Katie's First Christmas

There were many firsts that happened this past weekend in Katie's little life. Of course she celebrated her first Christmas which to her really only meant some great new toys, some wonderful paper to play with, and the chance to eat a little more sugar than normal for one meal. To mommy it meant the chance to take a lot of pictures so that I can remember this holiday for many years. Luckily, Katie made that easy this year by also getting her first fever. She woke up crying on Friday morning with hot, rosy cheeks. I could tell just by holding her she had a fever but of course I had to know how high it was. 99 degrees is what the thermometer said and then my friend told me to add a degree so my poor baby had a 100 degree fever. Now, if this had happened 6 months ago I might have panicked a little, but instead I stayed very calm, gave her some wonderful baby drugs (aka Tylenol), and called Jeff. I think as the months have gone on I have become a lot of more confident in my mommy abilities which is good since I only have about 6 more months before I will have a newborn again. Anyways, the Tylenol worked wonders and within an hour or so she was playing and a little more like her usual self. She has been fighting a cold for about a week and a half now and for some reason the fever came along on Friday. Poor baby just wasn't herself and we knew that because she actually let Jeff and I cuddle with her which NEVER happens. I am happy to report that yesterday morning she woke up fever free so that was a relief.

So, now back to Christmas. Thursday night we each opened a present, including Katie. She really didn't get the idea of opening packages but she did like to play with the ribbons.

Then we celebrated actual Christmas on Saturday because Jeff worked on Friday. He got home at 1:00 though so it was almost like he had a three day weekend which was nice. We had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast and grandma and grandpa joined us.

Monkey bread and fruit with honey lime dip was the menu for the morning.

After breakfast we opened packaged and Katie loved all of the new toys she got.

Jeff got some great new barbecue gadgets which he is excited to try out. Here he is opening his new wireless thermometer I got him. I love it when you succeed at getting just the right gift for someone you love. :)


That evening we had a delicious prime rib dinner, pineapple dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and a cranberry spinach salad. Needless to say we were all stuffed! It was a wonderful day and that night Katie made it even better by taking her first real steps! Yes, Katie is walking. She walked from the couch to me and it was so exciting. I get teary eyed just thinking about it because my baby girl is growing up. For some reason out of all the milestones that she has accomplished this past year, this one seemed to hit me the hardest. I think it's because when babies start walking they don't need mommy and daddy as much and they really are becoming more independent. That's exciting but also makes this mommy kind of sad....good thing I get to do it all over again in a few months.

So, that was the Garner Christmas. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their loved ones!