Ryan's first Christmas

Well, my goal is to get this post completed before Jan 25th, so if I can get this done today, then I would say that I'm doing good :)

In November, Joern and I went to the Women's Clinic in Stuttgart, to set up an appointment for my elective c-section.  I was hoping that our little Erbse would be born on December 27, because I wanted Ryan to bake as long as possible, AND, I was looking forward to Ryan's first Christmas being with an almost one year old.  With my due date being so close to Christmas I knew that no matter when he was born, birthday and Christmas were going to fall periously closely.  But when we got to the Women's Clinic, we spoke with cheif doctors, who explained that the best date for my c-section would be on December 23.  So, we left the Women's Clinic that day fully expecting to spend Christmas 2011 in the hospital with a two day old baby.

Of course, Erbse had different plans.  I'm very glad he chose his Grandpa's birthday for his own birthday, and not the 23rd of December.  We were able to spend Christmas 2011 in our new house with our 3 week old baby.  It was magical, and memorable, and well, probably the most special Christmas ever.

Ryan's first Christmas started out like this:

If you ever watched Seinfeld, the above picture reminds me of the "Puffy Shirt" episode, in which Jerry exclaims "But, I don't wanna be a pirate," before going on a morning TV show.  Joern and I joked, if Erbse could only talk, he would have said in the same winy voice, "But, I don't wanna be an elf!"  It was on Christmas morning that I found out that Ryan is not such a fan of hats, we're still working on this one.

Mommy quickly learned that hats should go high on one's head, and not come anywhere near Erbse's eyebrows, and then, things got much better, and Ryan's first Christmas became quite enjoyable.

The cutest present under the tree :)

Mommy got in a good Christmas morning cuddle.

Daddy got to open gifts with Ryan:

It was a really quiet day.  Oma was sick, so it was just Mommy, Daddy, and Erbse all day.  Christmas is usually so hectic, so it was nice to spend a very quiet day as a little family.

We got to Skype with step-grandma and Grandpa too, which was the best we could do given that we're very far from Grandpa.

Although it was unlike any other Christmas before, it was by far my favorite Christmas ever!