A New Beginning

So here we are, in mid March and I have yet to post about Christmas. Just thinking about how far behind I am in blogging has kept me off the blog for a while, but I am now determined to catch up! I do have one relatively good excuse for missing on a few posts, but I can't use it as an excuse any more. In late January we moved from Tucson to Casa Grande. We bought a house only 8 minutes away from the O'neils and only 6 minutes away from the Espositos. Of course we are super excited to be so close to our families as Abigail grows up. And they couldn't be happier, too. But now the boxes are unpacked (mostly!) and life has settled down a bit. It still seems a bit odd not being so close to our awesome friends in Tucson, and we definitely miss our board game nights. But we have loved seeing our families more often and are definitely enjoying our new home! I will post more on the house later. For now, I must recall Abigail's first Christmas! Oh was it fun!

Christmas Eve day/evening was spent in Casa Grande with Amy's family. It's tradition that the Esposito side get together on Christmas Eve, so it worked out well for us to spend the entire day at Mimi and Papa's. We got there in the morning and enjoyed Mimi's yummy Christmas food that I, Amy, love so dearly. Her Monkey pull-apart bread is to die for. SO GOOD. Anyways, we enjoyed some yummy food and then did our little Christmas gift exchange together. It was so fun watching Abby try to figure out why and what we were doing. Of course there was no shortage of gifts for Abby under the tree, and we enjoyed laughing and clapping as she ripped through paper- and as she tried to eat it, too!






Then we spent the afternoon with the extended Esposito clan and enjoyed the loud and crazy whirlwind of the Italian Christmas fest. Always a lot of good food and loud people! I love my loud Italian family!




I'm pretty sure Abby knew Santa was on his way, because she was so excited and happy all night! She was so giggly before we headed home that she stayed up way passed her bedtime! But that's what Christmas Eve is all about, right??


Christmas day was super fun. We had come home Christmas Eve night and made sure to be home for Abby's first Christmas. It was fun just spending time with her by the tree and slowly opening presents. Of course she ended up enjoying the paper and boxes more than the actual gifts, but that's no surprise!







Last but not least, we headed over to the O'Neil's house for the opening of gifts that is always such a festivity. I still laugh every time we are there for Christmas as it is always such a maddening frenzy of paper tearing all at once! 8 adults going nuts, ripping open their gifts. Can't get better than that (of course hopefully some day there will be 10 adults there. We just need to get Michael and Kevin some ladies!) Abby was napping while we enjoyed the gift exchanges, but once she was up, all eyes were on her! I think by the third time, she realized that all these things in paper were for her. And they were fun! She seemed to be a little more into the presents by this time.






We had such a fun time experiencing Abigail's first Christmas. Of course she wont remember much, if at all, but it was so sweet watching her and our families together. I just love Christmas time and the joys of the season as we celebrate the most important gift of all, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who came as a man to die for our sins. We are so grateful for this truth and are blessed to be a part of two wonderful, Christ-loving families! We hope your holidays were just as blessed!