A Very Bowden Christmas

It seems Christmas this year was more of a blur than usual...maybe it goes faster each year, or maybe it was the combo between the new baby and all the traveling that made it seem to speed by. The 25th seemed to come upon us before I was totally ready- but we did make some beautiful memories along the way, and the best news is- it's not over yet! My dad and family are visiting this week, and then my mom's side is coming up next weekend. Yay for never ending holidays!

But before time gets away from us, I wanted to record some of the special times we've shared so far this season:

Trip to Philly

Do I love a six hour drive on the turnpike? Hardly, but when you have a dozen or so family members on the other end waiting to greet you and (more importantly) hold your baby, you go willingly. Our trip this time was as busy as ever. We crammed in visits with both sides of Dustin's family, as well as some friends. I snapped pictures constantly, and posing with our snuggle bunny soon became mandatory (not that I heard anyone complain) I could (and did) assemble an entire album of Piper sleeping on various people's chests.






Seasonal outfits

Try as I might to avoid turning Piper into a Toddlers and Tiaras type spectacle, I do find myself getting caught up in the fun of playing baby dress up. The holidays are just too good of an excuse to pass up. Even this non girlie girl knows Christmas is the time for velvet dresses. Plus I figure we only have a couple years where she's going tolerate donning footie pj's, so I'm milking it. And is there anything funnier than a baby in an ugly sweater?






Christmas trimmings

I warned you that we weren't going all out (or even halfway out, really) but we did manage to get at least a teeny bit festive. Our Christmas pandora stations (yep- two! Call me a Scrooge now!) have been in heavy rotation, I managed to update our stockings, (I'm in love with the new ones!) and I hung Christmas cards (loooove getting all this fun mail!). And of course there was the task of wrapping our presents. We're still going strong with the brown paper (a tradition that is at least 3 years running) but I updated them with yarn and paper snowflakes this year.


Time together

We are lucky that I'm off work this year, and Dustin took a week vacation too, so we can hang out as a fam. Yes, our time has been packed full of actives, but we've still managed to steal away for little moments just the two (or more often, three) of us. We've had long talks in the car, cuddled, and enjoyed parenting together- giving baths, changing diapers, tag teaming burping. And we even got away from the munchkin for a few minutes here and there. (we had a few people who graciously offered to hold her...and maybe never let go).



It's been a wonderful week, lots of laughing, lots of presents, lots of hugging and lots (LOTS) of eating, and it's gotten me even more excited for Cheistmas round two and three...