Oh What Fun It Is...!

As I predicted, this Christmas was so wonderful. It's amazing how a baby can make everything so fun and new (and honestly, I don't know what we'd all sit around and talk about if Griffin weren't there to entertain us).

The holiday started with Christmas Eve lunch at my grandmother's house. We ate way too much food and opened gifts.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, and there was a new one up there this year for Griffin! Gingi makes a good stocking and has made many over the years.

A new cell phone from Aunt CC was quite a hit! Griffin is still enjoying it...and our phone bill is through the roof! (I kid, I kid)

We had a little accident, which is why G is bottomless in a lot of these pictures. I wasn't prepared with extras in the diaper bag this time.

This is my favorite family photo from Christmas (maybe because it's one of the very few we took!).

From Gaga's house, the three Herring's left to go to the Christmas Eve service at our church. We listened to great music and were reminded the real meaning of Christmas, which is often lost in the attempt to get everything ready and "perfect" for the big day. When we got home, Chad and I had fun getting things ready for Santa's big arrival the next morning!

Here's Griffin and Dada on Christmas morning! G had his bottle and then was ready to head downstairs to see if Santa brought him any new toys.

It was fun to see Griffin and how he reacted to his toys. We thought he would immediately gravitate to the big, green dinosaur (his "big" gift), but he was more into the dinky little cars. We basically had to "introduce" him to the dinosaur! haha.

I think G and the dino got off to a rough start, but now he LOVES it and is doing a great job walking behind it like a big boy!

Gigi, Charlie, Ramsey and Jenna came over later that morning to see what Santa brought and to exchange gifts between us before the great grandparents, aunt Cindy and Gram and Grandpa came for Christmas brunch. It was a great day with family!

Gram and Grandpa got Griffin a rocking horse!

....and, of course, Griffin enjoyed the bows and such just as much as the presents themselves. Although, he really needs to work on unwrapping his own gifts. My bet is that by next Christmas he'll be tearing into those packages all by himself.

Oh, did I mention that we had a white Christmas?! It was so cool. We actually had a few inches on the ground (nothing stuck on the roads). It was beautiful. Griffin has seen his fair share of snow since he was born, especially considering we live in Georgia.

A few days later we rounded out the Christmas celebration by heading down to Hilton Head to spend a few days with the Herrings! Natalie, Jake and baby Blake were there, and we got to see Grandma and Grandpa Herring and Uncle Tom and Aunt Sherry. Of course, Griffin got more gifts (I think he's already looking forward to next Christmas...he likes all these new toys!).

I love this picture of the cousins. I know these two will get into some real trouble together in a few years!

Nat Nat gave G a fun new activity table. He LOVES it and plays with it every morning!

This was such a special Christmas, spending it as a family of three. We can't wait to start some traditions of our own and make Christmas something that Griffin not only looks forward to each year, but something that he truly understands as a time of celebrating the birth of baby Jesus.

PS - I just have to brag for a minute here. Besides the typical baby blabber of dada and mama, we're convinced that Griffin's first word was JESUS. (no joke!) We've got a little stuffed animal nativity scene that we were playing with in Griffin's room one morning and we were talking about Mary and Joseph and the animals and baby Jesus. More than once, Griffin repeated the word Jesus. Ask Chad if you think I'm lying. Just saying....I knew we had a special boy on our hands.