End of the Year Update

It seems that life has settled down just enough for me to gather my thoughts. Elle, Lee and I are all lounging in bed and I am catching up on blog reading. Lee calls blogs a real life soap opera but he loves to hear what is going on in all our friends lives. Christmas this year was a whirlwind adventure. We started off the festivities with Christmas Eve celebrations at Lee's aunts house with his dad's side of the family. This was our first time to take Elle out to a family function so needless to say - we were both a little scared. But as soon as we got to the party, our nerves started to relax. The sight of Elle with her namesake (Lee's grandmother, Eleanor) made my night. Grandmother Eleanor doesn't remember things too well but the sight of Elle instantly turned her into a different person. She was holding Elle in her lap and kissing her fat little hands. It was such a special moment for me to watch the transformation in Eleanor as she met Elle for the first time.

I don't think I ever stopped believing in Santa Claus so I was awake at 5:30am on Christmas morning - excited to see what Santa brought! I let Elle and Lee sleep until around 6am and then woke them up too. I think the phrase "I'm too excited to sleep" pretty much sums up Christmas morning for me! We had our wonderful first Christmas as a little family. Elle wasn't too sure what to think about wrapping paper. She really just wanted to eat it. I got her a few little things but Lee wins best daddy of a daughter award for buying her the sweetest bracelet with her birthstone. It fits her chunky little wrists just perfectly! The rest of our day was filled with Christmas morning at my parents and Christmas lunch at Lee's parents and then Lee and I headed up to the hospital to spend the evening with Mel, Austan, and Witt. I couldn't think of a better way to end the evening - getting to love on that precious little guy!

Elle in her new giraffe jacket

All the festivities went by way too quickly. I'm still in disbelief that Christmas and now New Years are behind us. The week between Christmas and New Years was a blur and this past weekend we celebrated not only the beginning of a new year, but we also rang in the festivities with my cousin getting married. The rehearsal dinner was on New Years Eve and the wedding was on the 2nd. Lee and I weren't planning on taking Elle to the reception but so many people asked about her at the wedding that we went and picked her up from Lee's moms house and took her to the reception. She was just amazed at all the people. At first I was nervous for her to be around so many people but she did so good and everyone at the wedding has been praying for our little lady for the past 9 months so they were all excited to get to meet Elle for the first time. All the excitement wore the little princess out because she sure did sleep until 10am this morning.

Elle with Uncle Benny and Aunt Paula at the wedding

I've been thinking a lot about my New Year's resolutions. I really liked how Kelly on Kelly's Korner broke her goals for the year down. Hopefully I will get all our Christmas stuff put up today and I will be able to sit down later and actually write down all my goals for 2010!