The sparkly part of Christmas

All the hard things, emotional breakdowns, and exhaustion aside, we had some good times this Christmas. In photos:

A tad unconventional, but decorating a houseplant sure beat going out to get a Christmas tree in a blizzard! Plus my dad would have really liked this - he disliked spending money on Christmas trees.

We didn't get a tree until almost the middle of December and it took us about another week to decorate it at all (no lights on the tree this year), but we did have a tree!

As per tradition, we took Georgie to see Santa Claus. (We went to the Riverwoods again - waiting in line was totally worth not paying anyone to take our own pictures!) She was a little unsure of what to think about it this year and stared him down good.

Presenting the 2013 cast of the Maryon family Nativity play! Georgie actually sat still for most of it, go figure. (Not pictured - Tim got to help out as a narrator and I played the piano for the songs between narrations.)

Christmas morning was very laid back and we all enjoyed watching Georgie still not quite grasp what was going on but love the attention anyway. She mostly wanted to be held by Nana and/or Aunt Rachel (no shocker there).

And finally, post-Christmas Herrick Christmas. Crazy as always, but especially now that the littles are all walking and climbing stairs (which is all Georgie did when left to her own devices, as pictured with her cousin Lillian), it was hard to get anything coordinated with us all. But fun as always, too!

Almost the whole Herrick group at once!

Family photo time - Georgie was not interested in smiling at. all.

And that about sums it up - lots of family, celebrating, traditions, and fun watching Georgie experience Christmas a little more than last year. Can't wait for her to be 2 and really get it next year!