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Christmas In Pictures

Christmas flew by in a bit of a blur for our family... And I really expect no sympathy because Geoff and I have about half as much family in Manitoba as most of you - and therefore about half as many places to go and people to see.

Christmas Eve was a little bit crazy here at our house. Geoff was working a day shift and I was frantically trying to pack, finish some last minute Christmas prep, and clean up the house (I *hate* coming come to a mess, it totally stresses me out the entire time I'm away). Briony and I managed to leave the house exactly on time - a feat I'm still feeling pretty proud of - and picked up Geoff from work before heading over to join the rest of my family at my parents' house.

On our way to my parents' house... Yeah, so Briony's new hat is just a tiny bit big :)


I always feel so Christmassy the moment I step into my parents' living room.


My sister snapped this shot, which was supposed to be candid. Apparently, neither Geoff nor I can resist screwing up a picture (hehe).


I bought this dress for Briony right after we found out we were having a girl... It made my heart so happy to see her wearing it this Christmas.


We stayed overnight at my parents' house, then enjoyed a relaxing day together on Christmas Day. We lounged around, had brunch together, and just generally didn't accomplish very much - other than stopping by to say hi to my dad's family (the official gathering on that side will happen in January).

My daughter is a baby with a thousand goofy expressions. Here's one of them that makes me giggle.


From there, we returned home and exchanged our own gifts. I spent a lot of the evening (and the next morning) running around like a crazy lady trying to do some baby laundry and get things packed and quasi-organized before we left again at lunchtime on Boxing Day. Do not underestimate the effort required to be away with a baby for three days... We managed to be ready to go TEN MINUTES EARLY (even I was surprised) and hit the road for a 3+ hour drive southwest where we spent the entire weekend at Rock Lake with my mom's family.

Briony - and the other two babies - kind of stole the show. Here, Briony is admired by a gaggle of adoring young fans. For my less-than-regular blog readers, my sister Jessica had a baby girl (Chloe) eleven days before my daughter was born in November, and my cousin Sara had a baby girl (Eva Beth) just an hour after Briony was born - same hospital, same doctor.


My sister attempts to steal back some attention for Chloe by dressing her up in a penguin costume. Seriously. They were told that their baby would be early, so they had a Halloween costume all ready to go, but didn't get to use it because Chloe showed up on November 5. So they used it for Christmas instead. Here, my cousin Mady (aka Mady-Cakes, because she's so cute you could eat her) checks out the baby penguin with amusement.


Ever the party animal, Briony managed to sleep through Christmas at my parents' house, Christmas at our house, and - pictured here - Christmas at Rock Lake.


My daughter being attacked by her Uncle Kevin's new Peter Griffin slippers. (Seriously, Kevin... Kick your own baby!)


Yeah, so Briony likes to give me the finger when I'm feeding her. Not Geoff or my mom or anyone else who's fed her. Just me. I'm pretty sure it's an 'eff you, mom' because I'm not breastfeeding her anymore.


Chilling out on her daddy's shoulder.


As if it's not weird/funny enough that we essentially gave birth to twins last month, Sara and I rather inexplicably showed up at breakfast on Sunday morning wearing eerily similar outfits. It pretty much required a picture.


And from there, we went HOME. Briony's still dealing with thrush - her mouth is steadily getting better, but her thrush-related diaper rash is taking a long time to clear up and it makes her uncomfortable. Having a sick baby isn't especially fun. And then Geoff was sick from Friday night until Saturday night, and then again last night. Of course, Briony chose last night to wake up for feedings again after sleeping through the night for two weeks now. And with me still flared up... Yeah. We're fully grounded in reality here. I had more than one moment in the last 24 hours when I wished for a mom who wasn't in the middle of cancer treatment and a mother-in-law who wasn't four provinces away.

But we've been on an upswing since this afternoon - and I even managed to have a nap this evening, and made some plans for the New Years party I'm hosting on Wednesday. Christmas is winding down, but real life is starting up again. And I'm even more excited about that.

We don't seem to be able to snatch a family picture, but this is the closest thing so far... Hope you all enjoyed some great time with family and friends over the holidays.

Labels: Briony, Christmas, Family

posted by Lindsay @ 10:59 PM