Baby's first Christmas!

Ava with her stocking
Ava after opening her stocking
The Slipp's after hours and hours of unwrapping!
The cousins
The Slipp's before going to Nanny and Grampy's for Xmas Eve

While we were using the timer on the camera Ava decided to begin opening her gift!

Auntie Kristal came for a visit Xmas Eve
Nanny getting big smiles from Ava!

We had a wonderful Christmas back in Fredericton and with a new addition to our family! Santa sure didn't miss us! Ava had a grand old time and loved all her gifts!

We spent Christmas at Nanny and Grampy's then drove to Quispamsis later on in the day to visit Auntie Kathy, Uncle Brent, Papa and Cousins Joshua, Holly and Mary.

Pre-Christmas fun

the baby whisperer

Last night we made some rounds to a few places. We began at Papa's house then to the Lydon's then to the MacAfee's then back to the Lydon's to the wee hours of the morning! Ava was in party mode and barely slept a wink till we got home at 3:30am!

Yankee Swap

Here are the 2 pics I took from Wednesday nights Yankee Swap at the Back Nine. Good times were had by all and I think we may have a tradition in the works for years to come! :)

Henderson

My brother and his family and Pete, Ava and myself all went to Mom and Dad's for turkey supper on Saturday night. Ava got to open one of her presents from Uncle Gary, Aunt Patty and cousins Sarah & Riley. She got a cuddly teddy bear as big as Ava and his name is Henderson.

I finally got my REAL Christmas tree!!!

After 3 years of not having a real Christmas tree due to living in a 20 story apartment building in Mississauga and being a fire hazard I finally got my real tree! :)

Pete, Ava and myself all went to Moncton on Saturday and visited Uncle Gary and cousin Riley. Pete and Ava stayed in while I went Christmas shopping. Not sure about any of you readers but the best shopping for me is shopping ALONE! No one to worry about if they want to go to the next store, hurrying or saying "you don't need that!". It gives me peace and I find it therapeutic even with the hustle and bustle of Christmas. I like hustle and bustle...that's why I liked T.O so much! :(

Anywho, I did manage to get a few presents and we are pretty much done our shopping.

We got back from Moncton on Sunday afternoon and then bought our tree from the Kinsmen at the exhibition grounds. We got the most gorgeous tree! :) My favourite was the guy showing us the tree's. We told him to show us the cheapest tree which was 20.00 and I didn't like them they were little and not full. He then says well then you'd have to go up a notch to the "higher end" tree. I said "well how much will that cost?". He says quite seriously $25.00...I was like R U kidding me?(insert sarcasm) $5.00 more for a gorgeous tree? He was talking like I was going to have to drop $100.00 more for it. Pete and I just looked at each other and laughed!

These are pretty pricey though compared to the first tree we bought in Mississauga outside an Ikea. The boy scouts were selling theirs for 15.00 and if you bought one Ikea gave you a gift card valued at 15.00 to purchase anything at the store. Sweet! Just don't buy the tree stand from Ikea. Ours was a piece of crap. We were awakened by the sound of our freshly decorated tree smashing to the ground at 3:00am and half the ornaments broken. Then we found out that we weren't allowed to have a real tree in the building. We kept it any way...took back the stand...bought a new stand elswhere...glued the salvageable ornaments back together and had to saw the tree in to pieces after Xmas to take it out in trash bags so no one would know we had a real tree. Oh the memories! :)