Eloise at Christmastime

Eloise's first Christmas was fantastic. I was worried about the tree, but my aunt came to the rescue and mailed us a whole box full of baby safe ornaments (this is the same aunt who made Eloise her pretty red and white sweater, which I am happy to report still fits this winter!) Back when I was a baby, she made my mom a whole batch of cloth candy canes, so that I could pull them off the tree and chew on them, and she still had a whole stash, which she gave to us. Eloise discovered them while we decorated the tree, and she decided that they were quite tasty. Every night when I pick up the toys, I find several soggy candy canes strewn about the room.



On Christmas Eve we had dinner, tracked Santa online for a bit, and then I took a picture of the girls in front of the tree in their new holiday pjs. Notice that there are no ornaments on the lower third of the tree. We covered that part of the tree with the soft ornaments (mostly the candy canes plus a few other baby safe things) and Eloise promptly pulled them all off.



We were up pretty early on Christmas, since Michaela was too excited to sleep. See that sunlight coming in? That was basically the sunrise. You can see the bottom of the tree is decorated once again. Santa fixed it up for us while he was here.







Michaela had to go to her mom's house in the afternoon, and it was just the three of us for the rest of the day. Eloise stayed in her pjs all day. She got a new wagon with a handle for her to push it around, and she used it to get right up to the tree...



...snag a candy cane...



...and continue on her merry way.



Later, Eloise went for a few wagon rides.



She tried out her clickety clackety penguin thing.



And she tasted some of her other toys.



On the 26th, my friend Angelique came over. She is currently living in Korea, and she hasn't been home since Eloise was born.



On Saturday the 27th, we had a big party here at our house with all of my family and most of Rod's family. There were about 30 people here, and it was a lot of fun.



Michaela was very excited about her gifts.



Eloise is lucky enough to have some older cousins (my first cousins, which makes them her first cousins once removed), and Laura, who is 15, spent a lot of time playing with her. She even asked if she could keep Eloise, but changed her mind after I told her Eloise still wakes up during the night!



My niece Kaylie wouldn't smile for the camera, so someone smiled for her.



Eloise was content to hang out with Pop Pop (my dad) when she started to get overwhelmed.



There were lots of people who wanted to squeeze Eloise, like Aunt Krisi and Angelique.



Michaela got a piggy back ride from my cousin Colleen.



My brother and sister were both here, and it was the first time the three of us had been together since the summer.



There was lots of crazy Wii action going on most of the night.



By the end of the night, Eloise had faded. She was so good considering she was basically passed from person to person for the whole day. When everyone finally left, she had a little meltdown, and by the next day, we could see why. She had a fever of 103.4, and so we had a very lazy day after the party - lots of Tylenol, naps, and snuggles. She was clearly all partied out.