A Season of Firsts

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and many other belated greetings from the Miller home to yours. The month of December completely flew by, filled to the brim with many fun and some not-so-fun firsts for our little family. Our theme song for this season should have been "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." Shortly after we returned from our Thanksgiving ventures in VA, Jake began the arduous process of cutting his first two bottom teeth. Gnawing on fingers, a favorite pasttime of our sweet little (monster?), turned into a quest for relief from the pain by biting fingers and any other body part that we dared allow Jake to shove in his mouth. I know, he's trying to soothe an aching mouth, but it hurts!

The snow accumulation and winter storms we've had here in NY don't even begin to measure up to that experienced by friends and family on the West Coast, so I won't make the comparison. It was, however, the first time Jake saw, tasted, and felt snow. The flakes were gigantic the day we took him outside and it was coming down so heavily that you could hardly see the sky.

This was, of course, Baby's First Christmas. Being only 5 1/2 months old, the bigger people in the family most surely enjoyed the special first much more than the Baby did. The Grandparents on both sides expressed their spoiling rights/privileges, as said grandchild surely cleaned up in the toy/book/clothes department! Jacob was surrounded by both sets of doting grandparents on Christmas, as Nana and Papa (my parents) flew out from Washington to join us for a week and spend the holiday here in NY. We took the train into Manhattan to see the grandeur of the City Lights and the spectacular Christmas displays, and I think we were all tuckered out from the hustle and bustle of walking through New York City. We are so glad to have been surrounded by both our loving families and our friends this season and are grateful for the memories associated with the photographs that we're sharing from our Christmas Season in 2008.