Babies Don't Keep: Christmas and New Year's 2010

Christmas is a marathon for us. Quincy grew up going to both sides of his family on every holiday and he loves that. Add my family and our own family of three to the mix and there are a lot of people to see and things to do.

Our Christmas celebration began on December 23rd when my parents and Grandma Huntington came over for dinner. My Grandma lives in Ohio, so this was the first time she met Clara:

Clara meeting her great grandmother, Marion Clara Geiss Huntington

Clara and my dad

On Christmas Eve we woke up and finished last minute wrapping and preparations. Clara got dressed in her Christmas dress and did some playing:

Janet, Quincy's mother, and Tucker, Quincy's brother, came over to open presents mid-morning

Janet and Clara.

Clara and me in the mayhem.

Then we headed over to Quincy's Aunt Leah's house to celebrate with his mom's side of the family.

Aunt Leah, Clara, and Great Grandma Honey (94 years old).

Juice.

Uncle Bob exploring the spices with Clara.

Clara and Lindsey.

The McCall cousins & their women. Top row: Patrick David, Carter Quincy. Bottom Row: Tucker, Emily, Lindsey, Clara, Allison (Madge), Bradley.

Granny Call was sorely missed. She would have loved to see this picture.

David and Clara.

Joe and Clara.

Quick side note. The whole family calls Allison, Bradley's girlfriend, Madge. It's short for "Imaginary," because he talked about her for so long before introducing everyone to her. At this point I think it's been 3 or 4 years since we all met her, so we're pretty sure she exists, but the name is still firmly with her.

After the McCall celebration we headed to the Bell Service at our church with the Hammonds, Janet and Tucker. We were in a bit of a rush and did not take any pictures. We'll have to do better with that next year! Children come to the Bell Service and, true to it's name, there is a lot of bell ringing. I love the service, but it is a little bit of a mess. Clara was a little angel, she had a bottle and slept through the whole thing.

After church we had dinner with my parents, Grandma and Aunt Betty and opened presents:

Four generations of Huntington women.

I got my dad a fireproof racing suit for him to wear at the track. He was pretty excited about it.

Then home to our house to read The Night Before Christmas and wait for Santa. While visions of sugar plums danced in her head, Santa visited Clara!

Santa!

He mostly brought clothes, since Clara is moving up to 6-9 month size clothing. He also brought her first baby doll and a few other fun toys. He didn't go too crazy since she's not really into Christmas yet and he knew the rest of the family would be excited about buying presents for a little one.

We had cinnamon rolls and fresh orange juice as a family and then packed up to head to Quincy's grandmother's to celebrate with his dad's side:

Clara on the way to Lexington with the baby doll Santa brought.

Four generations of Kings.

Our first Christmas as a family of three. The only family picture we got, but it's a good one!

Uncle Tucker.

Clara with her cousin Darden. Clara adores Darden.

Clara and her cousin Natalie.

Clara and Megan. Megan is expecting Clara's newest cousin in July!

Picture taking and present opening. Notice I had changed Clara into a sleeper. She had reached her limit at that point!

It started to snow at about lunchtime, so we packed up at about 2 and headed back to Raleigh. By the morning there was at least 8 inches on the ground:

The creek by our house.

Uncle Tucker came over and we took some family pictures:

And a few with Clara and Uncle Tucker:

Then Quincy started having a little fun:

Clara is a really good sport and puts up with a lot. We are only now getting her back on track with night time sleep from the holidays, but she did really well otherwise.

New Year's brought Uncle Danny and Aunt Jenny down from Chicago: