Rory's First Christmas

Today, Rory celebrated her first Christmas. If fun can be measured in smiles, then Rory had an amazing day at her Grandma's beach house. But what is she thinking in this picture?... How to squeeze even more gifts out of this holiday? That would be hard, since her family showered her with new toys and books and clothes. The road to Christmas started in the wee hours of Saturday morning, when Rory's daddy slipped her out of her crib and into her car seat while Rory still slept. And slept she did, as her parents drove from Alexandria to Richmond, where Rory's Great Grandma awaited! Rory awoke as we knocked on the Masterson's door at 7 a.m. Rory's Great Grandma was helping her Great Aunt Janet in the kitchen. We joined the Masterson clan for breakfast, and Rory had the pleasure of conversing with the matriach of her daddy's family. And Great Grandma had the joy of holding her tenth great grandchild.
We said goodbye to the Richmond gang, and we loaded into the car for the rest of journey to Beaufort, North Carolina. Rory did great, and six hours later we arrived. Judy and Paul's home is beautiful! On Sunday, Christmas Eve, we cleaned up for a quick picture in front of the tree before heading to ...
... Rory's first Catholic mass. Despite the bad lighting in the picture, you can see that Rory had a good time at the service.
Later that evening, we enjoyed our family gift exchange and our "white elephant" tradition, while Rory had fun with the wrapping paper.
On Christmas day, Rory was surrounded by her daddy and mommy as she gathered Santa's gifts around her.
Rory had as much fun unwrapping her gifts as she did playing with them ...
... and her family had as much fun watching Rory as they did opening their own gifts!
Rory made an adorable addition to our Christmas.
Rory is also getting very good at helping me with the blog!