Our First Christmas with the Twins

We celebrated Christmas in Austin the weekend before Christmas with Amy's side of the family. On December 19th, the Baker Christmas Eve, we had our annual Christmas Eve dinner at Pappasitto's and then headed back to the Baker house for desserts and stocking presents. Everyone has their own monogrammed stocking hanging on the mantle...including Caden and Caroline. Our four stockings are the ones on the far right. Oh, and "stocking presents" do not come in these stockings. They come in a very large gift bag.

The next day, we opened all of the presents. Since Amy and I can no longer make it anywhere on time, the niece and nephews were forced to wait for us before they could open gifts. (Actually, Cal opened one the day before after Ella said do him, "Cal, don't you want to go open presents right now!") Our best gift was a Nintendo Wii and a Wii Fit Plus. It has already been played a ton in the last couple weeks.

That night, we went to the Austin Trail of Lights (or whatever the politically correct name Austin is calling it this year). Amy and I had attempted to go earlier in the week but the parking was closed due to rain. We were glad to go check it out for the twins first Christmas. It had been several years since we had seen the trail of lights. At that time, Will was a little baby and Cal was not around yet. The Baker kids loved it. The twins were not impressed. :)

And that was it for the Baker Christmas celebration.

The day before Christmas Eve, we drove up to Dallas to be with my family. Amy and I were worried about the drive with the twins. The farthest we had ever driven with them before was Pappasittos (about 20 minutes away). Thankfully, our kids made the drive to Dallas (and back)without any problems. They slept almost the entire way and never got upset in their car seats. The only time we had to stop was when the baby swing in the back of the car turned on by itself and was making a clicking sound. This happened twice. I'll need to figure out a better way to package it next time. :)

The night we arrived in Dallas, my mom planned a get together with our Thanksgiving family (the Eakers and the Meiers) to show off her new grandkids. (We were unable to make it to Thanksgiving this year because we didn't want to travel with the little ones.) I didn't do a very good job taking pictures that night (or actually, all of Christmas) but here is one of the Eaker girls (they both have different last names now) posing with Caroline. Stephanie (on the left) is expecting a baby boy and is due in a few months.When we arrived in Dallas, the temperature was 70 degrees. By Christmas Eve, the temperature had dropped below freezing and it was snowing. I couldn't believe the twins first Christmas was a white Christmas! It is the only white Christmas in Dallas that I can remember.

The weather prevented us from being able to go to church like we normally do on Christmas Eve. Instead, we stayed at my mom's house, opened presents (yes, we open presents on Christmas Eve...which I think is the correct time to open them), and had our traditional Christmas dinner (ham and turkey from Honey Baked Ham Company, sweet potatoes, corn, sister shubert rolls, etc). It was delicious and I had tons of leftovers to take back to Austin.

Below is a picture of our white Christmas. It does not do it justice. I took this in the early afternoon after much of the snow had already melted. At one time, you couldn't see any leaves on the ground because they were all covered with snow! I bet we had around three inches--a blizzard by Dallas standards.

I had to go outside and take a couple quick pictures with the kids. It was a little too cold for their liking but they put up with it.

On Christmas morning, we had some of my grandma's caramel rolls. As you can see by the picture of my sister, they are delicious and we often fight over who gets them.

After taking a couple pictures in the snow and eating some caramel rolls, we all headed over to my dad's house to celebrate Christmas with him. Thankfully, the roads were not bad by the time we went over there.

At my dad's, we ate another traditional Christmas dinner and opened presents. Amy made one of her awesome apple pies for the occasion. It was a big hit. Thankfully, my sister did let other people have some of the pie.

This trip to Dallas was my sister's first time to see the twins since their birth. She was very excited and loved holding the babies. Angela knows tons of songs to sing to entertain the kids. I might need to get her to teach me some...the only song I know is "Itsy, bitsy, spider." :)

Here are a couple pictures Angela snapped on her iPhone. I'm not sure what face Caroline is making here but I thought it was funny.

Here is one of Caden when my sister whent to get him out of bed in the morning. If you want to see our kids in a great mood, you should play with them in the morning. The twins kept Aunt Angela and grandma entertained for hours in the morning (while mommy and daddy slept late).

A few weeks before Christmas, Grandma bought our kids little Santa hats. They wore them everywhere they went the week or so before Christmas. Here are a couple of pictures of Caroline sporting her festive hat. Amy and I hope to take a few more pictures of the twins wearing their hats and Christmas pajamas before they get retired. Yes, Caroline finds this comfortable. She sleeps peacefully with her head bent in all sorts of weird ways.

Here is a picture I took of us in front the tree we decorated in our front lawn. Okay, the "our lawn" part isn't true. It's actually right next to a post office in Cedar Park. I noticed it one night after mailing some stuff for. You can't really tell in the picture, but the kids were not happy about posing at this moment. They were both ready for their dinner. On the other hand, Amy and I were stuffed. We had just eaten a good meal at BJs.

Well, that's my summary of what we did for our first Christmas with the twins. We can't wait until Christmas comes around again next year. Maybe we'll just leave our decorations up all year round. I know that would make my wife and kids happy. The kids sure love the tree lights.