This year we celebrated Christmas down south in Florida. Noa's parents recently finished building a house and two of his sisters also live in the area. Plus, all three of his sisters hadn't yet met Ruby in person, so it was only fitting for us to go there to celebrate.
I'll be honest, it was not easy flying with her this time. She had moments of fussiness that made people turn around and probably question whether a baby was being tormented or not. Thankfully she did eventually sleep, but we were pretty exhausted when we arrived to our destination.
After a good nap and a snack (for all of us), we were back to normal and ready to celebrate with the family and enjoy the new house. One of the first things we did as all together was have some family portraits done. We haven't done something like this in awhile, so we were due. Here are some of my favorites:
The "normal" family shot:
The "fun" family shot (by the way, I don't even remember what was so funny):
The proud grandparents and the tired baby (note to self: try not to schedule photos during naptime):
The montage of "Ruby's First Steps" (okay, technically they aren't her first steps, but she is at the learning-to-walk stage where she really only takes 4 to 5 steps at a time before falling down):
I just love this one of Megan and Anya (Noa's younger sisters, Ruby's aunts) in front of the Christmas tree:
Christmas Eve came all too quickly. We got Ruby all dressed up for the church service at Boca Raton Community Church (which was an awesome service). We did some practice walking in her Christmas dress (a gift from Oma) and new shoes.
It was her first candlelight service. I liked that they had glow sticks for the kiddos.
After church we indulged in pizza and a swim in the heated pool. I'll admit, it was strange to be swimming on Christmas Eve, but really fun and refreshing. Plus, it was at night and we got to swim with the changing pool lights (they change color) and gas lanterns by the house.
We also spent the evening decorating stockings. Noa's dad had picked up some giant stockings at the dollar store with the intent of us decorating them. It was a great idea and lots of fun...however, we shouldn't have waited until the night before Christmas to do this.
The glitter glue didn't dry overnight and we found glitter smeared on each other's stockings, the stairs, floors, and even ourselves when we went to move them. We were still able to stuff them and in the end, they looked pretty hilarious on the stairs. So it wasn't all bad.
One of Ruby's favorite gifts was a suitcase called a Trunki (and her Trunki is actually named "Ruby"). This small suitcase is on wheels and can be used to push or ride on by a child. She loved pushing it all around the living room.
After presents and a morning nap for Ruby, we headed down to the beach. This was Ruby's first time at the beach and I was a little nervous knowing she's not a big fan of water (bathtime has become a battle in recent months). So, instead of focusing on the ocean, we let her explore the sand. At first, she wasn't so sure and she stayed very close to mama:
She got some encouragement from her cousin:
Soon, she was covered in sand and tossing it around. I'm glad she didn't develop some weird fear of sand. It's hard enough having her afraid of water:
We also practiced walking in the sand.
Later, the whole family enjoyed a turkey feast for dinner. It was absolutely delicious and I still regret eating so fast.
It was such a fun, memorable Christmas in Florida, surrounded by those we love so much. More photos to come!
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