Baby's First Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve at Morten's sister's house with his whole family. In Denmark we do the whole big celebration, dinner, presents, etc on Christmas Eve. I ate duck and liked it this year! I haven't ever liked it any of the previous times I've tried it. It's very traditional for Christmas dinner here.

Olivia wore her best Christmas dress and was very sweet while getting passed around to Farmor and Farfar (Grandma and Grandpa), an her aunt, uncle, cousins, etc. She was very cooperative while we ate Christmas dinner and seemed to really enjoy staring at the Christmas tree lights. We did end up putting her to bed at the usual time since we didn't want to keep a tired baby awake for something she wouldn't enjoy or remember anyway - but she got lots of nice presents and had lots of fun with them the next day.

It was all in all a very lovely evening and the 25th was great too. We decided that we are going to keep a bit of both traditions in our family no matter where we are for Christmas - so this year we also opened stockings Christmas morning, American style. It was a very nice and cozy morning and then we went to Morten's parents for the rest of the day to have the multiple course traditional Christmas lunch. There is fish first (ew...) then pate, then meatballs and pork roast, then pork tenderloin, then cheese, then fruit salad, then cookies and hot chocolate, etc. Each course comes after like an hour so we were basically eating all day. I got a moment to sneak out and call my family right when it was Christmas morning for them, so that was fun :) Olivia was being a little sweetie for everyone, wearing her new Christmas dress from Farmor. It was a great Christmas. Now I can't wait to go to the states in about 2 weeks, to see my family and let Olivia meet all her little cousins and uncles, and see Camille when she gets home from her mission!

I love my little doll...

I promise I will write a real post again soon. But in the meantime, quick update: Olivia is doing well! She was never really a "newborn" and is now moving out of that "4th trimester" stage. She is covering all the physical milestones about 2 months early, including: supporting her head, lifting up her head and chest (and everything else pretty much) by her arms, supporting herself with her legs, rolling over (front to back), grabbing at things, throwing crazy tantrums including head banging (usually when she doesn't want to go to bed), and becoming incredibly and adorably corpulent. She's our wee beastie. I have a feeling once she takes off she will be a little tornado! She gives us the sweetest smiles (see above), babbles all day long, and sometimes sleeps 7 hours through the night. Not to say that there haven't been challenges but we are just loving parenthood and loving our precious little munchkin. Can't wait to see what she does next!