The 12 Days of Christmas

Same story as my Christmas day post... this one is being written on 11 July 2013.

This was the first year we celebrated the 12 days of Christmas. I actually didn't even know that the first day of Christmas was on Christmas Day until this year... and I actually didn't learn that until 26 December while we were in the car headed down to Costa Mesa for lunch. So I declared that we should celebrate the 12 days of Christmas this year and that we should start our second day of Christmas celebration with lunch! After clarifying to Levi that I believe anything can be a celebration, he agreed. So that's how our new tradition of celebrating the days of Christmas came to be. I think it's great. There's so much buildup and anticipation leading up to Christmas Day, but then it's just all over! We really like the idea of celebrating Christ's birth for more than one day and turning it into a 12-day "feast." That's how things used to be celebrated. With really really long feasts. So this is how we feasted.

On the second day of Christmas, we had a very late lunch at Pandor while Cecily slept and coffee at Kean with Cecily awake:

^^ our delicious croque madame ^^

We felt like we were on a date since Silly slept the whole time so we decided to take a photo of just the two of us. Except:



Ha! Got it right the next time:

^^ decaf macchiatos and a shared oatmeal raisin cookie ^^

^^ cheers! ^^

And at home, Cecily watched White Christmas with me for the first time. She loved all the singing and dancing. :)




On the third day of Christmas, we went to the wine bar with my mom and Hugh:






^^ nothing like a baby in a wine bar! ^^


On the fourth day of Christmas, our new baby carrier arrived in the mail so we went for a walk:






^^ cecily tried out her piggie hat that her daddy picked out for her while i was pregnant... she hated it until she got outside and realized how cold it was and then promptly fell asleep because her carrier is so comfortable and awesome ^^

On our walk, we passed by Nick's, a new restaurant on 2nd that we hadn't tried yet. We were hungry so we decided to have some dinner! And I got a virgin mojito. Yum.


^^ we sat at the bar, which all the other bar patrons looooved. they kept coming by to peek at silly. ^^

Also, this is how I spent the beginning of the fourth day (after baking cookies and taking care of Cecily while Levi worked). So tired.



After dinner, Cecily got a bath and snuggled with Daddy:



And then Levi and I enjoyed the AMAZING cardamom crescents I baked with some chamomile tea.


^^ they were so good, i promptly baked another batch when this one ran out. ^^


On the fifth day of Christmas, we had sugar cookies and macchiatos at Kean (I was in a very cookie place in my life at this point):




On the sixth day of Christmas, we had our annual Outback Steakhouse family dinner. My dad sends us a gift card to there from Hawaii and some pictures of himself on little stands. We all go out to dinner (my mom, her boyfriend, my brother, sister, s-i-l, us, and the babies) and set up the pictures of him in the middle of the table. He treats us to dinner, and then we call him at the table when we're done eating. :)


On the seventh day of Christmas, we had more sugar cookies at Kean (it's a problem):



And rang in the New Year on the couch with champagne that I said tasted like fish and Levi said tasted like cigarette smoke:






On the eighth day of Christmas... I don't remember, but I did make headbands!




On the ninth day of Christmas, I read Samantha's Surprise to Cecily. She loved it. Because she's my girl and she's awesome like that.




And on the 10th, 11th, and 12th days of Christmas... I just don't remember because I don't have pictures or notes in my calendar! :( But it's safe to guess that we spent all three days at Kean feasting on macchiatos and SusieCakes sugar cookies. ;)


So that was our first go at celebrating the twelve days of Christmas! I'm really excited to create some activities and ways to celebrate Christ as a family as Cecily gets older.