1st Christmas Chronicles

First Christmas Club Members - Miles & Corey

Performing his first Christmas program with Grandpa Nickolay.

Miles as a Salvation Army bell ringer.

A snowy scene on Christmas Eve from the window.

Happy family! (What's on daddy's head?)

Proud grandparents with the First Christmas Club Members.

The goofy version of a nice Nickolay Christmas Eve photo. I love you self-timer!

Celebrating Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Gray in Arizona.

Thanks for the presents Aunt Denise and Cousin Sarah!

"I have wavy hair like you Aunt Denise."

Christmas Eve

This Christmas will go down in history not only as Miles' first Christmas but also as the year of the great Christmas blizzard of 2009. I know weathermen and neighbors will be talking about this year's Christmas blizzard for years to come and when they do I'll think fondly of celebrating this year with Miles.

We spent Christmas Eve with my immediate family and celebrated as we do every year with appetizers, a home brew sampling, a stocking exchange and a gift opening marathon. This year there was lots of baby cuddling too. Miles was a little tired by the evening but still enjoyed tearing through the paper on his presents. I think that crinkling the tissue paper in the packages was one of the highlights of his holiday. He also (after two weeks of daily rehearsals) performed a Salvation Army bell ringer performance with his Grandpa Nickolay. I can only imagine what next year's Christmas program with Miles, Corey and Grandpa Nickolay will be!

Christmas Day

The morning started with breakfast at my parents' house and then we all went to Christmas mass. As our family grows we can almost fill a pew at St. Hubert Church. We then braved the sloshy roads and blizzard conditions to drive to my Aunt Nancy's house to spend Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We enjoyed a delicious ham and turkey dinner with all of the fixings and lots of Christmas cookies. Our family always plays a rousing game of Bunko and again this year I scored very low points (not good in this game). In just a couple of years Miles will be joining us and rolling the dice.

December 26

Miles took his first plane ride on US Airways to visit his Gray Grandparents in Arizona. He was a model baby on a packed flight to Phoenix. I was a little nervous but he didn't fuss and slept much of the ride. Flying with Miles was the easy part - lugging 3 suitcases, the carseat, a backpack, purse and diaper bag through the airport was comical.

December 27

Today Miles celebrated Christmas with his Gray Grandparents and has enjoyed lots of cuddling with Grandma Gray and playing under the Christmas tree. He also met his Aunt Denise and Cousin Sarah for the first time. There is more fun to come this week as Miles continues his vacation adventures in Arizona.