It's beginning to look a lot like baby's first Christmas!

After a busy month back at work (more on the working mom transition in another post!), I was glad to pack up the car and start our journey to Victoria.  When life is busy (and boy is it busy now!), the holidays can sneak up on you.  I was a little amazed at how quickly Christmas got here!

This being Finley's first Christmas, we wanted it to be special.  Of course, he won't be able to remember the holiday per se, but we will always remember it as his first.  Even though he won't specifically remember it, we wanted to start the Christmas traditions that we hope will always be special to Finley and to us as family.

Giving: 
We are so lucky to be able to provide our family with luxuries such as toys and a delicious Christmas dinner feast.  We want Finley to appreciate what we have, and remember that not all families can afford such luxuries. Like most communities, we have a annual toy & food drive in our community to help provide a better Christmas for families in need.  Finley and I went to the toy store together to choose a toy to donate to the toy drive.  I was hoping he would lead me toward a toy, but he was totally spaced out, entranced by row upon row of toys… so I chose the Fisher Price phone, a favourite toy of my childhood.  Next year, and every year after he will get to chose a toy to donate.

So many toys to chose from!

A classic - the Fisher Price phone.
Never  mind that most kids probably do not recognize that this is what a phone used to look like!

I'll have a green Christmas:
We've had a living Christmas tree for the past 6 years.  I decided to get a living tree originally to help reduce our holiday carbon footprint, but I found I also got attached to our tree!  Our first living tree served us well for 4 Christmases, but then it became pot-bound and so sad looking that it made Charlie Brown's tree look full and robust.  Our new tree is a happier tree that lives on the front porch for the rest of the year.  Before he gets pot-bound, we will release him back into the forest with his family!

Gift count: Meg & Derek 2, Finley 8

Bringing some Christmas cheer into our home:

I love decorating the tree! We have a great collection of ornaments which we bought on our travels or which were gifted to us.  I am usually the lone decorator though, and I hope this will change when Finley is old enough to help me.  This year he observed from the comfort of his jolly jumper.

Spending time with family:
Our little family is in Squamish, but we have family in Victoria, Alberta, Manitoba & Ontario.  This year we travelled to Victoria to my parents' house.  My grandparents, Jeremy, Bronwyn and Mikey were also there.  Briana & Ted could not make it this year, but we had a Christmas day FaceTime - thank goodness for technology!  We also had a great FaceTime with everyone else out East: Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Sharon, Aunty Erica, Aunty Kari & Uncle Ron.  It's so great that we are able to connect with people so easily - it really makes it feel like you are spending some of the holidays together with family and friends who are far away. 

On the ferry, having a nap-on-the-go.. kind of!

Almost at Yoyo & Grandpa's house!  Finley's starting to get excited!

Santa photos:

I was determined to get a photo with Santa.  It was such a saga, I need a separate post to really do it justice.  For now, let's just enjoy the end result of my trials and tribulations:

Space-boy meets Santa.

The Christmas Eve Box:
For Christmas eve we wanted to start a tradition for Finley where he gets to open his Christmas Eve Box.  It will have a new pair of PJs for the night and a book, movie or board game that we can enjoy together before bed.   Every year I want to get greener for Christmas and use reusable bags… but I thought part of Finley's fun (or probably most of it) would be in ripping open the presents he got.  Here he is diving into his Christmas Eve box.  As you might expect, he enjoyed the wrapping more that the gift!  But he was pretty cozy when we put him to bed in his new fleecy pyjamas! 

Eating good food: 

What else did we do?  Well, what do you normally do at the holidays: eat & drink!  We ate, visited, ate, did some walks, ate, opened some gifts, ate, ate and ate. My mom's cooking is SO YUMMY!!!  Finley got a special treat for Christmas breakfast: we added blueberries to his normal rice cereal a la vegetable.  It wasn't quite the pancakes, frittata & sausage that we enjoyed, but I think he liked it!

A seasonally coloured Christmas breakfast for Finley!

Taking ALOT of pictures:

Mr Baby gets a stocking this year!  All stockings courtesy of Yoyo (aka Grandma Janet)

Somebody had too many candy canes

Throckmorton dons his holiday garb & chats with a  new friend 

The whole street is lit up & our house is no exception

Enjoying a new book from Aunty Bronwyn

No more photos, please!