy nudge? Frankly, it could be either. She loves Logan and she also loves "directing" everyone right now. Cora loves her grandpa. This is one of my favorites:Grandma and Hazel:Cora loves waving good-bye at the front window. She does it at our house, too. If I remember right, no one was even leaving at this point, everyone was just loading their presents into the trunks of their cars to make more room in the living room:


All in all it was a lovely Christmas--what I remember of it--and we were blessed to be able to spend it safe and well with loved ones who are safe and well.