Laila's First Christmas

This Christmas was our most special ever because we got to spend it with our precious baby girl! We spent the holidays with Collin's family who made the trek from snowy Massachusetts out here to sunny rainy California.

Christmas Eve was spent having lunch at The Rusty Pelican, Christmas Eve service at Mariners Church, visiting Collin's Grandma Bonnie and then hanging out at our place with the family.

We then celebrated Laila's first Christmas morning by both going in her room to get her out of bed and then showing her her first Christmas stocking! She had no idea what was going on, but we enjoyed it none-the-less :) Collin and I opened presents from each other (which included a new super zoom papparazzi-esque lens for our camera!) and helped Laila open (i.e. eat the ribbon on) her presents.

We then headed over to Collin's parents' condo to celebrate with the family. They have a tradition of reading the birth story at the breakfast table so Laila got to help me with that. We had breakfast (and added mimosas for a new addition to the traditional egg and sausage breakfast casserole), put Laila down for a nap while we opened presents and then got to open gifts for her once she was up. Thank you so much to all of our family who were so generous to our little bug. She got so many books, toys, clothes and even college money! She is a very lucky little girl :)

We love our families so much and are so grateful to be able to spend the holidays together. But most importantly, we are grateful for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and what that means for our eternal future. In future Christmases when Laila is old enough to comprehend, we will be sure that she always knows the real meaning of Christmas and what we really celebrate.

Merry Christmas to all of you and we wish you a blessed 2011!