Christmas

Lilah's first Christmas! I was feeling a little bit anxious about Lilah's first Christmas. I feel like the first EVERYTHING should be amazing and special. I think the more I thought about what traditions I wanted to start with her and what I wanted to do, the more I got a little stressed about making her first Christmas special. 

(Picture after our 1 hour church service. I wish every Sunday was one hour, it was amazing! I didn't have to fight a little girl because she was tired and can't go to sleep in the middle of Sunday school with all the talking,)

I decided to just take things easy and enjoy the Holiday. I didn't stress over making the decorations over the top. I just simply enjoyed watching my little girl 'try' to open her presents and 'try' to not eat too much wrapping paper. 

Before Christmas arrived I told myself that it wasn't about the presents and I didn't want Lilah to be buried in gifts, specially at such a young age.  I decided on one present from mom on Christmas Eve, she would get her Santa present, and then that was it! 

Christmas day feel on a Sunday this year so Mike and I went to church and we had talked about going to Mexico to celebrate with my mom's side of the family. I had been hesitant to go because Lilah had been teething and in a really bad mood the past couple of days. We decided to go anyways and just rent a hotel in El Centro so we could leave the party early and try to beat the crowds crossing the border. 

When we got there, no one had arrived yet so we hung out at my grandma's house. 

My entire family went to mass (which is only about a block away) so we decided to go before it started and watch my aunt and her kids sing songs. As soon as the service started we decided to leave and head back home to eat some posole. (Everyone was kneeling and praying and we were sitting there awkwardly anyways)

While we waiting for everyone to get there, Joel invited us to go eat some tacos. I hadn't had Mexicali tacos in a long time so I didn't turn down the offer. Oh and I should probably say that Lilah had a fever this entire time. I wanted to sit outside since it was a little cooler but since it was Christmas Eve they were closing soon and we had to sit inside. 

She wasn't her smiley self that day. It was so sad to see her not feeling well. 

While we were at my grandma's everyone wanted to hold Lilah. It was hard to not say no but everytime they held her she would start crying. I wanted to take her clothes off because she was feeling so hot but everyone kept telling me it was bad for her health to have her in a shirt , ugh. I was a little frustrated and went into my grandma's room and took her shirt off while she napped. She had gotten Tylenol twice that day already and that darn fever was just not going away. 

My aunt sent my cousin to go buy some numbing cream for her gums to see if that would help. It did a little bit and she seemed happier . Since everyone saw her happy they wanted to hold her again and then she would start crying all over again. 

My family all started getting there and we started playing games. 

Music was playing too and we were snacking away. 

Then my family sang Posada. I thought that was such a great tradition. Half of the family had Mary and Jesus and the other side of the family was on the other side of the door singing that there was no room at the Inn. I loved it! 

Once everyone was done eating, they started opening presents. Each year everyone picks out one name and gets to gift that person. 

Lilah not feeling well as you can see below. 

Since I knew my family usually does this I brought the present we had bought her for Christmas Eve. 

Not amused at all about this unwrapping business. 

Then she saw that she could make noise with the blocks and she was all about it. 

That night, while they were still opening present we left at about 1230 AM. I thought there wouldn't be any line but we still ended up doing 1 hour in line to cross. Thankfully we had our hotel ready for us as soon as we crossed to California. 

The next day we headed over to Marcia's house to celebrate Christmas at her house. 

Beautiful Christmas sunset. 

She made delicous pork chops, yummy potatoes, salad and other delicious goodies. 

The kids were anxious about us opening our presents, so once everyone finished eating we headed over to the Christmas tree. 

Lilah loving on Odin. 

I was so excited to open Marcia's present to Lilah! I knew she would love it. 

She needed a little help unwrapping her gift. 

She also got the best gifts from her aunt Katie. Michael's family also does a gift exchange and she got us this year. She gave Lilah some rattles and noise makers which she LOVES. 

For dessert I had made a trial cake for Lilah's birthday so we had cake and ice cream.  

I loved our simple Christmas with our little girl. I was glad that she was starting to feel a little better. This month has been hard with teething. Lilah is not a very good teether. Hope it's not awful when those molars come out!