Birthday Boy!

Matthew's birthday included a week of celebrations starting the Sunday before with a gathering at Paul's parents house.  At every birthday celebration Josie puts a hat on the birthday boy or girl and sings happy birthday.  It's priceless!

His actual birthday was on Thursday and Mom picked him up so I could work a little late and she had a surprise for him, a petit four from Peggy Ann Bakery (these are amazing!)

Matthew clearly thinks so too!

Then, Whit, Erin and Abby made the trek over from Charlotte to celebrate all the Baird birthdays in January.  Whit, Matthew, Dad and Erin.  AND to celebrate mom and dad's 40th wedding anniversary!

We saved the top tier of the cake from the reveal party for his birthday and YUMMMYYYY. Matthew seemed to think so too!

Merry Christmas!

Once again we packed up and headed to Whit and Erin's for Christmas.  Matthew wasn't too thrilled about being in the car again for a long trip but he managed.  He was excited to see Cousin Abby, Aunt Erin, Uncle Whit, LB and Pops when we arrived.

We had sleep troubles from that very first night and it made living with Matthew (and me) quite difficult over the next few days.  While Matthew didn't really know what was going on it was magical watching Christmas through Abby's eyes.  I look forward to doing some of these things with Matthew as he gets older.

Christmas Eve

Taking a ride with Cousin Abby

At the playground!

Feeding the Reindeer

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa

 Christmas Day

Whit reading Santa's letter to Abby 

Whit gave dad a framed collection of tickets from the games they have been too together.

Matthew spent the day pushing around his new workbench.

Cousins!

Whit did a great job with the turkey!

Merry Christmas!

Duhon Family Christmas

We took off for the Big Easy Friday afternoon around 3pm and headed south for New Orleans for my mom's annual Christmas gathering.  Matthew did pretty good on the drive down and Paul got a kick out of changing him into his PJs in the men's restroom at a Love's truck stop.  Apparently, a baby in the men's room sparks a lot of conversation!

On Saturday morning, we got up and hit the town for some beignets and coffee before heading to Gonzales to meet the Duhon's!

St. Louis Cathedral 

Checking out the river. 

I had fun imagining all of the things we'll do with Matthew someday. All of the things that I did with my mom and brother growing up...River cruise to the zoo.  Swamp tour. Visit the plantations.  We'll definitely need more than a weekend for future visits!

After a stroll around the French Quarter we headed off to Gonzalez for the family gathering.  Unfortunately, Matthew didn't get very good sleep the night before so he was a disaster by the time we arrived.  Paul and I took turns driving around with him so he would take a nap in the car.  Once he finally woke up he was in a tolerable mood and we got some good time with family!  He wouldn't have anything to do with the gumbo, though.  So disappointed.

Pinata time!  Even Matthew got to play!

During the Dirty Santa gift exchange Matthew and Olivia hung out 

Oh Christmas Tree!

I love this time of year.

This year, I am so excited to have Matthew with us to celebrate the birth of Christ.

This year, more than ever, I want to focus on the things that are truly important to our family: love, love and more love.  And sharing that love with those around us, family, friends and those who may not be as fortunate as we are.  We don't have much, but we have more than enough to share.

Our hearts are filled with the love that sweet Mateo brings.  And I want to instill in him, from the beginning, a heart for helping those around him.  Maybe I am naive to think I can keep Christmas from becoming a commercialized  "me me me" all-I-care-about-are-the-presents-from-Santa-fest for the kids.  But I am at least going to try!  I'd love to hear how your family celebrates Christmas! What are your favorite traditions?

We have adopted two little boys through our church angel tree and are having a blast shopping for their Christmas presents with Matthew!  My mom and I did this every year growing up and it made a very strong impression on me to know that we were blessing another family the same way that Santa came and blessed us on Christmas morning.

Saturday night LB and Pops came over to help decorate the tree.  This is one of my favorite traditions.  When I didn't live in Huntsville, mom would wait until I got home for Christmas to decorate the tree...sometimes we didn't decorate until Christmas Eve!

For the first time, our house has a GREAT spot for a Christmas tree.  In the front room that is now the dining room, there is a large picture window and the tree looks fantastic.  You can kind of forget the pink walls and carpet! That awful window valance and sheers clearly need to go!

Since Matthew was already asleep he didn't get to see the tree until the next morning.  I can't say he was terribly impressed!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the big Lindgren holiday.  In fact, the first time I met Paul's family, Lee (Paul's dad) says "Thanksgiving is at our house."  Not, "Hi, nice to meet you."  Not, "I have heard so many nice things about you."  Just "Thanksgiving is at our house."  

So, as you can see, Thanksgiving. Is. A. Big. Deal.

Over the years, we rotate who hosts and with the new house having so much space we decided to host at our house.  But, everyone had pity on me and my food aversion issues so all I had to do was provide enough tables and chairs to fit all of us.  No problem!

Next time I promise to photograph the table setting.  There is so much potential with all of my grandmother's china and serving pieces and flatware.  I have just been feeling so sick with this pregnancy that I wasn't quite able to pull it together as I would have liked.

The day was quite nice and relaxing.  I just couldn't quite be bothered with pictures. But, thankfully, Paul picked up the camera towards the end of the day and got some fun pictures of the kids playing.

Cousins!

I love you Aunt Melinda!!!

Lola and her grandbaby boys

The Patriarch

Election Day!

Matthew and Daddy went to vote together! Matthew did not know whether to vote for Milk Romney or Blocks o' Rama.  In the end he did not tell daddy who he voted for.

  He did not appear to be very happy with his choices though...

Look!

Yep.  It's true.  The Mateo is going to be a BIG BROTHER!