Finley's First Christmas

We tell Finley how lucky she is all the time. Generally, it's in context of, "you're lucky you're cute or we'd sell you to the gypsies," or "you're lucky your parents love you enough to overlook your appalling sleep habits." Sometimes we even announce to her that she has "won the parental lottery," by way of making ourselves feel less like totally inept new parents.

But this Christmas, Seth pointed out, she was really, truly lucky. She got to spend the holiday with all four of her grandparents at the same time- something neither of us had ever gotten to do, and definitely an anomaly for an Army brat. It was really special.

Finley actually got a whole week of Christmas, having traveled to the mountains to hang out with baby-whispering Grandma Jayne, while Dad and Grandpa Tony bear hunted and Mom went back to work. From the looks of things, she had an excellent time:

I arrived on Christmas Eve, beyond grateful to have been able to go back to work without having to worry about Finley (and to get time to clean the house and grab a few extra hours of sleep, to boot!) We all had a wonderful, relaxing few days sleeping in and admiring the view and the unseasonably warm weather. Finley, of course, basked in the glow of being surrounded by this many adoring fans.

The best part was my parents' arrival (after a day of hiking, of course) up the steep and windy road in their tiny hybrid, for Christmas dinner. We all sat by a roaring fire, hung out, and pored over pictures from Missy, Sara, and Ben of their Christmases. We're used to not spending Christmas all together, but missed them madly just the same. Especially since kids make Christmas so much more special, and our nieces and nephew are priceless.

Finley, unlike her cousins, slept through the unwrapping of presents entirely:

but we have high hopes for the baby bjorn bouncer she discovered the next day. And she loves all of her books. We maintain that kids can never have too many!

No bears were (unfortunately) harmed in the making of this holiday, but Christmas champagne and Mom's cinnamon rolls made everyone feel better.

I'm back to the grind now, but Finley gets another couple days with her grandparents and Seth's still on winter break. Not quite ready to let Christmas go, I refuse to take down our tree (citing a trumped-up fascination with the lights by a marginally interested Finley.) We also took her to see the lights at the LDS Temple, one of my favorite annual traditions.

There are too many terrific family photos to narrow them down much, so my two favorites are candidates for photo of the week (I think it's hilarious that Finley looks ready to scream in the otherwise-sweet one of Mom and I). The rest are here.