holly jolly

The holiday season went by so quickly, I barely had time to post updates.  But, Ella's first Christmas was wonderful as we shared it with family and friends and felt God's bountiful blessings in every aspect of our lives.  This time last year we announced our pregnancy, and here we are, wrapping presents for Ella to put under our tree.  Our lives are SO different.  Beautifully, complexly, rewardingly different.  And we love it!

We celebrated Christmas Eve with the traditional Tran & Holliday dinner, which we hosted this year.  We exchanged gifts with my brother and sister-in-law.  It was really fun watching everyone opening presents and see Ella so captivated by all the festivities.  

With her Po-Po and Grandma, Ella was all smiles as we prepared to have dinner.

With her Auntie Kathie.

Christmas day, our parents came over to exchange the rest of our gifts and watch Ella open up presents from Santa.  There was a lot of wrapping paper, glitter, and oohing and aaahing.

Santa paid us a visit with lots of goodies under the tree.  

Ella wanted to get a head start on opening gifts, but had to wait until after breakfast.

Time for presents! 

The pugs preferred to sunbathe.  All the holiday hoopla tired them out.

Waiting for more presents to open.

Lending a helping hand.

Checking out the new piano Santa got Ella.

It was worth the wait!  Ella made out like a fat cat! 

After the gift exchange.

The cutest puppets ever.  A very beautiful gift from Miss Christy!

Playing with her new tea set.

Adam received a Whirly Pop popcorn popper for Christmas and he put it to good use right away. 

Yum!

Best part about this time of year is that Adam gets a nice chunk of time off.  So of course, lots of napping and relaxing are in order!

Gifts and festivities aside, we truly felt the spirit of Christmas in being able to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  It was a really meaningful time for us, especially since we got to share with Ella the true meaning of the season.  Nurturing this little baby and witnessing her grow and thrive makes us think of how Jesus once was a little child also.  We can't possibly imagine what it was like for Mary and Joseph to take on the call of nurturing and raising our Savior.  But we definitely have a glimpse of the love and sacrifice.  Words can't express the awe we have in such a miracle.

We hope you all had a truly wonderful Christmas filled with love, peace and joy!