Ashlyn's First Christmas

Saying Ashlyn had her first Christmas is kind of mis-leading.  Ashlyn really had her first...five Christmases!

Jones' Christmas.
Christmas with Papa and Gigi.
Christmas with Daddy and Mommy on Christmas morning.
Christmas with Mimi and Pappy.
Christmas with the Whitakers (meaning the Littles).



Jones Christmas
Jones' Christmas happens every year on the first Saturday (or Sunday) we are all out of school with all of the descendents of Pa Ray.  And this was Ashlyn's first experience with presents!

Ryan, Adam, Stevie, Bryan, Courtney, Jenn, Brittany, Ashlyn, Shelby, Heather

And it was anti-climactic.  She was not interested at all.

Until everyone was done and Kayla left a crinkley leopard bag on the floor.  That was fun.

Christmas with Papa an Gigi.
We spent the few days before Christmas down in Carpinteria at my parents house, and Courtney and Dex joined us there too.  Courtney had a whole list of "Carpinteria" things to do with Dex, and because it was warm it made out to be a very different Christmas from an Oregonian Christmas.
We hiked the new Franklin Trail.

We (haha, they) kayaked.

Ashlyn and I hung out on the beach!

Ashlyn loved chasing her Papa!

And had Christmas on Christmas Eve morning.

Ashlyn got a handmade tutu from Auntie Courts!

Of course Cole had to come check out her new toy...

This time Ashlyn actually got into the whole presents thing!  She even helped unwrap and pull out of the box her shape-mover from Gigi and Papa!

And of course the official family picture where Tim is too tall for the Christmas tree and the angel is coming out of his head...dog version and people version!

2013:  Tim, Ashlyn, Shelby, Courtney, Dex

Very First Christmas Morning
Starting last year, Tim and I told our families that we would have a tradition of celebrating Christmas morning at home with our little family, so we were excited for this year.  We picked out Ashlyn's owl jammies for her to wear, and I was so thrilled she could sit up by the beginning of December so she could sit in front of the tree on Christmas morning.

She started with her stocking.

She's really getting the hang of this present thing...

At least whacking them around...

but she needed a little bit of help.

Hey, at least she was interested, right?  And it made for some cute pictures!

Oh and Cole was super excited for his stocking...he thinks it's a sock.

And what was in his stocking?  A sock, of course!

Christmas with Mimi and Pappy.
Which was actually Christmas with Mimi and Pappy and Uncle Andrew and Aunt Charlotte and Elijah and Nathan and Uncle Daniel and Aunt Maria and James and Bekah.

Yep.  Its that crazy in the house too.  Wrapping paper, tissue paper, and toys everywhere.  (And yes, I'm the one stashing presents so they don't get lost and folding bags and tissue paper to save...even Tim helped this year...we're cheap).  The cousins all got matching jammies (yes, the fake crying picture is the best one)!

James, Bekah, Ashlyn (real crying), Elijah, Nathan

It's a miracle Ashlyn never got stomped on, sitting in the middle of the circle playing with whatever her cousins left close enough to her.

But she liked the excitement and the swing!

Christmas with the Whitakers
Which became Christmas with the Littles because all the Paulsen's were sick!  (Almost) everyone had colds, so most Whitakers decided not to come, so we had a little taco bar dinner with Uncle Charlie, Aunt Laura, Pat, and Shannie.

Ashlyn and Bekah finally got to wear their matching Mimi Christmas dresses, and although it wasn't Mimi's vision with little white tights and white sweaters and black flats, I like the look of little bare toes with a fancy dress.

Ashlyn was thrilled to see Pat, as she has been listening to his "Angel's We Have Heard On High" Daft Punk arrangement from his Christmas service at Menlo Park Pres ever since it showed up on Tim's Facebook feed.

And then we came home.
And had to figure out what to do with and where to put all these presents.

We are blessed.

Happy 2013 everyone!