Grace's 1st Christmas

I am thankful for so many blessings this year and one of them is to be able to celebrate Christmas with my little family of three. With the military life, it's never guaranteed that you'll be able to spend holidays together, so I never take it for granted when we do.

I think back to last year when my belly was huge with baby and Mike and I didn't exchange 'regular' gifts, but got some baby items instead in preparation for Grace's arrival. This year, it's still all about gifts for the baby and I suppose it will be like that for the rest of our lives. I don't mind one bit though. And I can't wait until next year when she'll be able to understand a little better what this season is all about.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with a quiet dinner at home followed by a solemn and traditional Midnight Mass. We woke up early the next morning to open Grace's presents and then headed to Mike's ship for a Christmas lunch. The rest of the day was spent relaxing at home. I even got to take a two hour plus nap while Mike and Grace played with all her toys. Then we ended the night with a family outing to the movies to watch the new Sherlock Holmes flick. Grace was an angel and slept through the entire movie.

The Augustines had a wonderful Christmas and we hope you and yours did too.

Our Christmas Eve dinner.
Heading out to Midnight Mass. It was a long mass at over an hour and a half long, but Grace was a trooper. There was minimal fussing even though we didn't get out of church until almost two in the morning.
Present from mommy and daddy- her very own chair to lounge in.

Opening Santa's present...


Grace and I had fun dining and checking out dad's ship.