It wasn’t exactly what I had imagined, but Peanut’s first Christmas was pretty perfect.  We had been talking about going to my parents’ home in upstate New York for the holiday, but we decided to wait because there was a flu going around and we wanted Peanut to be a bit bigger and have had more shots before we took her on such a big trip.  It turned out to be the right decision, since several of my family members were sick and while I know they wouldn’t have gone near Peanut while they were under the weather, we still would have worried.  So we stayed home and celebrated a small, quiet Christmas – just the three of us – and it was just right.

On Christmas Eve, hubby and I laid out the presents from Santa while Peanut snoozed in her swing.  (In future years we’ll be a lot more judicious about not doing this in front of her – and we’ll leave cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer – but there was really no need for that this year.  We just wanted to get the job done and get Peanut changed and fed and shuffled off to bed.)  She went down beautifully for me, but I couldn’t sleep all night – not excitement, I don’t think; I just couldn’t get comfortable.  Morning came too quickly.

By daylight, Santa’s stack looked even more insane than when I piled everything up the night before.  I guess he went a little overboard!  Oh, well, is anyone really surprised?  It was bound to happen for Peanut’s first Christmas.  (And probably her second… and third… and what can I say?  Shopping for babies is fun.)  Peanut snoozed while hubby and I caffeinated, and then hubby gave her her 9:00 a.m. bottle and I changed her into her adorable Christmas morning outfit.  And the next thing we knew, it was time for Peanut and hubby to come downstairs while Mommy videotaped the big moment.

Peanut was bemused, but she does love the lights on the Christmas tree.

We set her up on her newborn lounger while she checked out all her festively wrapped gifts.  She was definitely interested.  Or is that look more “horrified” than interested?  Heh.  It’s a good thing I didn’t take her to sit on Santa’s lap this year.  I can only imagine the epic silliness that might have ensued.

Daddy explained Santa to Peanut while Mommy got more tea.  We had a BIG stack to get through.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but opening all those gifts was kind of exhausting.  I can’t wait until Peanut can rip wrapping paper herself.  She got plenty of clothes – since she’s almost grown out of her newborn clothes, I thought I’d let Santa outfit her with a 0-3 month wardrobe – and lots of books, because obviously Santa was going to bring plenty of books to this house.  He always does.

And there were toys, too.  Plenty of toys.  Peanut even liked some of them.  (But she gave this pigeon – who, when you press his tummy, yells LET ME DRIVE THE BUSSSSSSSS! – a pretty dirty look.)  Midway through, I started thinking about making a trip to Target to get a hamper for the family room, to store some of these toys.  Peanut’s pink bins definitely won’t fit it all.

The rest of the day was relaxing.  Daddy played some video games, Mommy had a nice cup of tea and caught up on some Martha Stewart magazines, and we did lots of family snuggling on the couch while watching Downton Abbey (we’re trying to re-watch every episode thus far before series 3 starts airing in January).  And I found the time to roast a chicken (no sense doing a whole turkey for just us) and bake a meyer lemon cake for Christmas dinner.  It may not have been the big, loud family gathering I had in mind when I was pregnant and we were talking about holiday plans. But I had the two most important people in the world right next to me, and the most beautiful gift of all to cuddle with all day.

Merry, indeed.