The Lives of Matt, Emily, Riley and Hailey: Christmas 1, 2 and 3, and the remainder of 2010!

Christmas began at our house this year. I think I mentioned last year that we started the tradition of having Christmas morning at our house with our little family. It was really important to us to start that tradition for our family. (Side note: It is so fun to take various traditions that we grew up with in our respective homes, and blend them, or make new ones up, for our family!) I cannot describe the joy I got from looking around the room and knowing that this is my completed family! It was so neat knowing that we were all there and complete. Such JOY! :)

Daddy read the Christmas story first. I thought Riley would be ok with this for one more year, but he was about to jump out of his skin waiting to open presents! :)

Our family!

As excited as he was to open presents, when it was actually time to do so, he got nervous. I don't know why, but it took awhile for him to warm up. He took FOREVER to open his presents, and kept repeating, "There's Hay (Hailey), Mama. Mama, there's Hay." over and over. This, or some variant, is common for him to say when he is unsure or nervous about something.

When he did warm up, he loved opening the presents! He ended up opening everyone's presents for them! :) Every time he would open one, he would say, "Oh, WOW! Look at THAT!", even though he didn't know what most of them were. It was adorable.

Christmas outfits!

Little stud!

First Christmas!!!

Christmas evening was spent at the Shoup house. We had a delicious dinner, and enjoyed everyone's company!

Great-Grandma holding Hailey

Eric and Racheal

Melissa

Monica and her bf, Dan

Yummy candy cane!!!

My MIL, Nancy, and Great-Grandma

I love this man!

My FIL with Hailey

The day after Christmas, my family came up from the Springs, along with my cousin, Marshall, to do our Christmas. Another great time was had, and we enjoyed everyone's company!