Baby Grady's First Christmas

Baby Grady had no idea Christmas was coming and the surprise and excitement hit him so hard he pretty much had to sleep it off for the entire day. Just being present was quite a lot to handle on its own, which makes a lot of sense if you know my family. Between the mountain of presents from Granny J and Gumpa and the controlled chaos of a visit from his uncles, aunt, cousins, and their crazy dog, it’s hard to know how Grady had energy left not only for the other mountain of presents from Grandma and Grandpa but also for charming everyone’s pants off (figuratively speaking, of course). He’s a really impressive baby, obviously.

We started the day with stockings from Grandma and small sacks of stocking stuffers from me (due to the lack of stockings on hand). Our future Christmases will be much classier, though, because Grandma knitted stockings for me and Grady and brought Jasper’s with her from Spokane. Behold the cuteness and knitting beauty:

Side one:

Side two:

Then we required refueling, of course, which involved french toast casserole (Thanks, Paula Deen! I had no idea I could even fit that much cream and butter in that dish!), bacon, and coffee.

Then on to the presents, proper. And now I must ask... have you ever attended a Christmas at which only adults and an oblivious baby are present? It is shockingly civilized. So much so that if you don’t have to be anywhere, you could spend the whole day at it. We took turns, watched others open their gifts, and said thank you. It took forever! And we wonder how long it will be before Baby Grady turns Christmas into a hurricane of shredded wrapping paper, glee, and overstimulated tears. One year or two?

Then the Carriers visited and our day was instantly transformed into a delightful zoo. There was property damage; there were tears. It was really a classic Carrier holiday, except we never got to the tequila shots.

In the evening, Baby Grady continued his peaceful napping and enabled me to make a whole dinner in between feedings. It was really the most amazing thing. We ate pork tenderloin with roasted baby and sweet potatoes, garlicky kale with bacon, spiced cranberry sauce, and spinach salad with goat cheese, walnuts, and clementines. It was all pretty delicious and then there was pie (and all the best dinners end in pie; it’s a fact). Our spread included blueberry streusel, pecan, and pumpkin. Three varieties, so we were slightly short of my holiday standard of one pie per adult, but as with all things in which I fall short of late: “People, haven’t you heard? I have a baby!”

Yes, his feet are reindeer. Merry Christmas (or happy whatever you celebrate) and you're welcome.

After dinner, Baby Grady was all kinds of fussy for several hours. Then, suddenly, he started dependably and unmistakably smiling at me. These were the first smiles where I knew, without a doubt, that he was really smiling, and not just feeling pleased with himself for giving his pants the business. Everyone else was asleep, because all my shushing was apparently very soothing if your name is not Baby Grady... So that meant that Grady and I had this whole smiley little late-night hangout sesh before he decided he was tired enough to go to bed around midnight. It’s such a silly parental thing to say, but it was of course, completely worth the late night. (And Jasper got his own smiley-fest the next day, while the boys were checking out Grady’s “bodacious” mobile. Jasper’s description, obviously.)

Number of presents Baby Grady received for Christmas: A LOT. Like, a really silly number of presents for a baby.
Number of presents Baby Grady unwrapped himself: zero
Number of presents Baby Grady was awake for the opening of: also zero
Number of stuffies Baby Grady received: 2
Number of silky blankies Baby Grady received: 1
Number of fuzzy sleeping sacks (with matching hat!) Baby Grady received: 1

Number of Grady’s uncles involved in a Matrix-style assassination of Jasper with their new Nerf machine guns: 2
Number of gates that required rebuilding after being shattered by Peanut the dog: 1

State of Baby Grady’s table manners: really questionable, assuming that having a boob in your mouth, burping loudly, and spitting up your last meal are all inappropriate table behaviors

Superfluous pictures of Reese and Puppet opening presents: