baby's first christmas

i can't believe it's here. i remember laying on the couch last year with my big pregnant belly (and probably a giant bowl of chocolate covered cherries), watching polar express, and being so excited about getting watch our sweet baby experience his first christmas in a year.

a year has passed, the craziness of this december is basically over, and tonight i finally got to cuddle up with my snuggly little boy and watch christmas movies with him. i am such a stickler about bedtime and going into the crib awake so he learns to sleep on his own...........but tonight he slept on the couch next to me for a good two hours while the movie was on.

my neighbors, god love 'em, had a kid-friendly christmas party tonight. they have two little ones of their own and if they did mind that my son was all over their house and eating bread off their floor, they didn't say anything. they also had plenty of "holiday cheer" on hand, and since the trip home was mere steps from their house, i was able to partake :)

it is especially hard to be away from family this time of the year, and i can only hope that 2008 will be the year that brings us home to the midwest. i know that right now my parents, sisters, and brothers in law are all together at kristin's house, and we're missing it................and i just have to try really hard not to think about it and remember how blessed we are here in tampa. we have several good friends who have invited us to be a part of their christmas celebrations, and we are so grateful for that. i whine a lot that i am tired of being "all alone" down here, but that is certainly not the case. even if we are here until 2028......we have amazing friends who take good care of us and i think we'll be ok :) if moving closer to our families is the only thing in our lives that just doesn't work out for us, we can certainly count all of our other many, many blessings.

(we are going to indiana on thursday for a week, but still, it's not the same as being there on christmas, you know?)

i am so excited about dressing daniel up for church tomorrow night and helping him unwrap his first gifts on christmas morning :) it just seems like the beginning of a wonderful time in our lives..............