A TEXAS Christmas

This will be a Texas-sized (obnoxiously big) post about Sadie's first Christmas. We went down to Austin to spend 6 whole days with the Nielsons.

Sadie was just as nervous about her first plane ride as we were.

Sadie traveled in optimum comfort & style- a Nike velour tracksuit
There was no need for worrying. Sadie slept for all of both flights.

I'm not sure, but I think some people were happy to see her.


The only time Sadie went without someone's undivided attention was during naps.

Daniel and I went out without Sadie for the first time since our anniversary (4 months ago).
We had a fun-packed night with my cousin Madelyn and her husband Cody who only live about 10 minutes from the Nielsons. We ate an amazing meatball and mushroom pizza at Homeslice, did some Christmas-present shopping on South Congress, checked out Highball (awesome), saw the lights on 37th St, ate some good old Mexican vanilla ice cream from Amy's, and got acquainted with their dogs and floor-reconstruction project.

The lights on 37th St were nowhere near as good as they were 4 years ago, but we enjoyed the emblazoned lawnmower and flamingo nativity.

Sadie got to meet Papa, her great-grandfather.

I think he may be the source of her eye color.

Sadie stood on the table, showing off- smiling and squealing for Papa.


As per Nielson tradition, we spent Christmas Eve at the Christensens, gorging ourselves and doing a yankee swap/white elephant. I accidentally left the creepy clown I received there. I'm not sure what happened to the grill (as in gold teeth) Daniel got. Too bad so sad.

We attempted to take a family picture. This is the best one I got.
Sadie wore the best Christmas eve pjs ever. Santa Claus and ducks. See the connection?

Eh, neither do I. I just wanted her to wear her Santa shirt to bed.

On Christmas morning Sadie could not wait to get her hands on the presents.

Looking down on the presents

Sadie dove right in!
My mismatched choice of pajamas for Sadie ended up being perfect on Christmas.
Sadie got rubber duckies along with this-.
She loves the seahorse.


Daniel's parents got us this...Flip video camera!
Expect to see a whole lot more HD video on this blog from now on.

We had a really good time hanging out, sleeping (the most ever since Sadie was born), eating, and laughing at Sadie. I didn't give Sadie any presents or even put a stocking together for her, so a big thanks to the Nielsons for spoiling Sadie much more than we are willing to!

*I splurged big time and paid $35, which recovered about 55 of my pictures. A few of my favorites were not "recoverable" but it was worth it to try. Hey Nielsons- will one of you please send me a copy of the 4 generations picture with Papa?