A Festivus For the Restivus

Oh, it's a jolly holiday with you, Selma! Selma makes your 'eart so light!


Christmas this year was an especially fun one with a new little baby in our midst. Even though she's obviously too new to care or even know what's going on, we still went shopping a little bit and got her a couple of things. Her great-grandparents, my mom's dad and step-mom, got "her" a Pack & Play by sending us out a gift card for her, which will be very helpful when we go out to Florida to visit them in March, yay! I say "her" because buying her presents feels like we're buying ourselves presents rather than her as we're the ones who are actually using the hair bows, clothes, etc. so it's kind of a funny experience this holiday.


We started out Christmas Eve with some pie-making and last minute shopping in the morning. I was in charge of making pies for the family party so I made homemade squash pie from Sky's mom's delicious recipe and my mom's apple pie, nothing beats pie in my book :) I didn't take pictures of all the baking festivities but my mom and I feel like we've been in the kitchen for the past week straight, my mom mostly, she's the best cook! She taught me the art of candy making this year and we dipped all sorts of truffles, pretzels, caramels, etc. Guess the baby weight won't be coming off with those around.


This was the first dress I bought Selma when we found out we were having a girl. I knew we'd be having her a little before Christmas and saw this dress at Pottery Barn Kids online and just had to have it for her Christmas dress. I was about to order it when I found it at Downeast for $15, score! I was sad that I didn't get really any good pictures of her in it or of her with us. In this picture Sky was about to change her out of the dress because she ended up peeing on it and we had to change her outfit. I guess I'm a mean mom making her stay in it for a second so I could grab a picture.

After the baking we headed up to the Mertlich family Christmas party, had a fantastic dinner and partied it up! Sky, Selma and I then drove out to Sky's parents and had another spectacular feast and did their tradition of listening to The Polar Express on cassette tape and reading the book. I can't wait til Selma's a little older so we can start our own fun traditions (made a little more possible with our own copy of The Polar Express book and CD read by Liam Neeson, thanks to Sky's parents!)

We spent the night at my parent's house after that and my brothers and I stayed up late playing Heroes III (my favorite computer game) and Tetris Party on the Wii, good times. Other good times include waking up several times last night to take care of sweet Selma :)

Just wanted to give a shout out to my little bro, Jake, and give him a big thanks for letting us all sleep in til 8 this morning compared to 5 and 6 in years past, thanks Jake!!

The Christmas morning chaos

This is Sky's "I really like this" face. What it's not saying is "I can't believe my wife bought me two of the same shirt, what a ding-dong." (Whoops)

Between all of the aunts and uncles, Selma doesn't get much time to herself when she's not at home, let's hope she doesn't get too spoiled :)

Selma excited to open the present she's "holding"

Aunt Rachey opened one of Selma's presents for her since after several tries she wasn't able to do it herself, maybe next year eh?

We had an excellent Christmas this year spending time with family and reflecting on the real meaning of Christmas. I think this year was one of the first years that everytime I looked at the word Christmas I would see Christ first. I hope that Sky and I can make all of our next holidays even more meaningful and remember what we're truly celebrating, what a special time. Merry Christmas to you all, we love you and are so grateful for your friendships!!