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.

Christmas Morning and Christmas Day

Okay... I am writing this on 10 July 2013... :\

This was our first year celebrating the twelve days of Christmas (Christmas day is the first day of Christmas), so I got lost in all the photos and overwhelmed by how I was going to break it up. I've been so worried that I would forget everything, but I have a pretty good memory so let's see what we've got here!

Cecily woke up Christmas morning, and instead of doing our typical cuddle in bed for a bit until Cecily falls back asleep, we all got up to go open the presents underneath our Christmas tree! We didn't do stockings this year because I never ended up finding one special enough for Cecily. I really want her to have the same stocking throughout her childhood so it needs to be REALLY good.

^^ walking out to the tree. smile, silly! ^^

We each only got one present this Christmas. It was really fun helping Cecily unwrap her present!






^^ you got me a box? ^^


^^ what is this thing?? ^^


^^ oh cool. it's a fisher price rainforest activity mat! ^^








^^ i love it! thanks, momma & daddy! ^^

Levi said he felt like such a dad failure because he didn't get batteries for her activity mat. Haha! We got some later in the day and showed Cecily the lights and music. The music and response modes are a little overwhelming to her, but she loves the mellow light on the nature sound setting. I really love the nature sounds too. They're so relaxing and happy!

Then it was our turn for presents! We upgraded our falling-apart iPhones in the beginning of December, but we still wanted to give each other something on Christmas morning so we wrapped the boxes up!







After presents, we ate this really yummy buttermilk cranberry breakfast cake that Levi made. He prepared the batter the night before from scratch, and we had it fresh out of the oven in the morning. So good. I'm pretty sure it's going to have to become a Myers Christmas morning tradition.

Around lunchtime, we made our way over to my brother's house for Christmas lunch! Cecily fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep in her car seat in the house so we enjoyed our lunch in peace. We had the most delicious French dip sandwiches au jus with twice stuffed potatoes. I could eat that meal once a week. The best.



She also stayed asleep while we opened presents around her!








^^ all that snoozing was probably due to the fact that her headband was too tight... just kidding. but it was too tight; it was my first. i've learned a lot since then. ^^

Cecily got a beautiful dress, a cool ball rattle thingie, and a Baby Einsteins singing radio type thing from her Boppy Chrystal and Uncle Brov, a stuffed schnauzer we call Uli from her Boppy Ivy, and a great set of Disney princess mini board books from her Gram and Hoo. (I think she received some other gifts too... but I can't remember :\ )

Levi and I got lots of really nice presents too, including some hefty Amazon gift cards! We used them to buy the baby carrier we wanted!


^^ our only family photo from the day, and she's still sleeping!! ^^

Eventually, Silly Snorkels woke up and hung out with us for awhile.








^^ gotta love the beer bottles and victoria's secret bag behind them! ha! ^^


^^ playing with... something? we can't remember what it was!! i'm sure it was some sort of nerf gun/flying/racing type thing. something for the boys. ^^


^^ gram and hoo ^^




^^ gram reading to wolfie and boppy ivy! ^^

My grandma (Silly's great grandma! Woah!) was there too, but she's not a big a fan of having her picture taken. ;)

After all that activity, Cecily decided that she wanted nothing more than some milk and a cuddle.



And, of course, she fell asleep again!

At home that afternoon/evening, we baked some really awful cookies, ate a roast that had been cooking in red wine in the crock pot all day, watched Love Actually, and Silly fell asleep on me again. The best.



A truly wonderful first day of Christmas!