Sophia's First Christmas!

How quickly the holidays come and go and this year was no different.  Hard to believe how fast this past month flew by but it has been nonstop fun and such a joy to see Sophia's reactions to all the holiday traditions and festivities we've been dragging her to.

First tradition - Sophia's first trip to see Santa.  It was so much fun we had to do it twice at two different malls ;)  We first took her to see the Santa at Cumberland Mall in Smyrna.  She did so well and just stared at Santa and even gave us a little smile.  It went way better than I had anticipated.

SANTA #2

But Trey and I thought the Santa at Lenox looked a little better and maybe we'd want to have the same santa to compare for future years so we went there the next day.  That line was a quite a bit longer and while daddy waited in line we went to Macys to do some Christmas shopping.  But after an hour and a half Sophia was not the happy baby we arrived with and she had a bored tired look on her face for those.  We did get some sweet shots of her staring at Santa again, playing with his beard and buttons on his vest.  It was so cute and overall I'd say her Santa visit for her first year was a huge success!!

Next up this month was Sophia's 9 month photo shoot at JCPenney.  My cousin Sabine is a photographer there and she's been dying to take some pictures of Sophia so we finally gave it a whirl.  She got some really cute pictures in the 10 minute window we had.  Apparently that's all you get if you go to take pictures around Christmas because they're so busy but it was long enough.  We didn't have her in her Christmas outfit but because some of the accessories Sabine used were Christmasy we had my brother Ryan photoshop the colors on Sophia's outfit to match Christmas colors.  I love the one with her in the Christmas bucket and we'll have to do another shoot again one day.

This past week has been jammed packed with visits from family on both sides and Sophia has loved all the attention and fun with all of her cousins, grandparents and great grandparents.  My brother David flew in the Thursday before Christmas and we had so much fun hanging out with Asli, Alex and Jon all over Atlanta.  We were sad Kevin, Garrett, Lisa and Jon couldn't join in the fun because Jon had the flu all week :(  and we certainly missed Ryan and Meghan in New York but we enjoyed all the quality time.

On Friday night after work we all met up at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to see their Christmas Light Display.  It was really beautiful and amazing to see how many lights they put up and there was such a fun vibe going on there inside the park.  They had drink stands all over with beverages for adults and kiddos and plenty of Christmas music and cheer to go around.  We will definitely have to make that a family tradition because the kids loved it!

Christmas Eve we all went the children's mass at 4 oclock then had dinner at our house followed by several rowdy but hysterical rounds of catch phrase and a game of white elephant.  Everyone was having a blast.

Then came Christmas morning.  I know Sophia won't remember a single thing about the day but we had fun seeing her giggle with delight at opening the gifts... or should I say pulling out and ruffling the tissue paper.  She got her own anywhere chair, a stuffed little monkey, some books, new giraffe lovies and her very own remote control.

We enjoyed the lazy day where we didn't have to rush anywhere and that night we headed back to my parent's house for the Magid Christmas.  Everyone wanted a hand on Sophia and she loved playing with her cousins and receiving all the love from her family.   It was a great Christmas and so much fun with our little baby!

The day after Christmas we headed up to Wilmington to see Mimi and Dadaw.  These past few days we've had a lot of fun visiting with all the family and Sophia's had so much fun playing with Handley, Harper and Hudson.  She's been holding her own with the big kids and her big LOUD voice.  Don't know where she's gotten this screaming phase from but she certainly has some pipes on her and she lets us all know she's there and wants something.

Loving her Uncle Cameron and her new ride!

The kids were all so sweet with Sophia all weekend long

Friday night we all headed to Aunt Erin and Uncle John's house for the annual Musser Christmas and it was more fun and food with the family.  Everyone was eating Sophia up and I don't think she minded the attention - par for the course.

The next day we kept a low key hanging around the house while some of the group went to Memaw's house to pick out some furniture and we all went to visit her at the nursing home.  I know she loved seeing all her great-grandchildren.  

We're heading home today and it's always sad to see the Christmas season end but it's been a great one for Sophia's First and now we're just a few months away from her 1st Birthday!  Gosh, how time flies!  But - always something to look forward to! :)