Maleigha's First Christmas

Life is full of "firsts" --some we remember forever, some we never know about. Maleigha will never remember her first Christmas but it was our best Christmas ever! Not for any present or anything like that, for what it meant to our family. This was our first Christmas as parents, as a family.
It began with Sunday before Christmas because Chuck's mom, Nana Beth, was visiting for the weekend, for Christmas and for Chuck's birthday (12/21). She went to a "paint-it-yourself" party and painted a beautiful ladybug for Maleigha's room. She also brought Maleigha an engraved ornament for our tree next year.
Christmas Eve and Christmas was spent at Granny and Pawpaw's house. We stayed up til midnight just to say Merry 1st Christmas to baby girl. Needless to say, she was unimpressed as she remained asleep. Santa did pay a visit overnight bringing her a pony...yes, you read that right, she got a pony from Santa. Ok, it's a rocky-horse, but it does make a gallop sound and it neighs (is that how you spell that?) which is really cute. Doubt she'll sit on it for another year or so, but it's still too cute for words. She also got a stocking full--a pair of sunglasses from Pawpaw, a ladybug outfit, her first purse from Aunt Lisa just big enough to fit a paci!, and lots of other things. Mama Jessie & Arthur surprised her with her first luggage, a ladybug shaped rolling bag with a kid sized backpack. And, my favorite part of all Christmas---Mama Jessie & Arthur bought Maleigha her first Barbie. I'll explain more as to why this brought tears to my eyes---if you know me, you know that as a child, I was a Barbie addict. And Mama Jessie and Arthur contributed to my habit usually weekly and I had hundreds of Barbies and accessories. Since we found out I was pregnant with a girl, I've talked about how excited I was to be able to play with Barbies again, much to Chuck's laughter. Mama Jessie played Barbies with me all the time, it's some of my favorite memories of growing up. And as most know, Mama Jessie is older now, and isn't doing as good as she used to, so it means the absolute world to me that Maleigha's first Barbie was a gift from her & Arthur. It might be the only Barbie she ever gets from them, so it means everything to me. I doubt I'll even take it out of the box. Chuck laughs because the Barbie was inside the ladybug bag and when he unzipped the bag, I giggled and grabbed the Barbie almost knocking the bag out of his hands. Tickled me to death! (and yes, I'm her mother, not the child!)
Also, more sentimental notes---my parents gave us 2 pictures, 1 that says Christmas 2009 and is the pic of Chuck, Maleigha, and I from the hospital and one that the frame says something about family and it's the pic of the 3 of us at the top and Maleigha at the bottom. Yes I teared up! And we were also given Maleigha's hospital photo that had been made into a blanket by Nana Sherry and Poppa Jim, yep--teared up again! And I know I can't blame all this tearing up on hormones---I'm just weepy!
All in all, it was a great holiday, spent with lots of family and lots of memories made. None Maleigha will remember, but her mommy and daddy will forever!