Last year on December 24th, at 12:24pm, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. There’s a much longer story to the birth (37 1/2 hours worth of a story), and maybe I’ll share some of that sometime. But for now, the pertinent point is that our daughter, Aria, was born on Christmas Eve.

I LOVE Christmas. I have never gotten over the childish wonder the season brings, and I pray I never do. I love Christmas so much that in 2005 hubs and I got married on the evening of December 23rd. So now we’ve got our anniversary, Aria’s birthday, and Christmas over the span of three days.

This year, more than ever, I am excited for Christmas. Because this year, for the first time, we get to share Christmas with our baby girl. I feel a little sorry for her that she will always have a birthday so close to Christmas, but I am also eagerly anticipating her learning the heightened excitement (extremely heightened for her) of the season. We are just learning this whole parenting thing, feeling our way through our first year. This is our first holiday season with a child, and I’m eager to decorate, start new traditions, and celebrate her birthday.

In my usual fashion, I will be obsessively researching and planning, because I think it’s fun to do so. And, I’ll be sharing with you what I learn, just in case you care. 😉 The other thing I’ll be doing quite consistently is thanking God I don’t have to do things perfectly to make memories for our family!