Henry's First Christmas

We are very lucky to have wonderful sets of grandparents in our lives for Henry and many loving aunts, uncles and cousins. But unfortunately these families live 7 hours apart and we live somewhere in between. This means that when the holiday season rolls around when can only spend them with one side of our family. This can be hard, but I actually like it ok. Would it be great to see everyone every year? Yes. But when I hear stories of people running to 3-4 Christmases in 2 days, I cringe. We have the benefit of spending lots of time wherever we go and we really really enjoy that.

We started the holiday season by opening our gifts to each other and Henry's gifts from us at our house on the 21st. We still have a "non-family car" if you will and didn't want to haul anything extra to Cincinnati if we didn't have to. Henry loved opening the gifts and it was a nice little night with the three of us. We took some video but left the camcorder at my parents' house so that'll have to wait. 

Henry and Dad with his new puppy. 

Henry with the gifts we gave him. 

Saturday morning we headed up to Cincinnati. After a nice family dinner we got to see our cousin's new house. On Sunday morning, we were able to catch a quick lunch with my good friend Jenny on the 23^rd. Jenny lives in Chicago and so this was the first time she got to meet Mr. Henry. It’s really fun having all my friends get to meet him.

Jenny and Henry

Next we headed down to Longworth Hall for family pictures. These were our gift to Nick's parents from the kids. We used Mandy Caudill (http://www.mandyleighphotography.com) and had the best time! She was so great and fun. We are a bit of a rowdy group when we all get together and she played right to us! She was great with Henry and I think we got some awesome shots. Here’s a preview on her blog.

Christmas Eve is spent in Dayton with The Eiferts, Nick’s mom’s family. She is one of ten siblings and we have dinner at her parents’ house where she grew up. It can be a little tight now that everyone has kids and there are four grandkids. We fit 45-50 people in a little house with one bedroom, but we have a great time and laugh a lot. Santa even came this year! 

Nick, Henry and I on Christmas Eve night.

Henry with his second cousins Conner and Bryson. Didn't love Santa so much this time. He was a little tired...

Christmas morning we open presents with just the immediate siblings and parents. It was a lot of fun with Henry this year. He had fun opening gifts and subsequently eating the paper. I think next year will be a real treat. He was of course super spoiled and Uncle Mark and Aunt D got him his very own ball pit! He loved it and I’m sure if he could he’d be begging for it to be set up in the house now.

For dinner Nick’s dad’s brother and his family and stepsister and her family come over. It’s calmer then Christmas Eve and more what I’m used to. It’s a lot of fun catching up with everyone. This year we did a White Elephant gift exchange and it was so much fun. Danielle (Nick’s sister) made the gift of the evening when she created the “Meyer Family Calendar.” I haven’t laughed that hard in awhile.

Nick, Henry and I on Christmas Night

We then quickly turned around and headed to St. Louis on the 27^th to spend some time with my family. We were there through the 2^nd and had a great time on New Year’s Eve with some great family friends.