Celebrating Christmas this year took on a whole new meaning for the Cooks. Christmas for me has always been about celebrating Christ's birth with our loved ones, but with a little one, I must say it was even more special this year! Calleigh is one of God's most precious gifts, so starting new traditions with her that revolve around the TRUE meaning of Christmas was a priority. We of course will indulge in some of the fun commercial aspects of the season, but my promise to her was that all the glitz and glamour of Santa and twinkly lights would never be the focus.
The first tradition we started this year was Calleigh's tree of books. It started on December 1 and ended on December 25. Each night Calleigh got to choose one book to unwrap and read... well, help unwrap and I read it to her :). In the months prior to December, I was very particular in which books I selected. Most of the books tell of Christ's birth and then the others are the traditional children's books. And a lot of the books have activities that we can do as a family after reading the book (baking cookies to take to a shelter, watching a movie, etc.). I will use the same books every year, but they will always be wrapped different. That way there is no set order in which we read them each year. It's my hope that this tradition will help reinforce the true meaning of Christmas as well as instill in her a love of reading! Below is a picture of her tree.
The second tradition we started was her nativity set. It is made by Little People, so it's perfect for growing with her! Her Nana and PopPop bought it for her and she loves playing with it. Of course this year it all went straight to her mouth :) but in years to come it should be something really special for her to set up and play with each year at Christmas!
The third tradition was, of course, meeting Santa. We took Calleigh to Northpark Mall to meet the best Santa in town :) She did great sitting in his lap. Makes me curious to see if she will act the same next year! I'm sure there are plenty of other traditions we will begin as she gets older, but for now I am really happy with the ones we've started!
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| Waiting in line... |
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| Getting closer... |
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| The introduction... |
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| And a smile! |
Calleigh's 4 Christmases:
The weekend of December 21 we celebrated Christmas with Calleigh's Gigi and Great-Memaw. The rest of the family was sick so stayed behind in Beaumont and Houston :(. We sure did miss them! This year we started themed meals just to keep the food interesting... and this year it was Mexican. We had tamales and fajitas to eat, sombreros and fake mustaches to wear, and a pinata and maracas to play with. Look how fun it was!
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| Excited about her Disney Princess car! |
On Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas with Calleigh's Nana, PopPop, Aunty Misty, Ernie, and Andrew, Hannah, and Avereigh. It was so much fun watching Calleigh unwrap presents and play with her cousins!
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| Her first baby doll... she giggles and blows kisses! |
Christmas morning Calleigh woke up bright and early to see what Santa had brought her :) And by the looks of things, she was a pretty good girl this year! It was SO much fun watching her grab for her presents and try to unwrap them. And the looks on her face at some of the gifts was priceless!
Later Christmas day we headed to Calleigh's Great-Mamaw and Great-Papaw's house for more fun. While we were there it started snowing! We bundled Calleigh up and headed outside so she could "play" in the snow on her first WHITE Christmas!
Christmas this year with our little angel was a true blessing. I can't wait to spend many more with her! Below are some other photos taken throughout December. I got a fancy new camera for my birthday back in November so was trying it out every chance I got :)
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