Christmas summary in pictures

We took so many pictures of the holiday weekend!  I decided to make one long post with a summary of pictures rather than a billion posts with each individual event.  I know I'm behind with this, but I wanted to post our Christmas pictures anyway.  Better late than never, right?

Momma and Calla

Calla and I enjoy our quiet times together in the middle of the night when she's wide awake and everyone else is sleeping.  She's so special and wonderful and I'm so thankful to have her in my life.  I can't believe she's already 9 weeks old.  

Tummy time with Zander

I put Calla on the ground for tummy time for the first time yesterday.  Of course, as soon as Zander saw it, he had to be right next to her.  That's how he is, afraid he'll miss something.  Of course, I was a nervous wreck the whole time he was laying next to her and rolling around.  He's not exactly the most conscience of his surroundings, he is only 19 months old.  Zander did really well though, he just laid next to her and gibber gabbered with her.  

She loves him so much.  Calla wasn't a big fan of laying on her stomach, but once I flipped her over, she was perfectly content to sit and stare at Zander.  I know it's going to be hard with them so close in age, but I'm glad they have each other.

Putting up the tree

I like the have the tree up immediately after Thanksgiving, but because we didn't have our household goods until later, decorating had to wait until we were unpacked.  I love having the tree up, even though it's huge (I forget every year how big it is) and takes awhile to get put together, it makes everything so much more cheerful.  

We had to buy new ball ornaments this year, none survived the trip from Korea.  All our special holiday ornaments made it though.  We buy a new ornament for every year and one for every special occasion.  Matt and I have one from our first Christmas we were married, a "Parent's to Be" ornament from my pregnancy with Gabe, and an "Our first house" ornament from when we bought our house in Fayetteville, NC.  All the kids have a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament.  A few Star Wars ornaments, including an M&M clone trooper and Yoda's head, have been collected and I had an ornament with Matt's picture from his '06-'07 deployment made.  

The boys love the tree.  Zander wanted to help so much, but made me so nervous because he had no regard for the fragility of them.  While I'm not usually a fan of homemade ornaments, I kept them around so he would have something he could "help" with.  

Zander and Gabe love laying under the tree and looking up at the lights.

This year's addition is a Starbucks holiday mug ornament.  Every year, I see them and want one but put it off and then usually miss out because they run out of stock so early.  As soon as I saw it, I grabbed it this time.

Calla loves the tree.  The lights amaze and entertain her.

Gabe's (and Zander's) Christmas photo shoot

When Gabe got home, it was time for his photo shoot.  Needless to say, he was not too happy about it.  While he enjoyed getting dressed up, he was really mad about having the lights tangling him up.  Our plan was to have it look like Zander had tied him up, but it didn't really turn out that way.  Once Zander saw the lights, he had to be a part of the picture too.  Regardless of what the original idea was, the boys had lots of fun pushing each other around and playing with the lights.  I apologize for the awkward lighting again, but by this time the sun had set and I wanted to hurry up and get the photos taken for Christmas cards.  I love the realness of these pictures and how their true nature was captured.

Zander's Christmas photo shoot

After Calla was done and down for a nap, it was Zander's turn.  He was excited at first, loved playing with the lights, but got quickly bored.  It was much easier to test the lighting and settings with Calla, because all I had to do was set her down and click away.  Zander was not too keen on sitting still long enough for me to test things out.  That's why some pictures are lighter or darker or have warmer hues to them.  As the sun was setting, I lost my natural lighting and had to rely on my overhead ceiling lights.  Also, I decided to leave them uneditted.  I like how they turned out regardless if they're overly professional or not.  I hope you enjoy these, outtakes and all.