Baby's First Christmas

(Happy Day tbd as with Halloween and Thanksgiving).  

This year's decor was much the same as last year, just some slightly different configurations.

The stockings were new, (beautiful in their simplicity I thought, from Serena and Lily), and the brass initials to go with them (from West Elm).

This gorgeous pink poinsettia came from the grocery. It seems like somehow they manage to keep them interesting year after year with a new color or type of variegation or the like. 

A friend got this outfit for Ida when she was born and I must say, it made her the perfect elf to her Daddy's Santa when it came time to unwrap presents. She managed to maintain this poker face the entire time we were opening our gifts, so not really sure what she made of her first Christmas morning. Other than I believe she was trying to figure out a way to get those ruffles into her mouth, her first choice as to what to do with just about everything these days.  

Her loot included the two little stuffies to either side of her noggin which one of Santa's elves finished making for her late on Christmas Eve out of a couple of her outgrown onesies that were just too cute to give up. 

After baby was in bed Mommy and Daddy sat down to a lovely Christmas dinner of prime rib, oyster dressing, mashed potatoes and roasted veggies washed down with a Washington cab.

And for dessert a Bûche de Noël from Bakery Nouveau, here in West Seattle. Decadent to the max.  

Farm Fresh

 We managed an outing to a Christmas tree farm to cut our own tree this year.

To Carnation Tree Farm to be exact, about 45 minutes west of Seattle. The farm is on the National Register and includes this lovely old Victorian as well as a beautiful barn, that I didn't get a great shot of but is there off in the distance below. It now houses the gift shop. 

Family portrait with our selection there behind us.

It's been quite a few years since I've been to a farm to get a tree. For some reason I was remembering the cutting process as far more labor intensive than it really is. Turns out it took all of about a minute and a half.

And off we went. And it managed to stay tied down the whole way home despite our being novices at securing a tree to our roof. A successful adventure indeed.

Three Down, One to Go

fall/winter holidays that is. (I'll figure out what number happy days they were later.) Only two represented here. Christmas will get its own post. 

It was really important to me to make the Peanut a costume for her first Halloween. I finally decided to go as classic as it gets and whip up a bed sheet ghost using one of her crib sheets that didn't fit the mattress very well. It was a no-sew affair, I just used iron-on transfer paper for the eyes and mouth and did  a sort-of drawstring neck so that it would fit over her noggin but still stay on. She wasn't too sure about the whole thing, as is obvious above. I couldn't manage to get one shot where you can actually see the costume and where she is not flailing and wailing. Honestly, I love that picture that picture though. I think it captures the gap between real life and staged for social media-perfect nicely.

Then there was Thanksgiving. We decided not to fly with baby quite this early on, so instead of being back in Illinois for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we celebrated at home as a family of three. 

We managed to make a proper Thanksgiving dinner, though between talking to family on the phone/video chat and keeping up with required baby maintenance, we ate about three hours later than planned. Delayed dinner time aside, for a first attempt at cooking a turkey, it came out quite well, as did all the sides. And baby slept while we ate, so we actually got to enjoy the meal. As Greg's t-shirt indicates, it was not a formal affair, still it felt good to mark the "firsts" this season, even if doing so in this particular instance only directly benefited Mommy and Daddy. :)

In the Nick of Time

First holiday season in the new house. (Alright, we're not actually there for Christmas, back in Illinois with family and friends. But we'll be back for New Years.) Used some we already had and got a few new decorations to suit the new surroundings.  

Happy with the how it all turned out, thinking we'll be sticking with this scheme in the years to come.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!!!

One Warm Winter Night...

A week ago yesterday was our neighborhood's annual luminary lighting. Though it didn't feel much like the holidays as it was somewhere around 50 degrees out.

We took a little walk around and enjoyed the candlelight and the modern equivalents.

We had both going inside as well.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas or your holiday of choice this season!

O, Cwistmas Twee

As for the title, I am watching The Princess Bride as I type, so really, what choice did I have? We got a nice little twee three weeks ago (nearly) already (!) from the local lot, stuck it on a bucket so that we could see it from the sofa, used burlap for a skirt, transferred lights that were strung up around our screened porch...

tinsel or bead garland? Greg fought for the beads and won...

+ some ribbon...

+ some more ribbon + vintage baubles I found at a thrift store last year.

and then this came in the mail last weekend, a pre-x-mas gift from some great friends, a Cwistmas pickle, the finishing touch!