It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We decorated our house for Christmas tonight and it was so much fun! Technically this is Finley's second Christmas but it is her first Christmas at home. Last year she spent Christmas in the NICU. In fact, Christmas day a year ago was the first time my Mom got to hold her. She wasn't stable enough before that to be held by anyone other than Brian and I but that day was a really good day for Finley and the nurse offered to let my Mom hold her. My Mom cried and cuddled that baby for an hour. She had prayed for so long to be a Grandma and for so long for that baby specifically. It was such a special day.



Here's my Mom holding Finley for the first time...


It has been almost a year and seeing these pictures still brings tears to my eyes. I just can't believe how far we've come since then. Truthfully, most days we just enjoy our sweet girl and live in the moment. Seeing these pictures really reminds me of how freightening those days were. I didn't decorate for Christmas at all last year. I didn't even do any baking (!!! Shock! Horror!) I spent every possible moment in the NICU. God is SO good to us. We are so very thankful to have her home with us this year and to celebrate Christmas as a family.

I've had visions of picking out our first tree as a family and the pictures we would take. I dreamed of decorating and showing Finley every single ornament as we placed them on the tree. Yeah, it didn't happen anything like that. We went to lunch after church and then straight to Home Depot to get our tree. Finley fell asleep in the car on the way there. By the time we arrived, it was pouring rain. I put her in the stroller asleep and covered her up...ran to the lot to pick out a tree with Brian, ran back to the car to get her out of the rain. We got a small tree this year (4 feet) so that it could sit on our side table and off the floor. She's not old enough yet to understand the word "no" so I figure I'd be better off just eliminating the temptation. By the time we got the tree upstairs she had a melt down and had to go to bed, so...I decorated the tree while she was sleeping and can't get a good picture of our little tree to save my life.

I am quite proud none the less. I LOVE any excuse to decorate my house so I'll try to get better pictures tomorrow. I'm officially in the Holiday spirit! I can't wait to start baking!!!