Your first Christmas was great!  This year we had three stockings hanging across our mantle     Traditions are very important in our family, so we started a few this year, and I’m sure we’ll add more as the years go by.   Anytime your Dad and I go on a trip somewhere, we pick out an ornament to remember our trip by.  Our whole Christmas tree is made up of memories, and I absolutely love it.  Each ornament has a year, and location written on it.  This year we went to a paint your own pottery place, and made an ornament with your little hand print on it.   This is the trip of our lives!  I’m so excited to see our ornament collection grow.  We also think it’s important to carry on the tradition of helping others.  The holidays are a good time to help remind us to do so.   This year we donated money in your name to a family in need.  As you grow older, we hope to involve our family in more hands-on activities to help others.  We hope that you grow up learning to always think of other people who may need your help.

We sent out our annual Christmas cards this year, with a new star of the show… you!!  The inside read “Wishing you joy all year.  Happy Holidays 2012, Love Will and Sarah…  and as of July 19th, 2012 weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz. and 19.5 inches long… Introducing Lucas Walter Atkinson”   I can’t believe that last year I was barely pregnant, and this year, here you are.  Every year we will do a Christmas card, and family photo.  How fun to be able to look back through the years!

On Christmas Eve, you got your annual new Christmas jammies.  They were so cute, you had little reindeer on your feet   We even got to meet your very first Christmas Carollers, we bundled you up in a blanket, and listened to them sing you all the Christmas favorites.  Uncle Joey even got out his guitar and played along with them.   For the holidays we went in to Grammy and Poppy’s house.  Don’t worry, we told Santa where to find you!   Christmas morning we woke up and your Poppy put on Christmas music.  Santa brought lots of gifts for you.  We had to wait to open them until your lazy Aunt and Uncles woke up, but that’s okay, we’ll let them slide this year.

Later on that day, more family came over, your Great Uncles Potter and Randy, your Great Aunt Christe, and your cousins, Slater, Kelly, and Max.   We played games, ate food, and took lots of pictures.; you even stood up on your own for a while!  Christmas night you met more friends who have a tradition of visiting our family every Christmas (hi Mike and Nina!).  During the holidays, you also got to experience your first snow!  We dressed you up in little snow suit overalls and your snow jacket, and placed you in the yard for some photos.  Don’t worry, we didn’t let you freeze!