First Christmas Celebrations...Several of them

Jovie's first Christmas was marked by lots of travel, lots of celebrations, lots of people, lots of presents, and of course, lots of pictures! (Fair warning: This post has A BUNCH of pictures.)

It all started on December 23rd when we dragged her out of bed at 5 am to put her in a taxi and take her to the airport for her first flight. She was an absolute angel during the trip and a lady on the plane even commented that she never even knew there was a baby on the plane. Then she remarked how much personality Jovie had for four months old. That's our baby girl!

Mom and Dad picked us up from the Columbus airport and took us to their house. Here's Jovie fresh from the car, playing in her new "My First Christmas" hat from Grandma Susie and Grandpa Chick.

Playing with Grandma Susie - what good smiles!

Then we went to the Youngs' later that day so she could see them and meet several people who had never gotten to meet her in person. The snowman she was playing with in this picture helped distract her when the crowds got to be a bit much.

Meeting Great Aunt Janet

Reconnecting with Aunt Julie...

...and Aunt Sarah

Grandma got to feed Jovie cereal.

Great-Grandma Bev got to meet Jovie, and here is a picture of the four generations.

Later that evening, we went back to Mom's for dinner, and Jovie finally got to meet her cousins Collin and Brayden! Yay! I love this picture.

Grandma Susie got to give Jovie a bottle that night. You'll see several pictures like this, since even if Jovie won't let someone hold her much, she'll let anyone give her a bottle! It was a nice way to let everyone connect with her.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Aunt Candee's house as is tradition. Jovie met LOTS of people there, and I think it was a little overwhelming. But, she finally got to meet second cousin (once removed?) Abel!

Rebekah's caption for this picture: "Nice girl bib, Abel!"

So fun to get to hang out with Rebekah and meet Abel!

Dressed up for Christmas Eve

First time all of the cousins were all together! So I had to get a picture, of course.

Just the girls

Jovie was kinda done by the time we got to the pics with the boys. Love Brady's face!

We didn't go to the Christmas Eve service, and Jovie snagged a much-needed nap and play time with a much quieter house.

Let those legs breathe!

Abel and Rebekah stayed behind, too. We tried to get them to play together. But mostly they just cried when we put them together. We did manage to snag a couple pics.

On Christmas Day, we went to the Youngs'.

Jovie got lots of presents!

Santa Baby

The first time Jovie ever opened a present. She was more interested than I thought she would. She helped me open a couple.

Our little present

Jovie finally got to meet Grandpa Traylor!

He thought she was pretty great!

And she actually let him hold her awhile, facing him and not facing out

We took opportunities to take group pictures. Notice how often Jovie's back is to the person holding her. This is to keep her happy. :)

Jovie had a really hard time taking a nap and was really fussy. So Aunt Sarah and Aunt Julie did us a huge favor and took her for a long walk to help her sleep. (Aren't their headbands adorable?!)

It worked! She took a two hour nap.

When she woke up, she was a happy baby!!

Our first family Christmas

I love my baby!

The whole gang

Grandma and Grandpa Young

Loved just a little :)

Proud Great-Aunt and Grandma

Great-Uncle Bruce and Great-Aunt Janet

Playing with Aunt Sarah

Hanging out with Grandma Susie the morning of the 26th

With all the grand-daughters

Little elf :)

Hangin' with Uncle Jeff; she'll play with him anytime!

With our babies

Cousin Anna was allowed to get really close

Auntie Kel and Auntie Tiff

Playing with Auntie Tiff

First time Uncle Jeremy held Jovie!

We celebrated our Weldt family Christmas that day. Our family does photos through the years of each family and all the grandkids. Hard to believe that Jovie is here and in the photos!

Love my sisters!

Sissy jumped in the photo and sat like a Princess.

Hanging with Grandpa Chick

Jovie's presents

Tearing some paper

Aunt Kelly giving a bottle

Grandma and Grandpa give stockings every year, and here's Jovie's first! (The remarkable thing is that she's asleep in Auntie Kel's arms.)

The next day, we hung out with our families and jumped back and forth between our parents' houses. Tried to keep it fairly low-key.

The cousins can get away with anything with Jovie. She loves them!

Molly is the only person she snuggled with besides Mike and I.

Aunt Sarah giving Jovie a prune juice bottle

Grandpa giving the night-time bottle

Our little reindeer

On the 28th, we went to Great-Grandpa Traylor's house and spent a couple hours with him. She really did well with him and let him hold and kiss her.

Then we spent the afternoon at the Youngs.

Aunt Julie was pretty well loved, too!

In the evening, we went back to Mom's for dinner, and I got to hang out with the boys a little bit.

One nephew is taller than me, and the other is almost as tall as me. Sad.

We flew back home on the 29th. The Youngs took us to the airport, and we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch. Jovie was great again on the flight home, and slept like a champ that night.

On New Years' Eve, we hung out with our small group friends at the Mongelli's. We had missed our friends, and it was fun to connect again. There was a pack-n-play in every room with sleeping babies while we rang in the new year. :) We played games, ate, drank and laughed!

Then on New Year's Day, we celebrated our family Christmas at our house. Here's our sweet baby Jovie!

Some of our attempts at a family picture weren't the best...

...but we managed one passable picture

We read a very short version of the Christmas Story from her Baby Bibles.

Howie did well this year, with presents from us, the Youngs and the Hoberts.

Jovie's first present from Mommy and Daddy

Again, she seemed to like to open presents.

Yummy Jammies :)

Merry Christmas, Daddy!

(Cloth) Basket on the head!

Later that day, we went for a walk. I think Jovie was pretty tired from a more than a week of festivities.

Her fingers stayed like this for most of the walk.

As you can see, we had a busy Christmas season! So many memories we made this Christmas Season. And of course, I think it goes without saying: Jovie was the best gift of all!