A Christmas Promise

Baby's first Christmas ... such a special occasion.  I have been thinking alot about how to make this Christmas special for Bentley.  After a lot of reflecting, I have come to this conclusion.  No matter how many presents you receive or how many lights there are on the tree, you will not remember this Christmas.  I think the special gift we can give you this year is a Christmas promise ... a promise for all the Christmas's to come:

Bentley, we promise to teach you the true meaning of Christmas.  To take you to church where you can go to Sunday school, where you can fill your heart with the love of the Lord and fill our fridge with colored pictures of him.  We promise to teach you that the star on top of our tree represents a heavenly promise of long ago. That the Christmas wreath hanging outside our door symbolizes that love is one continuous round of affection. The candy canes we hang on our Christmas tree represents the shepherds' crook and that we are our brother's keeper. And that our Santa Claus is a symbol of generosity and good.

When I think of Christmas the thoughts that overwhelm me are that of family.  No matter how many presents you have under the tree, if you have no one to share them with, they are worthless.  The last couple days I keep thinking about the poor families that lost their little ones last Friday.  How many of those families already had presents wrapped under the tree dreaming of their beautiful children excitedly opening them on Christmas morning.  And now they have no one to open them.  Breaks my heart and is just a reminder to keep things in perspective.  Bentley, we promise we will fill each and every Christmas day with the love and joy of our family.

Love always,
Mommy, Daddy & Karter Blain.

Photobomb

Oh Christmas Tree

What is Christmas without a Christmas tree?  To me a Christmas tree symbolizes family, tradition and memories.  There are so many decorations that have such sentimental value to me.  Some from when I was  a little girl, some from Karter's first Christmas and the family we continue to build. 

I remember as a young girl going out with my father into the woods to find that perfect tree.  I remember the excitement of finding the "perfect one", then to look down and realize it had two stumps :(  As you will see below, we definitely settled for second best. 

It has been fun for me to look back at these pictures and the trees and traditions.  Starting out with real trees, the traditional tinsel, candy cane and circle balls.  Really, decorations have not evolved that much over the years.  Then looking at my tree, pre-children.  It was perfect, everything matched and placed proportionately - the tree being a Walmart special.  Then, enter Mark and two kids later, the tradition has shifted back to a real tree stuffed with mismatched decorations and touching memories.  To me, this is now our perfect tree.

Ho Ho Ho Santa Is In Town

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is getting a picture taken with Santa.  Surprisingly, for how SHY Karter is, he has never cried or made shy with Santa.  Last year he even got some cuddle time in.  I also like going to Santa because I know what Karter tells him that he wants for Christmas is for sure his top favorite on the list.  This year Karter said he wants "How to Tame your Dragon" movie. 

And of course this was a special visit as this is Bentley's first time meeting Santa.  She did good, she really didn't care and let her brother get all the attention.