THE CHRISTMAS DAY MARATHON!

Ryder's First Christmas or should I say Christmas(es) because, yes, there were SIX of them ON Christmas day... so get ready this is gonna be a long blog! Some of the pics are kinda small, but if you click on them you can see them bigger - just FYI. :) We woke up at my parents house to do the normal Christmas morning traditions there. I'm sure our traditions will evolve as Ryder grows and understands things, but this year we just threw him right into the mix! We always start the morning with a particularly annoying song called "Early On One Christmas Morn," by Bruce Cockburn. Come to think of it I don't know if we've ever shared this West family tradition. Daniel's the only one who's witnessed it! It started years back when my daddy would blast this song as a signal to get things started! :) So this year Ryder & Poppy & Daniel "danced" to the song to get things going! (there is video of this!) SO here goes round one: 8:00AM
Ryder checking out his stocking... it's loaded!

making a call on his new "cell phone"

in the middle of everything with his new hat!

merry christmas morning!

10:00AM - running a little behind schedule *already* we headed a few streets over to Grammy & Grandpa's!
The john deer boots from aunt rachel & aunt sarah! And then... he crashed. So we let him take a little power nap while we opened our presents! No time to look at gifts. 12:00pm - off to Grandma & Grandpa Williams
The Grams swap babies.

And Landon loves on Ryder!

too cool.

3:00 pm - Next stop Greenville. Here we see all of my Grandmommie's brothers & sisters and families. Here's a pic of all the kids...

5:00 pm - Back to mesquite for #5 stop at Grandma's house! A little daddy time just before another meltdown! :)


But he perked right up to open more presents and got a super cool drum!
And finally- 7:30 PM- we headed to Nana's for a bittersweet Christmas evening. We got there just in time to hear the Christmas story & the poem. Then the babies took over... (Tyler & Ryder) - they kept trying to swap pacies.


Excited about his new Learn & Groove Music Table

giving mommy kisses!
my FAVORITE picture of the day. Still happy - way past bedtime!
AND... we're done! whew. Thank you to all our wonderful family who spoil us & now our baby even more! You all do too much! We had a very blessed Christmas and a day to remember for sure.

Christmas Eve

So here goes the first of the Christmas blogs. I have lots of pictures, but not even as many as I'd like. Keeping up with an 8 month old's first Christmas was a task in itself! I spent the week of Christmas with the fam while Daniel stayed back and worked. I got some time to rest, be with my parents and in-laws, shop, shower without a screaming baby(!), etc., & Ryder got some quality grandparent time! On Christmas Eve I spent the day baking and really meant to take some pics of the cranberry white chocolate biscotti - I'd never tried to make biscotti, but they turned out pretty good. So Daniel joined us Christmas Eve just in time to get ready for the first stop. On Christmas Eve we went to Grandmommie's to do Christmas with my mom's family.
The boys- happy Daddy made it and takin' a little nap before it all begins!

Ryder's First Present!

And then he discovered ribbon!

Aunt Robin with Ryder & Luke

Merry Christmas Eve! Ryder's happy with his new winnie the pooh bear & quilt.

Time to go to bed and get ready for SANTA!

Beck Family Christmas

There's not too many of us with the name "Beck" anymore, but that's where it all came from. I call it Grandma's family Christmas. :) Saturday morning Ryder and I rode in with Rachel who'd come to visit for a couple days. It worked out perfect for us to come back with her just in time to make it to the Christmas party. Since I was a little girl this has always been one of my most favorite Christmas celebrations. Probably because I grew up with 2 cousins my same age and we used to always do this on Christmas Eve. One of the uncles would dress up as Santa and MommaBeck & DaddyBeck would sit around and watch ALL the kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, and me & Chad would talk about how early we were gonna get up the next day and what we thought each other might get from Santa. Over the years the families have changed... some have left us and are celebrating Christmas with Jesus and some new ones have been added! This year in particular I find it kinda neat that the 3 of us cousins that grew up together - me, Chad & Amanda have all had babies this year! And here they are!!! Below: Morgan 7mths, Trapper 5mths, Ryder 8mths.



Ryder finally met his cousin Taylor

posing with Chad

Mimi time

my beautiful cousins...

buddies! Ry-Ry and Trapp!


worn out!

Fuller Christmas at the Farm

We've had the busiest week and Ryder & I have finally settled down at home with family and are waiting on Daniel to join us tomorrow for Christmas. That said these blogs are a little delayed... but better late right!? :) Plus I had some super cute pictures that had to be shared.

Saturday before last we headed out to Hico to the Fuller Family Christmas (Daniel's mom's mom's extended family). After quite an hour of driving around Hico trying to figure out which way to the farm (no cell phone coverage!) we were rescued by Daniel's dad and lead there! The funniest part was Daniel going into the "Koffee Kup" and asking if anyone knew where CR 236 was - no they said and on second thought he said, "Well, do ya know Joe Fuller?" And the lady said, "Yeah, of course I know Joe!" And the directions she gave us to get to his house were, "Go down there and turn by the trees." That didn't work out so well.
Kathy gave all the kids matching outfits - and this is even missing a few! (Ryder is in the front turned around - this is as good as it gets - he kept crawling away!)

With all the baby-mommas


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