A Holiday Post

I thought I was doing pretty good at keeping up with blog posts with my monthly Stella updates plus a couple others here and there.  Then I had a few minutes the other day to actually sit down and check up on other people's blogs.  Turns out I'm a little subpar on my blogging.  I saw everyone else's Christmas posts and realized I hadn't done one.  I saw everyone else's New Year's posts and realized I hadn't done one.  I saw all the fun things everyone has been doing for the holidays and realized that, not only did I not post anything, but we just really didn't do anything.  Indeed, it was a pretty low key holiday season for us.  Stella isn't old enough to understand anything of what was going on and not even really aware enough to be kept interested by festive lights and decorations.  And, she won't remember even a second of this holiday season.  So, it seemed a little pointless to bundle her up and head out on fun holiday adventures when we didn't even want to do it ourselves.  (And when I say ourselves, I really mean me.  Perhaps Mr. Frisby wanted to go out and do fun, festive things for the holiday season, but he was too busy with bishopric duties, so he was never available.  So, that pretty much just left me and I was more interested in relaxing this year.  Judge me if you want, but I thoroughly enjoyed a low-stress holiday season).

That said, this Christmas season was immensely more enjoyable with Stella around.  Funny, since she didn't have a clue what was going on, but it was still much more fun.  Even if she won't remember her first Christmas, I will, so although we didn't go out on fun holiday adventures, I thoroughly enjoyed shopping for her and making her as festive as I could.  So, without further ado, here is how The Frisbys celebrated this holiday season.

It started the day after Thanksgiving when we headed up to the Santa Cruz mountains to cut down our Christmas Tree.  We didn't take many photos because Mr. Frisby had his hands full with a saw and a Christmas Tree and I had my hands full with a baby and a dog.  But we snapped a couple photos and had a good time.

I think my sister may have taken a photo with all of us in it.  Maybe I'll get that from her someday.  But, for now, this is what I got.  Cutting down our Christmas Tree is a tradition that I've grown up with and it's really fun to be able to continue doing it with Stella.  And, just like last year, Scout was in dog heaven running around the tree farm.

Next was our ward Christmas party at which Stella got to meet Santa.

She charmed everyone at the party with her cute reindeer socks, rock star hair and pleasant, happy demeanor.

On Christmas Eve, Stella played Baby Jesus in the Nativity.  Aside from spitting up in the middle of the performance, I think she did pretty well.  No crying and she even tamed down her hair so it wasn't sticking up in the back.  I didn't get any pictures since I was playing Mary myself, but I think maybe someone in my family did, so we'll at least have some photo documentation.

Christmas morning was pretty exciting.  Mr. Frisby had no church meetings, so we got to sleep in until Stella woke up.  Then it was time to see what Santa brought.

Maybe she remembered a little from last year, but Scout caught on very quickly to what was happening.  But, like a good dog, she didn't touch any of her presents until we told her it was okay.

We helped Stella open all her presents, then we opened ours, and then it was off to church where everyone oohed and aahed over her general adorableness.

After church, we attempted a little photo shoot with the timer on our camera before we changed out of our church clothes.  Stella was hungry, so it didn't go well.

After that, it was off to my parents' house where we opened more presents and enjoyed a delectable Christmas dinner.

It was a lovely Christmas.  Stella loved all of her Christmas presents.  Here she is with one of her (and our) favorites:

And after Christmas, my sister and her husband came to town so we had lots more fun with them, though no photo documentation of any of it.

Okay, on to New Year's.  We enjoyed a small New Year's Eve celebration with family and some family friends.  We ate, we played games, we counted down to midnight, and we drank Martinelli's.  Well, Stella didn't.  This is how she rang in the new year:

And, admittedly, that's how I wanted to ring in the new year.  As a true mother, I thought about the planned festivities for Saturday night and I thought, "do I really have to stay up until midnight?"  But we had a good time.  And, on New Year's Day, we went to church where Stella again charmed the masses.  I must say she is adorable.

And that is how we Frisbys celebrated the holiday season.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!