Our Very Merry Christmas

 Our Christmas kicked off on Saturday (Christmas Eve) with the Philpot family party.  To get Madison into the Christmas spirit before we hit the road for Huntsville(about an hour and a half from home), we let her play with some electricity shielded by tiny glass bulbs.  Which she repeatedly tried to put in her mouth.  But we got a really cute picture out of it, so I guess that risk paid off.

 Once everyone arrived at the party, we rounded up all the cousins for a group picture in front of the tree.  That's when we found out that we had produced a little coven of Cullens.  If you don't get the reference, please don't ask.  I would be really embarrassed for you to find out how much I know about Twilight.  Oops.

 By the time Patrick figured out how to turn off the flash, the smiles had gone from adorably sweet to "fine-here are my teeth."  Hopefully one of the other paparazzi my sister-in-laws snagged a better picture.

 We all had a great time at the party.  The only problem we had was that it was SOOO  loud (four older cousins, a dog, and a bunch of adults who were really excited to see each other again) that Madison's naps just didn't happen.   Still, she was a trooper and pulled through the event with a pretty good attitude. 

The next morning (also known as Madison's first Christmas), Patrick and I got up early to finish wrapping gifts.  Madison opened her gifts before we headed off for church. Like any other six month old, she was a lot more impressed with the package than the contents.

 The same, however, was not true at Nana's house a few hours later.  Her big gift from Nana was a walk along/ride on dinosaur, and that seems to be her favorite gift so far.  That kind of surprised me, because she's not able to actually walk behind it yet; she can stand up and hold it, but only if we hold the dinosaur still.  Taking steps is still quite a ways off for her.  Since she gets tired so quickly standing behind it, we have it set to the ride-on setting, and she loves to sit and hit the buttons/stare at Bella.

It was definitely a long weekend, but I think she enjoyed her first Christmas.  And Pat and I, well, we'll recover eventually.  : )

I hope you had a great Christmas, and that you have a happy new year!

-Kelli