The Morning After...

Wow...baby's first Christmas has been a whirlwind. We have spent the past two days at our families' houses (I am quite sure its supposed to be family's.....but there were multiple families and multiple houses....so I gave "families' " a shot) and have learned many new things about having a baby. Christmas Eve was the first time we have taken our son out for the day...and had no idea how long it takes to get ready. We were supposed to be at Meme's between 11 and 12, and given that it takes about 10-15 min to get there....I thought we could leave by 11:30 and be in good shape. So around 10 AM we began the process of leaving for the day. By 12:30 we were actually out the door and headed toward my grandmom's. Did you know that you must multiply the normal getting-ready time by 5 the first time you take the baby out? I did not know this. I multiplied by 3 (giving us 1.5 hrs to be ready to leave) and fell way short. Did you know that if you pick out the perfect little Santa outfit for your two-week old boy that he will pee all over himself as soon as he is dressed (even though he just had his diaper changed)? I did not know this either...but it is true.

Well, we spent a few hours with my extended family that afternoon and things went very smoothly....with the small exception of Orantes getting kneed in the head for the first time (I am sure to be just one of hundreds) by one of his cousins. The good news is that he must have a hard head as he didn't even react to it. Just shrugged it off and went about his day. Yeah, baby....I got a tough one. Next, we went to Lilburn Alliance with Erin's family for the candlelight service and everything went very well. O-daddy stayed in the little carrier thing on my chest the entire time and didn't hardly stir at all. Good stuff. Following the service we continued the Christmas Eve tradition of eating at On the Border (very good tradition) and O-daddy was great there too. When dinner was over, we headed back to the Lightfoot house for big Christmas there. Everyone took turns with the boy and we finally crawled back into the car around 12:30 AM. It was only 12 hours away from the house...and everything went as smoothly as one can imagine....and yet I still felt like I had run into a brick wall by 11:15 PM or so. But we got to do it all over again the next day....so it was great.

Christmas day began around 9:30 with getting ready to go to Mom and Dad's for our side's big Christmas thing. We actually left by 11:15 this time as I decided to organize leaving a little differently. Brunch was great and once again we had a great time with all the family...and AJ did great. 3 for 3....we'll call this a success without question. Around 4 we headed up to Blairsville to Dranny's for the last stop. Dranny is Rock's mom and had not even see Little O yet...so this was the big finale....just ripe for disaster....but there was none to be found. Things went as well as you could hope for a perfect 4 for 4 Christmas Eve and Day.

There was, of course, one problem. You see, this was our boy's first Christmas and should certainly be recorded on film (digitally, of course)...but the moron that is the father (although I did remember to bring the camera to each location) forgot to take any pictures at all of the outfits, the families, the events, etc until we got to Dranny's house. Even then, I managed to take all of 6 pictures. That's right....SIX. Are you kidding me? Its our son's first Christmas and we have 6 pictures to remember it by. And by last count....none of them are of him alone. What a moron. I have included one for your enjoyment at the top of the post. Sorry, but its the best I can do. Please forgive me. I hope Erin does as well.