running on grace: Baby girl's 1st Christmas

What a busy, wonderful holiday season our family has had! We've been moving nonstop since the week before Christmas, or I would have posted sooner! The week before Christmas day belonged to the Ullrich/ Waller family. On December 21st, Rolly and Faye hosted a game night/ cocktail party in lieu of their traditional Christmas Eve festivities. Aside from a competitive round of Quarter-Quarter, and obviously Aaron being in town, the highlight of the night had to be Carolyn trying pickled herring for the first time.... hilarious. :)

Four generations :)

Could've been a cute photo.. thanks sweetie :)

Soon to be brother-in-law!

Grandpa and Grace Mack

Playing cards!

Great Aunt Kym loving on Grace

Great Grandma and Grace

Another highlight - Courtney was home!

Love you Auntie Kels!

Great Grandma and Dad

Best. Photo. Ever.

Unfortunately I was camera-less for Thursday's Christmas dinner and gifts with Aaron (before leaving for Pennsylvania), as well as our own immediate family gift opening Christmas Eve morning, but I did capture Christmas Eve night with the Wallers! We celebrated at the Ullrich's new home in Wheaton for the first time after a beautiful mass at St. Micheal's, and did a gift-exchange to mix things up. Zach and I tag-teamed to steal one of our original gifts, a Lululemon giftcard, headband and sparkly nail polish (for me of course).

Miss Grace stylin' in her new festive dress from Great Grandma Faye!

Mom and Dad

Cute young couple :)

Cards are played frequently in the Ullrich household... in case you didn't know :)

Another adorable couple comfy as can be in the new chairs!

Great Grandpa playing with Grace :)

Waller ladies

Ryan and Court

Too sweet.

Uncle Brock and Carolyn

Last cute couple of the night, Great Uncle Todd and Aunt Suzy.

All snuggled in, and ready to go wait for Santa!

Playing the role of Santa was something I have been anticipating for a long, long time! My sisters and I love Christmas, and all things festive, more than most. I'm embarrassed to admit that we forced my parents to play Santa up until the year I got engaged! A typical holiday in our house consisted of my Mom and Dad having us go to bed early on Christmas Eve. My sisters and I would then pop in our "Santa Clause" VHS (with Tim Allen) and sleep in Lauren's childhood bunkbeds. Falling asleep was never easy given our excitement for the following morning (and in younger years my Mom convinced me that the red flashing lights from airplanes were Rudolph's nose! Try falling asleep with that in your head). We would then wake up to our Dad yelling "ho ho ho" in an overly ecstatic mood than usual with a video camera in hand, usually around 6 am. If you know Brad, you understand that this elevated excitement for a holiday is very atypical behavior. My Mom credits his happiness to her doing the majority of the shopping and our opening presents from "Mom AND Dad" were as much a surprise to him as us! :) We would then proceed downstairs very slowly in our matching pajamas with Dad video taping our every move. Being the oldest who was constantly "too cool" for everything, I would usually become embarrassed at some point and yell for him to leave me alone... haha. We would then pop our heads around the corner to a family room filled with new gifts wrapped or left out from Santa himself. Even at the old age of 24, I still felt the same excitement that I did growing up. Kid at heart I guess!

With that said, I hope Christmas for our kids going forward is filled with as much joy, love, anticipation and happiness as my sisters and I experienced year after year together. While I understand there are still a few years before Grace understands the real reason for the season, the joy in giving, the gratitude in receiving, and of course being on her best behavior for the big jolly guy, there was no harm in starting early. We celebrated Christmas day with our new bundle of joy in our little home, and then headed over to the Livingston house for breakfast and more gifts!

Auntie Tooks and Auntie Lolo with King

King looking quite innocent at this point.. Pre-wine spill, triple bathroom break on multiple carpets, sour patch kids invasion and thyroid pill consumption. It was a rough Christmas for this pup!

But we still love him! :)

Mom and Gracie

First Christmas with our babe!

Grandpa and Grandma

Grace already exhausted after opening her first few gifts. Nap time on Dad!

King getting comfy.

Livingston tree.

Mom ready for chilly weather... if it ever shows up!

Hilarious. This is a gift from "Grace". An iphone photo I sent weeks after Grace was born with Dad goofing on getting her dressed! Her new onesie should help in future trouble situations :)

Love my new dance and wiggle friend!

Class project created by Lauren dedicated to Miss Grace! Such a special gift.

Aunt Tooks and Grace.

Brooke and Lauren forced to sit on Grandpa's lap to open their Bulls tickets.. haha

Gear for the game!

Tummy time on Dad.

Love my sisters.

Grandma and Gracie.

Kisses for G-Mack.

Exhausted!

Our beautiful girl after a wonderful day!

Every year since I was born (with the exception of last year when Zach and I were in the Caymans) our family has made the trip out to Union City for Christmas with our grandparents. It was so nice to be able to make the trip one last time since our move to Detroit will make visiting more than one state during the holidays nearly impossible. Grace couldn't wait to see Mimi, Papa and the Gelhaus family again since the last time was only a few days after her birth. Notice the quality (and quantity) of our photos improves immensely from this point forward thanks to a new fancy camera!

Dad and Gracie at Mimi and Papa's house.

Grace finally wearing her dress from Mimi! She was supposed to wear it home from the hospital, but was obviously a bit too tiny at the time :) 3 1/2 months later it fits perfect!