'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Now that we have Brianne, it's more important to us than ever to create some new traditions for our family, particularly around the holidays. I remember when I was little being so excited for Santa that I couldn't sleep, singing Christmas songs, and doing fun holiday activities with my family. I wanted to get our Kiar Christmas traditions on the right track, so Brianne will have memories to treasure herself. Ok, I know she is only 5 months old and wont necessarily remember this Christmas, but I wanted to do some fun things in honor of this special holiday.

First, we made some customized Christmas ornaments. This consisted of stamping Brianne's hand, and trying to get it straight on a piece of paper. Thanks goodness my mom was there to help. Trying to uncurl those little fingers and not smudge is a lot more difficult than it looks!


After about 10 tries, we got a clean print! And bonus, all ink was on the paper, none on her!


After making our ornament, we decided to bake some cookies for Santa while listening to some Christmas tunes. We made ginger snaps from scratch. Brianne was more interested in testing out the whisk, but was still a great little helper. The cookies turned out delicious!



In the early evening, we went to mass at St. David's. Brianne got to relive her glory as the Baby Jesus and was able to get through the service without getting mobbed by paparrazzi.

This was also Baby's First Mass, so we were a little nervous that she would start fussing. But, good baby that she is, she sat quietly with her Daddy and Aunt Casey through the whole service. After church, we went home and put Brianne to bed in preparation for Santa's arrival!