Love, Life, and Coffee: December 2008

As a parent of a kid experiencing her very first EVERYTHING, I can't tell you how excited we are this year. It was Madison's first Easter, her first Halloween, her first Thanksgiving, and now coming up is her first Christmas!! Christmas was always my fave holiday growing up (being a Christmas Eve baby), and I thought Santa and the reindeer and the Christmas songs etc were all just for ME! So I have a special childlike fondness for it all in my heart. When we visited Santa for Madison's First Santa Visit the other day at the mall, I told Santa this and he said: "It IS all just for you.... Santa is just for you." OK, so this could have been construed as creepy from any other old guy with a white beard, but I think he meant it sincerely and he was a good Santa. Madison seemed to like him and just stared and stared with fascination.

So anyway, I can't wait to see what Christmas brings for her. I think she will like it -- maybe not be obsessed with it like I was as a kid :) -- but I can't wait to see what she thinks of the presents and traditions as the years go by.

And speaking of firsts, her First Plane Ride for her First Thanksgiving went fabulously! I was in awe because for some reason we were expecting the worst. We had brought all kinds of supplies and toys to keep her distracted for the long ride, but we maybe pulled like one thing out of the diaper bag. She was perfectly content to just watch people, smile and wave, and ultimately fall asleep on my lap. It was like from a movie. And I even got to *watch* the movie on the way back (!) with a sleeping baby on my chest the whole time. With headphones! Eating a Mounds bar! Bliss!

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving when Madison got to hang with the Kennedy Cousins. I think they hit it off!