Last year was Theodore’s first Christmas. He was only a few weeks old at the time, but we tried our best to keep it festive even though we were exhausted new parents.

This year we’re still exhausted, but Theodore could enjoy Christmas a bit more since he is now 12 months old. I still can’t believe we have a toddler in the house.

We noticed that every time we would turn on Christmas music Theodore would start to sway and wave his hands around. We soon realized he was dancing! It’s the cutest thing and I’m so glad we got it on film!

My sister came to celebrate with us which is a holiday tradition. It is so wonderful having her here not just so that she could entertain and bond with Theodore, but because I needed her. She’s always been so supportive of me and a person I could always lean on. Sometimes a girl just needs her big sister.

Theodore is going through a “stranger danger” phase right now so he didn’t warm up to my sister as quickly as we would have hoped. He seems to just want us or grandparents and although I think it hurt my sister that he wasn’t cuddly with her, I think she understood.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our house and prepared a feast! There were two different types of soups, my butternut squash and Daniel’s mom’s chicken noodle soup. Traditional Swedish Christmas dishes such as Christmas ham, meatballs and little sausages. Also, American dishes like prime rib with a red wine sauce, roasted brussels sprouts, roasted carrots and sweet potatoes, potato salad and French potatoes au gratin. We had some Macedonian rice dishes one wrapped in cabbage and another with turkey. For dessert we had a sweet Swedish rice dessert with strawberry sauce, saffron buns called Lussekatter and a pavlova cake. The only thing missing was Vietnamese food and we would have covered all the nationalities at this dinner. We always make too much food, but we made a pretty big dent in the food that was prepared.

Theodore had the most gifts of the family and he was thrilled, although he seemed to enjoy the wrapping paper more than the gift itself, I could tell he was loving the attention. He was excited all day and he could sense the fun energy in the room. There were so many gifts that it didn’t fit under the tree. Auntie Daisy Claus strikes again!

Once again, my sister gave the best gifts including this Mercedes Benz walker. She always gives the best gifts, hands down!

It was a beautiful evening spent with family, lots of food, laughter and love. I can’t wait until next Christmas when Theodore actually understands more of what it means! Maybe we’ll even have a visit from Santa!