It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Post date: Dec 27, 2011 3:31:24 PM

This Christmas was certainly a very special one with Ryan. We made so many wonderful memories with family and friends for Ryan's first Christmas. Ryan did not understand the gifts under the tree but he was definitely intrigued by them. Any chance he got, he would crawl straight to the gifts and try to open them so it was a challenge keeping them wrapped until Christmas morning. Ryan also enjoyed the Christmas lights everywhere. He would stop and stare at the Christmas tree and house lights, just like his mommy!

Jamie wanted to start a Christmas tradition with Ryan so he decided to make chocolate covered pretzels. Ryan helped put the chocolate into the pot to melt. Ryan's favorite part of this new tradition was eating the pretzels! :-) It's exciting having a family of three at Christmas and beginning new traditions. There are so many more to come!

Another cool activity Ryan did this Christmas was make ornaments for his grandparents. We used finger-paint and had him put his hand-print on a piece of wood. Then we decorated the ornament with his name and other cute things. Ryan wasn't sure what to think of the finger-paint but the project turned out great!

Ryan has started doing two new fun things these past few weeks, standing and clapping. Clapping is my new favorite thing. He is absolutely precious when he starts clapping and says "Yay!". He loves the reaction he gets when he does this because everyone starts clapping along which really gets Ryan excited. I love, love, love it!! The standing, however, is a little nerve-racking. He crawls to anything he thinks he can stand on and immediately pulls himself up. I get scared that he's going to fall and get hurt or that he's going to pull up on something that won't hold him up. I know at some point he's bound to get hurt, because kids specialize in that department, but it's still such a scary thing!

I hate to see this time of year come and go so fast but it leaves me anticipating so many more wonderful holidays and memories. We just want to thank everyone for making this such a memorable first Christmas for Ryan. We are definitely blessed to have such special family and friends in our lives to share these treasured times with.

Here are some pictures of family sharing Ryan's first Christmas: