Elsie’s first Christmas was a blast – we were lucky enough to have both families here to celebrate. Michael and Alison in from England, Chloe in from San Fran, and my parents down from Montana. On Christmas morning we were greeted by a dusting of snow – which continued throughout the day – perfect white Christmas. The Sladden’s are notoriously late so Elsie and I headed down to Josh and Amy’s ahead of the crew leaving mark behind to lightly push them out the door (they arrive only 35 minutes late – not bad for a sladden arrival!).

christmas delivery

santa's elf

Josh and Amy cooked up a yummy brunch of crepes, frittata  and lots of breakfast meat – YUM! They had set a beautiful table and even made a space for the bean to have her own christmas brunch – puffed wagon wheels!

table setting

brunch

elsie eating

Saffie greeted us in her Baby’s first Christmas Bib:

saffie christmas

After a yummy brunch we moved to the presents. We tried to scale back this year – pleading with my parents (who didn’t listen) … but still we ended up with piles of gifts

presentland

Mostly for the new babies…

uh is this scaling back?

Underneath these piles were two adorable chair for the girls … elsie started her warm up exercises to get ready to open the gifts.

stretching for opening

cousins

It was very hard, but rewarding work – although chewing and ripping paper was the most fun.

rrriiipp

Elsie was pooped and borrowed saffie’s swing for a nap!
pooped

Eventually we finished the marathon opening and headed back home to eat some more. Chloe and Mark cooked up some Braised short ribs (from our local cow we purchased) on a bed of polenta with cranberry sauce. It was great to have the two sladden’s manning the kitchen and serving up a delicious dinner.

dinner

Success I say! 🙂