Christmas in Pictures!

Baby Brooke has officially survived her very first Christmas (and so have Mommy and Daddy - thank the LORD!)

Since I've probably been deemed the worst blogger ever having not blogged in 2 weeks (!!!), I won't try to recount all of the details of the half-dozen Christmas parties that Brooke attended this year - I'll just take you through the best parts through a few of our new favorite pictures!

It all started with 5 whole days with my sister and her family! Since my sister is probably my most favorite person in the entire world, the greatest gift of the season was being able to spend this time with them! Meg, Jason and Joshua came the Friday before Christmas and stayed through Christmas Eve - I might as well have moved myself and Brooke into my Mom's for the week! We spent all 5 days together - playing with the kids and just enjoying our time being together for Christmas! Growing up a Richard meant that Christmas was the best time of the year to be with family...and that's exactly what we did!

All of the above pictures were taken throughout the 5 days at my Mom's spent with my sister and her family!

Of course, Brooke was 'decked out' in all of her Christmas outfits! I honestly had an outfit from Saturday through Christmas Day! She's so much fun to dress...either that, or I'm a little obsessed!

I loved being able to spend so much time with Joshua! He was just awesome and so excited about Santa Claus coming to his house and leaving '2 teddy bears' just for him! I loved seeing his excitement and talking to him about all of the wonderful things that were about to happen on Christmas day!

Christmas Eve went by so quickly that I hardly remember how everything went!

We started the day at my parent's house...

Then to Pap and Freda's with the Richard clan...

Then to Belletown with the Wray clan...

Then to Burnham with the Hertzler clan...

Then home...whew! Brooke was still wide awake at midnight! Not good... She must have been waiting up to see if this Santa character was really going to show!

Time with Gram and Pap Wray...

Brooke's first visit with Santa...

A NAKED Brooke with Uncle Scub and Daddy... (It was warm at Gram and Pap Wray's!)

My Mom and Dad's amazing Christmas Tree...

On Christmas morning, Zig and I woke up slowly, enjoying every second of our baby girl's first Christmas! We had breakfast and spent the rest of the morning putting together the exer-saucer that Nana and Pap got for us! She loves it and spends more and more time in it each day!

The end result - and our most favorite gift - the toy box, hand-made by Pappy Fred and my Dad...the perfect addition to Brooke's nursery! It's filled with toys from all of our family and loved ones that showered Brooke with gifts this Christmas! We appreciate you all so very much and feel so blessed to have you in our lives! Thank you for loving us and for loving Brooke :)

Hope you enjoyed reliving Christmas through some pictures!

As life slowly gets back to normal, I already have dozens of new pictures to post! My apologies for the huge delay between Christmas and now... This 'Mommy' job is hard work - and allows for very little free time!

More soon...I promise!