New Year's Eve

We had a low-key New Year's, but it was Kinley's first, so I have to document it.  My mom and Bob came back with us after our family Christmas celebration, to spend a few days.  John had to work earlier in the day, and my mom and I ran a few errands.  It was rainy and chilly, so we knew we would be tucked inside for the evening.  Todd came over and we all had fajitas for dinner.  Then Todd and John worked on putting together Kinley's Christmas gift from Gramps and Gran.  The rain let up for a little while and there were plenty of neighbors out doing fireworks.  We went out and watched for a little bit.  I thought the loud noise might bother Kinley, but she didn't seem affected at all.

Back during the summer, a member of my mom and Bob's church made this outfit and tutu for Kinley.  Even though it's a 3-6 month onesie, it has been too big on her until now.  We decided she should dress up to celebrate her first New Year's Eve!  It's a really cute outfit, but there's not a lot of places she could wear it.

Kinley stayed up pretty late, but not all the way until midnight.  We put her down, but stayed up watching the countdown.  We toasted with champagne at midnight and then Todd headed home.  It wasn't a big party, but it was a nice time with family, and that's what we love!

Christmas in La Vernia

This year, we had to do our Christmas with my family a little after the fact.  We have known that as families continue to grow, it would get harder for us to get together on Christmas.  This year, it worked out for everyone to get together the weekend after Christmas.  I'm thankful that we were all able to get together, even if it was a little later.  Todd, Kinley and I headed out to La Vernia on the 26th.  I'm glad we got to spend several days out there with my mom.  She sure misses Kinley during these long spurts of not seeing her!  John and Kassie came out on Friday afternoon.  Katie and Brent had gotten a new game for Christmas, and we had lots of fun learning and playing that.  My family LOVES games, so it is very rare for us to not play games when we all get together.  This one is called Perpetual Commotion, and it was fun.

Saturday the 29th was our official "Christmas."  Andrew came out and Cory, Rachel and Emily came out for the day.  We had turkey and dressing and all the goodies that go with that.  Then, we opened gifts.  Of course the little girls were the center of attention.  It really seems like yesterday when we were celebrating Christmas last year, and imagining what it would be like with a baby this year.  It was fun.  Kinley got lots of fun things.

After we opened gifts and cleaned up all that mess, we just spent the rest of the day watching football, playing games and playing with new things.  It was a lot of fun.  I love my family, and I'm glad we have such good times together!

Gran gave Kinley a candy cane!

Kinley with her stocking

Opening her first gift

A new book - I love her little hands in this picture

Another new book

Kinley and Uncle Cory

Riding Emily's new horse named Scarlet

Christmas Day

Kinley's first Christmas!  I can hardly believe it!!  It has happened so fast.  I figured we would have fun with her, since she's not so young anymore, but I also knew she wouldn't understand the gift thing, and would probably have more fun with the paper and boxes.  We woke up before Kinley did and went in to get her.  She was sleeping peacefully.

We gave Kinley her morning bottle and then went downstairs to see what Santa brought.  We helped her open her gifts.  She pretty much picked everything up and put it right in her mouth.  She got some clothes and a couple of toys.  One toy is a walker type toy that she can push and walk behind.  We thought it might be good for her in the coming months.  She also got some cute headbands and a hat from her new babysitter, which I thought was very sweet since she has only gone there for a week.

After Kinley opened all her gifts, we got started on breakfast.  We made bacon, eggs and pancakes.  Kinley got to have her very first pancake, which she loved!

Just before we finished cooking, the power went out.  There was some crazy wind blowing outside.  We knew a cold front was supposed to be blowing through.  There wasn't any rain yet, but lots of wind.  Apparently it was bad, because power was out all over the city. 

After breakfast, Kinley went down for a nap, and I laid down for a little while, too.  John got ready to go pick up his mom to bring her over.  Kathy called and asked if she could bring her roaster over and plug it in here.  We got our power back pretty quickly, but hers was still out.

After we rested for a little while, we got started on our afternoon meal.  John brought his mom over and Todd came over to join us, too.  We made a small ham, a turkey breast, potatoes, broccoli & rice casserole, corn, rolls and John's mom brought over some stuffing.  I also made a pumpkin pie and fudge.  After we ate, Kinley opened her gifts from Uncle Todd.

After all that, we decided to go up to The Woodlands to see one of my friend's house.  I taught 1st grade with her back when I first started teaching.  We have kept in touch through Facebook.  She and her husband have a huge light display at their house that is synchronized to music.  They kept posting about it on Facebook, so I thought it would be fun to go check out.  It had gotten quite cold throughout the day, but I stood outside in the crazy wind talking to her for a little while.

Todd left to go home from her house and John dropped us off, then took his mom back home.  It was weird to not see most of my family for Christmas, but we had a great day anyway.  We are going out to La Vernia for the weekend to have Christmas out there.