First Christmas with Liv
I’m pretty sure nothing in the world makes me happier than
A house filled with the people I love so much,
warm food waiting in the kitchen,
(+ egg casserole, ham, tamales, oatmeal, mimosas and the necessary nog)
and moments that are so beautifully imprinted in my mind.
After the Pilot, Liv, MIL and I did stockings and Santa gifts,
(Santa came for the dogs, too!)
the entire family came over for brunch. Mom and nana brought a ton of food, and my contribution to the feast was a fruit plate, cocktails/juice/coffee, the infamous cinnamon rolls and a big pot of cranberry-orange oatmeal.
I was originally going to do oats in our 3 small slow cooker thingamajig, but knew that burnt oats would be in the future. Despite your awesome tips, I was afraid I’d end up doing something to toast them so I stuck with what I knew: regular stovetop oats. I added coconut milk throughout the morning to keep them from drying out, along with cinnamon, a little stevia, orange juice and zest from our orange tree, and dried cranberries.
A dessert plate we took over to our neighbors:
After breakfast (and Liv woke up from the morning nap), we all opened gifts together.
Kyle, especially stoked about his Celtics tickets, and Liv, especially stoked about her new ball pit.
We ate, drank and were merry, watched A Christmas Story and I even took a nap while Liv was sleeping- Merry Christmas indeed.
It felt really good to unplug a little bit this past week and enjoy time with the family. I’m pretty busy, everyday and all day, but they’re all things that I choose and love to do. I feel so lucky to be able to be home with Liv most days, I love being a mom and helping to take care of our house, teaching at work and writing this blog. At the same time, it’s pretty easy to get sucked into technology and while that’s fun too, it can be pretty draining and a distraction from everything else. I kept the computer closed, still snapped a ton of photos (I can’t help it) and took some time to enjoy and be thankful.
This year was an exciting Christmas for us:
Liv gasping as we walked down the stairs,
the way my great grandmother (Liv’s great-great grandmother) giggled to watch Liv feeding herself green beans,
the Pilot making eggnog (and just knowing that he’s here with us, when he’s often deployed over the holidays),
making the ball pit and Rody horse, setting it all out as a team,
seeing the entire family together and feeling elated happy to be here in Tucson with them,
and to have my favorite little gift of all to share it with.
I have a feeling holidays are just going to get better and better which is pretty hard to believe.
Thanks for letting me share my pics with all of ya <3 Hope you’re enjoying the week so far!
See ya later on the family page.
xoxo
Gina
Recipes from this weekend:
–Peppermint bark (this went very quickly.. so good)
–Peanut butter kiss cookies (I used a jar of Justin’s maple almond butter and they came out really well)
–Cinnamon rolls (90-minute recipe)
12 Days of Fitness! It’s day 2: 2 pushups and 1-minute plank. When you complete it, leave a comment and let me know! I’m off to do my pushups and plank before work riiiiight now.
91 Comments
Leave a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
You are so right – each year (and Christmas) will get even better and more and more special!!! Your daughter is so beautiful!!! Looks like y’all had a wonderful family time!
Day 2 of 12 Days of Fitness – complete! (I’m hoping the daily planking will help me in my goal to be able to hold extended plank for 5+ minute!)
Glad you enjoyed your Christmas!! The next 18 Christmases will be filled with lots of giggling, screaming and gasping as L gets older 🙂
The pics are great, Gina – thanks for sharing the joy as usual! 🙂 Happy holidays to you guys! (**I condense it all into “happy holidays” because in the words of Jon Stewart, I could say the whole thing but I’ve got “$h!t to do” 😉
You are absolutely right: the holidays ahead will just keep getting better! Cheers!
Those oats look perfect for the holidays – I’ve never tried that flavor combination in them! So glad you got to spend Christmas with all of your loved ones and the pilot was home. You have a beautiful family!
Aw, looks like a wonderful and delicious holiday. I like the idea of cranberry orange oatmeal on Christmas morning… for us health nuts 😉
Love these pictures! Can’t wait to watch my little ones discover the magic of the holidays (whenever I get around to having some babies haha)! Children really do make the holidays extra special 🙂
I did 30 push ups yesterday and I’m feeling pretty sore! I think I’ll trade in my push ups for some leg work!
What beautiful pics! I’m so happy that Pilot was home for the holidays this year. It must be so special, especially having Liv now! She’s so cute!!!
About to do day 2 at work once again 🙂
Just snuck into the back office at work and did my pushups and plank!
Being a born and raised Boston girl I am so jealous that Kyle got Celtics tickets!!! Did he ever live in Boston? Is that how he became a fan? I know he said on his blog once that he love all Beantown sports teams.
“Shut up Ralphie!” “You’ll shoot your eye out!” Love that movie! Did you know that the weird kid in the store going to see santa wasn’t an actor? He was just some strange kid they found in the store (goggles and all!) and told him to stand in front of them! Poor kid!
hahaha no way!!!
PS i owe ya an email!
he just loves boston! 🙂
What a beautiful Christmas Gina!! Liv is adorable and it looks like you guys had a wonderful time together with plenty of delicious treats and lots of relaxation. Enjoy the rest of the holidays!
Love this post! Looks like a beautiful holiday for your family! 🙂 I’m still giggling at that eggnog/blender photo of the Pilot you posted the other day haha.
it was hilarious- i’ll never forget his first eggnog 😉
What a wonderful Christmas you guys had! Such a special time (living in Tuscon with your family, having your hubby home, having a precious baby to share it all with, Bell and Caroline!). I know you really cherished every moment.
Oh, and the food doesn’t sound too bad either. 😉 I love the cranberry orange oatmeal. I made it as overnight oats a few months ago after I became obsessed with your cranberry orange amazeballs!
I so enjoy your blog and your pics!!!! Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas!!!!
Thanks for sharing those beautiful photos! My favorites are Livi resting on the Pilot’s lap as they look at a book and Livi on her pink toy with the Christmas tree in the background. Very sweet.
Glad you guys had such a nice holiday and love the great sentiment in the post!
And that little pink thingy Liv is riding on – we had a purple one for my daughter! I am spacing out on the name of it but she LOVED riding and bouncing on it!
Just thought of the name: Rody!
Oh the memories of that thing!
Love this! What a fun Christmas morning with the family! So happy you enjoyed it!
So fun! Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas!! Tripp got Mommy a necklace that has his fingerprint on it and its my favorite gift out of every Christmas.
Run, v day booty blast, push-ups and plank – done!
you are a rock star
and i love the sound of that necklace! livi got me one that says “mom” – so beautiful 🙂
xoxo
Mommy gifts are the BEST!
Such a beautiful Christmas Gina, so happy for you! The food looks delicious!
Too cute! I am so, so excited about next Christmas since it’ll be our first Christmas with our little one! =]
awww i’m so excited for you!
Love her little Santa outfit!
Completed day 2! Off to tweet about it!
Awe, that’s awesome. I can’t wait until I can experience that first Christmas with a kiddo one day!
Your Christmas looks so festive and family filled! Hope it was amazing! Just finished day 2 of the challenge.
I can only imagine how much more magical and special Christmas now is with a baby of your own…so glad you took some time away from blogging, etc. to enjoy it!! It feels so good to unplug once in a while.
Maybe your “feeling” about better and better means Liv’s sibling is on the mind?! Just kidding. Beautiful holiday, Merry Christmas!
haha not for a while 😉
I did day one yesterday and day two today. Love this little mini challenge! I’ll have to swap out something else for day 6 as I have no way to do pull ups, but I’m looking forward to the 12 days.
i’ll brainstorm something else for that day!
I love that post! Full of happiness and love! I did the plank and push ups in my morning workout with the TRX, loved it!
yeahhhhh! awesome job 🙂
So beautiful! Christmas is all about family and memories to make!
How exciting to have a little one to be so excited for santa! I can’t wait to experience that again with my little one in my belly!
Glad you had a beautiful christmas Gina! <3
thank you, friend! i have been LOVING your pregnancy posts and am so happy for you, mike and anthony <3
miss you and rub that belly for me! xoxo
Miss you too and thank you so much! <3
2 push-ups and 1 plank done! Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas. The holidays definitely are more magical when you have your little someone to share it with!
whoo hoo!!
and yes, just when i thought i couldn’t love the holidays even more it’s on an entirely different level now.
Did Day 2 of 12 days of Christmas after an hour of shoveling snow — that counts as a workout, right? Merry Christmas to you and your lovely family, Gina!
um YES that counts!
thank you, friend. merry christmas to you too!
looks like you all had a great family holiday and your house sue looks festive!
btw I love your white sweater in the pic of you and Tom, where did you get it?!
thank you! it was in my latest stitchfix box- i’ll look at the brand and update this comment
xoxo
Thanks for sharing your pics with us! Looks like you had a wonderful day! The pic of the pilot and Olivia reading together is precious!
it’s one of my favorites <3
I adore that ball pit for Liv – such a great idea! I’m sure she’ll love that one for a long time.
she’s crazy about it!! so much fun 🙂
I need to try that cinnamon roll recipe. It looks great!
My niece has the same ball pit–we got it for her first birthday! It’s a real winner!!! Lovely photos, and Happy Holidays to your family.
just nocked out the second day of Christmas plank and pushups! Planking for one minute is rough!
it is! i did it with one of my classes today 🙂
Awe, this was SO Sweet! I’m so happy you got to enjoy and celebrate the holidays with your whole family! And that you took a little technology break too:)
I have been away from the blog world for a little while so I’m reading about these 12 days of Fitness for the first time today. I attempted to do the two push ups and hold plank for a minute. I cannot do any real full pushups, but I did what I could on those. The plank was better and more difficult at the same time. I am overweight, so doing the plank is difficult because I am so out of shape and because my wrists are weak. I only lasted about 15 seconds. Maybe the next day I can do a little longer. I suppose something is better than nothing, but I have a goal of holding the minute in a couple weeks. Thanks for the inspiration.
I’m so glad your Christmas was wonderful. Your cranberry orange oatmeal looks so good! Day 2 of 12 days of fitness completed.
What a beautiful post, Gina! Christmas is such a wonderful time, and it’s great to hear that yours was filled with so much love – you seriously gave Liv an amazing first Christmas 😀
Got my day 2 of 12 days of fitness done! Easy and quick.
just finished day 2. loving the 12 days of fitness!! i have been trying to keep up with my fitness routine but i’ve been so bogged down with morning sickness that i have no desire to get off the couch. except that i’m also chasing a two-year-old so i really have no choice but to constantly be on the go. thanks for the encouragement to get up do a little something fitness-focused…even if i do feel like poo.
oh, and that rody horse looks awesome. my son would love it! maybe it would help it burn off some of that crazy energy he always has 🙂
You have such a beautiful family!
Day 2 of the 12 Days of Fitness is complete. 🙂
Did my 12 days as a bonus after I finished the arm dvd I forced myself to do…ouch Not as merry as your family looks, glad you enjoyed your holiday!
Looks and sounds like you had a wonderful Christmas. It truly is magical to get to experience the wonder of Santa through your children’s eyes. You’re right, it only gets better each year!
Love your 2 days of Christmas workouts, awesome! I ran outside for the first time in weeks today wearing my new cold weather running gear I got for Christmas. 4 miles in 12 inches of snow in 21 degrees, it was very invigorating!!
Thanks for sharing your Christmas with us! Every time I read about Olivia it makes me so excited to start a family of my own 🙂 celebrations with your fam looks like so much fun!
What a beautiful Christmas you guys had! It looks like a magical time. I hope you have a great new year too!
What a wonderful time spent with family. I can’t wait to have a child of my own in the coming years to start making similar memories.
I just jumped on for the 12 Days of Fitness, this is just the little push I’ve been needing, a cold + the holidays have really thrown off my consistent workouts. I did my plank and push-ups just now – in my cubicle – in a dress… 🙂
So happy you all had such a great Christmas together!
I went out and bought the goods to make the peppermint bark; any hints or just like recipe?
Never made it; always paid the ridiculous price for it!
Liv’s first official Christmas looks like it was a fabulous one! It’s always nice to take a little break from technology and just enjoy time with loved ones.