It's Beginning to Feel alot Like Christmas

I have just come to realize that Christmas is right around the corner. This is a wonderful and exciting thing, except when you have hardly done anything to prepare. Hayden has just a few Christmas gifts, and that's about it...so if you are expecting to get a gift from us this year, hope you don't have your hopes too high. Hehehe...

Anyway, I have just ordered Christmas cards, and they should be here on Friday. Yay! I've never done Christmas cards, so this will be a new adventure for me. I was going to try to get a picture of Chris, Hayden, and I outside at my mom's house, because we only have two pictures of the three of us - one from the hospital and one from the beach trip when Hayden was 5 weeks old. But, it's been too cold to get Hayden outside since I had the idea. So, I created my own "photo studio" at the house this past week, and I took some pictures of Hayden myself. After a little editing with a free program I downloaded to edit out a huge line of drool, I'm really pleased with how the picture I decided on turned out.

Chris and I also purchased a Christmas tree for our house this weekend. We have the Christmas tree I used to help Pap (my grandfather on my mom's side) put up at my grandparent's house, and I'll always keep it since it's so special to me. We'll probably use that tree for all of Hayden's future hand-made ornaments. The tree we bought is a 9 foot pre-lit tree (artificial because of my allergies). One of the things about having a house of my own that I have most looked forward to was having a big tree in the front that you could see from the street. Strange thing to want so much, probably, but it's always been my dream. Well, our tree is right in our front foyer, and it will look even better when I actually buy some ornaments for it. Chris is also going to put some lights outside sometime this week. I'll take some pictures of our Christmas decorations when we get it all done.

We even had a little taste of Christmas this weekend, because we went out to eat with my mom's side of my family at a restaurant called Biaggis. The food was great, and it was great to see everyone. Hayden had never met most of them, so he had lots of fun getting passed around before the food came. Madi, one of my cousin's children, really loved holding Hayden and was even excited about changing his diapers. I would love for her to come live with me if she's that excited about changing his diapers. :o) Anyway, I'm posting some pictures from our get-together. It's so wonderful for me to see a picture of my grandmother with all of those great-grandchildren. Some of the pictures at the end aren't the greatest, so if I get some better ones from Tracie or my mom, I'll add those later.