Lillian's First Christmas

We celebrated Lillian's first Christmas this year. Because of her vulnerable immune system, we couldn't go spend the holiday with our extended family, like we usually do. But even by ourselves at home we had a pretty good time. We have been truly blessed by the Lord this year.[1]

We put our little Christmas tree where Leann could turn on the lights when she's up in the morning feeding Lilli. However, the presents wouldn't fit under it there, so we put them under Leann's asparagus fern (Asparagus setaceus).

Lilli had trouble waiting. She thought all the presents were for her. (She's not sitting up by herself; if you look closely you can see Leann's hand under her right arm.)

Leann's family didn't do Christmas stockings—they decorated plates and left them out for Santa to cover with goodies. I grew up with a stocking (right). We haven't discussed, yet, whether Lilli will get a plate or a stocking.

Leann and Lillian made sugar cookies for Santa. (They had it on good authority that Santa would like some.)

Lillian jumped right into Christmas tradition by waking up at 3:30 and then again at 6:30. We finally got up with her at 8:00 am to see what Santa brought us. Santa had to search far and wide for dairy-free treats for Leann, since Lillian has a dairy allergy. He also knew me pretty well—he brought me, among other things, a water buffalo cheese [2], a wild boar salami [3], and some crackers.

For breakfast we had holes in one [4] and grapefruit. After breakfast we watched videos about the birth and early life of Jesus Christ here. Then we got on webcam with my family so they could watch us (especially Lillian) open our presents from them.

At first Lilli thought the presents were just for eating.

But with a little help from her Daddy she figured out how to tear them open.

Lilli got some bibs, pajamas, outfits, a shape sorter, a teddy bear [5], a soft ball, a teething ring, a plush inchworm, some stacking rings, some books, and a Pack 'n Play.

Leann got a kitchen rug, an oven mitt, dish towels, hot pads, some new outfits, new bedside lamps, a few movies, Big Hunks, Chic-O-Sticks, a casserole dish, a microwave food cover, a strawberry stemmer, a pie plate, some canisters, a lemon zester, and a wall ornament of the state of Texas made out of Texas license plates.[6]

I got a tool box, some books, some movies (including a box set of all eight Harry Potter movies), a blacksmith puzzle, a board game called Name 5, and an expansion pack for the card game Munchkin.

We also received a few Christmas cards from friends and family.

Leann made a special Christmas dinner of ham, garlicky mashed potatoes, potato rolls, cranberry Jell-O, and a spinach salad.[7] For dessert we had a lemon meringue pie.

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Notes:

[1] We recommend that as part of your Christmas celebrations, you read Luke 2 (here) and Matthew 2 (here), which recount the birth of the Savior and the visit of the Wise Men, respectively. We also invite you to watch the Christmas Devotional which was given by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (here).

[2] Gran Bu di Bufala. Read my review here.

[3] Read my review here.

[4] My family calls these birds in a nest, but I deferred to the cook on this one.

[5] If it were purple I think it would look almost exactly like Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear on Toy Story 3 (read my review here).

[6] Leann's particularly pleased with this because one of the plates is from her birth year and is also a CONSERVATION plate. You can see more examples at her brother David's blog, Texas By Torch.

[7] Several of the ingredients were kindly provided by a Secret Santa as the Twelve Days of Christmas.