Baby's First Big Fat Greek Christmas

Santa and Santa in Training

I have always loved Christmas, but there is just something about "baby's first Christmas" that really added to the excitement this year. We visited Santa and many Christmas events around town. I think Perry and I were definitely more excited about it than Lennon was, partly because he still doesn't understand what is happening but it was good to get practice for next year!

Our Christmas morning started out with just our little family of three waking up in our matching onesies and Skyping with the in laws in England. We had a lot of fun with Lennon's stocking and found the cutest Christmas card for him. We thought it would be appropriate to fill his stocking with breastmilk seeing as he is not eating chocolate yet:

Love the look on Lennon's face here "alright mom, very funny!"

Lennon, Perry and I opened a couple of gifts at home before loading the rest into the passion wagon to bring to my sister's as my family wanted to be a part of his gift opening. We decided we wouldn't get Lennon many presents as he is only 4 months old and does not have a clue as to what is going on (and we have already acquired so many clothes and toys) but somehow there were about a dozen gifts from "Santa" alone for Lennon under the tree on Christmas morning. This didn't include gifts from family and friends. Most of the gifts were practical: teething toys, eating equipment seeing as he will be starting solids soon, books which, in our opinion, a child can never have too many of, and some bath toys. I guess we got carried away with the excitement of this holiday but we know all his gifts will be well used (and many already have been, just one day after Christmas, especially the teething toys...ahem Sophie the giraffe and chewbeads, I'm talking to you)! I must admit I felt extremely guilty for the gift giving this year, more so than in the past. As much as I love giving gifts, I feel like we are already so fortunate and am planning on donating the money we normally spend on Christmas to a charity (or a few) instead next year. 

We had one stop to make before heading to my sister's and that was at the nursing home where my Yiayia lives to pick her up and bring her along. We (well...I) decided it would be fun to dress Perry and Lennon up like Santa to do the pick up. This was a riot, especially when we had to stop and get gas...Not so much fun for Perry BUT the seniors at the nursing home really loved it and Perry was a real trooper for playing along. I secretly think he loves dressing up as Santa as he "forgot" to pack a change of clothes and was stuck wearing the Santa pants all day, along with my amazing ugly Christmas sweater. It was definitely a great outfit! ​

Unsurprisingly, Lennon was spoiled by my family when it came to the gift giving. Again, there were many practical items and books as per our request. They were just as excited for "baby's first Christmas" as we were. 

What I really loved about Lennon's first Christmas is the family time that was had. My parents and my older sister and her family live about 40 minutes away. We don't see each other as often as we would all like due to the distance, busy schedules and me not driving (although Santa also gifted me with two hours worth of driving lessons which means this could all change soon). Even though he doesn't see his cousin Michaella often, Lennon always seems so happy and content when she is present and this is always so fun to watch. His eyes follow her around the room and he smiles non stop. Michaella also loves to spend time with Lennon and was really sad when he couldn't sleep over last night. Lennon also seems to be really fond of people, especially as of late, whether they are familiar or not, and loves when people interact with him. My family will take every opportunity that they have to hold Lennon, play with him and interact and bond with him in whatever way they can (including diaper changes, woohoo). This makes Lennon happy and my family happy (and Perry and I happy, especially when the diaper changes are involved) and yesterday provided a perfect opportunity for everyone to bond. As loud as my big fat Greek family can be and as unrelaxed as our family gatherings sometimes are, spending time with them is important and I hope to do this more often than we do (hello, New Year's Resolutions)!  Seeing the little ones together and the family love that they emit is really heartwarming and definitely brings us closer together. This was definitely a highlight for me.

​Lennon is definitely the best gift we could ever have and this Christmas was definitely a special one with him in our lives. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, hope you had a lovely day anyways!