Gretchen’s First Christmas

In an effort to not go overboard at Christmas, which I know I am fully capable of doing considering how much I love to buy gifts for people (one of my love languages for sure!) I decided to start the “want, need, wear, read” gift tradition that many are doing nowadays.  In addition, Gretchen will get an ornament every year, just like my mom gave us when we were growing up.  I give Tyler a new ornament every year too, usually related to a vacation we took, big life change, interest/hobby, etc.  This year he got this one:

Here’s what Gretchen is getting for her first Christmas:

want: personalized bookplates.  Okay so Squirmy is a little young to want anything other than a bottle and something to stare at, so really this is something that I want for her 🙂  For the yearly books she will get we’ll put one of these bookplates inside the cover, establishes those books are “keepers”!  Obviously hers won’t say “Sarah” on them 🙂

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need: banana toothbrush.  True Squirms has 0 teeth for now (and that is totally fine by me!) but hopefully in a few months she will have some and need to start brushing!  I hear great things about this as a brush and a teething toy.

wear: pajamas!  I know many people give their kids Christmas themed jammies every year but I like to keep Christmas clothes confined to Christmas so I got these instead.  $9 at Children’s Place and I got size 3-6 so they will fit thru the spring.

read:  On The Night You Were Born.  Gretchen already has many many books, including lots of classics.  But really they are my books and I may keep some, sell some, donate some, etc. as she gets older and we want to get new ones that spark her interest.  I decided I wanted to give her a book every Christmas for her to keep for her personal collection.  That way she’ll have a nice set of about 18 classic books to read to her own kids someday.  I asked for recommendations on books from friends and this one was mentioned several times.  Can’t wait to read it with her on Christmas!

ornament: Baby’s First Christmas.  I don’t typically buy Hallmark Ornaments but this one called to me.  Elephants are all the rage for babies this year 🙂  Probably all but one of Gretchen’s pj’s have elephants on them so I thought this was fitting.

What did you give your baby for his or her first Christmas?  Did you establish any traditions the first year or have they evolved over time?

Christmas outfit

Dressing little girls is so much fun I can’t stand it.  I’ve been keeping an eye out for a Christmas dress for Gretchen’s first Christmas for the last few weeks.  Checked all the usual spots and cruised Ebay a couple of times a week too  (tons of new with tags clothes on there for great prices).  I am just not a big fan of the typical red and black or red and green plaid dresses.  Or velour (shudder).  And even though Tyler said a pink dress would be fine since there are pink candles in the advent wreath (lol) I knew I wanted something in typical Christmas colors, just not plaid.  Here’s what I bought, can’t wait to see Miss Gretchen in it come December!

dress: Zara
cardigan: Old Navy
tights: Old Navy
jacket: Gap (purchased at consignment sale)
hairbow: Lulu and Cha Cha on etsy of course

Dress was a splurge at $40 but paid for with money I made selling some cloth diapers we don’t need.  Old Navy items were a steal with their 30% off stuff and save sale + a $10 reward credit.  I got the hairbow 30% off last month when she was running a sale.

Christmas Decor 2010

I’ve had our Christmas decor up for a couple of weeks now but it’s rare my house is clean enough that I can photograph any of it 😉  I keep meaning to add more to our mantle but I think I will leave that for next year, give me something to look forward to since Tyler says 2 trees is our max!  (we shall see…maybe I can sneak in some small ones 😉 )  I picked up a second tree and lots of ornaments on clearance at Target last year and this year I was able to bust it out and do my first themed tree.  Silver, white, and I added some apple green ornaments too.  New white tree skirt was a Black Friday deal at $16 from Kohls.

we really need to move all the ornaments up about a foot from the bottom, Boopers keeps pulling off the snowflakes.

more green white and silver on the shelves

and in the dining room I put our original tree with all my childhood ornaments

our growing Christmas card collection, I tape them to the pantry door.  This year we are doing a pug card exchange, thus the lack of human beings.

Speaking of cards, here are the Shutterfly designs we ended up with this year