Christmas '05

Wow, I really neglected Nicholas's blog over the last couple of weeks, haven't I? I thought I'd provide a bit of a holiday recap. Obviously the holidays were that much more meaningful to us this year, but at the same time, Nicholas, being 5 weeks old and all, couldn't exactly take it all in and provide tons of Christmas morning memories. But those will come, for sure.

Christmas Eve afternoon, we went to Leah's Grandmama's house to do gifts and stuff with that side of the family. That includes Leah's Uncle Walter (aka 'Bubba') as well as her cousin Ashley and husband J. Sadly, the holidays are usually one of the only times she sees Ashley, but I guess that's what holidays are for, huh? A funny anecdote about Leah's Grandmama. In years past, she has "abbreviated" the "Grandmama" on Christmas tags as "Gmama." Well, this year, there's another generation to reference, so to Nicholas, she would be great-grandmama. In keeping with the abbreviation convention, she appropriately followed suit: GGmama. It's kinda stuck, and she likes it (as silly as it sounds). So now, I think she's kinda taking a liking to being referred to as "GGmama."

After leaving there, we went over to Kristi and Joe's, to do gifts and stuff with my dad's side of the family. My step-mom has family down in the Delta area of Mississippi, so they would be leaving Christmas morning to go down there. Once Leah got pregnant, and Kristi was about 16 weeks ahead of her, we've been anticipating this Christmas as being very different but very fun. Again, I'm sure there are lots of memories in store as they get older, but it was fun to have two newbies in the room with "Baby's 1st Christmas" outfits and bibs on. By the way, Steve has some pictures of the event over at his picture page. We got a couple of other pictures of Micah and Nicholas "standing" side by side...hopefully those will come out looking all cute and adorable.

Christmas morning, Leah and I chilled out for awhile and just spent some time together. Actually, it was kinda nice. Then, we went over to her parents' house to the meal and presents with them. That morning, as well as for the last couple of weeks, I found myself really thinking about the Christmases of the future--Santa, shopping for the big, main gift that Nicholas just has to have, and his eyes lighting up when he opens a present and sees that it's something he's been asking for since July. Not that I want him to grow up too fast, but the early stages of parenthood are nothing more than fixing bottles and changing diapers (oh yeah, and trying to remember what 8 hours of sleep feels like). Anyway, we chilled out there for awhile and some of us probably drifted off for a little cat nap. Then it was off to my mom's to eat again and do presents with her and Tony. Normally, we would've been off to my aunt's house (i.e., Mom's sister) to do stuff with my aunt, uncle, Granny, and 3 cousins' families, but we weren't included in their stuff this year. Who knows why. Oh well.

It was late Christmas night that I think the last couple of days began to take its toll on Nicholas. He was very, very fussy and almost unconsolable. He had eaten, he wasn't wet or dirty, and he was very fussy. They tell you that babies can be overstimulated, I think he was there. There haven't been many times that Leah and I have felt helpless, in a sense of "What's wrong with him? What do we do?" but that was certainly the case. Holding him didn't help. Changing positions didn't help. Walking around with him didn't, either. All the stuff that we know he likes, didn't. So eventually, we went home and endured a little more time of him fussing, but eventually, he retired for the night. Good thing Christmas comes around only once a year.

All in all, we had a great holiday. Certainly there are lots of memories rolled up into this one, but almost everybody we spent time with commented that next year will be a lot more exciting for him. Of course, it'll be then that we'll be looking back at this year's pictures and saying stuff like, "It's hard to believe he was ever that small!"