Baby's First Christmas

Nothing says fun like a 10 hour car trip with a 10 week old, so for Christmas we packed the Equinox to the brim, dog included, and headed to Harrisonburg, VA. Grandma and Grandpa could hardly contain their excitement to see Jackson again... I guess seeing us was okay too.

















Harrisonburg is practically on the Skyline Drive, so there is a ton of great hiking, caves and parks close by. We took baby J to Skyline Caverns with some of Matt's college buddies from Virginia Tech and afterwards we hit a wine tasting. Last year they invited us to share their house for New Years. This year... not so much :)




















Aunt Erin and Erik were able to come up for most of the week. For a month before our trip I excitedly checked the weather looking for snow. It doesn't matter how little it is, snow is exciting to a Floridian. Last year we tried to go snow tubing, but after suiting up and driving to the resort found out that you had to buy tickets a day in advance. This year we were prepared. Only thing missing was the snow.
Great Grandma and Grandpa Unger drove down and spent Christmas night. Jackson has 5 living great grandparents and now he has met all of them!

We also took Jackson on his first hike. On the way there I spotted a truck with something strapped on top. I excitedly tugged on Matt's sleeve and craned around convinced it was a bear, which it was. Being naive I thought it was a bear relocation program. Wrong. We heard plenty of dogs the whole afternoon and saw plenty of trucks on our way out of the park. Matt's mom told us that bear hunting is big in that part of Virginia. Ew.






























We really can't thank Grandma and Grandpa enough for putting up with us for an entire week. We loved every minute of it. Jackson of course got way too many presents, but by far everyone's favorite was his stocking.

Fun Times as a Two Month Old

Between visitors, Christmas parties and traveling ourselves, Jackson's second month absolutely flew by.

At his 8 week appointment he weighed almost 12lbs and was 24" long. He rolled over for the first time that same week!


He's getting to be a lot more fun now and reaches for his little toys, smiles at everyone he sees, and just generally pays a lot more attention to what's going on around him.










Matt joined the church I've belonged to for a while, Trinity United Methodist. Jackson goes with us to the services and so far has been very quiet. He didn't care for the hand bell concert, but neither did I.

Sara's mom, Eileen, came to see us for a few days. She is my second mom and it was very special to get to spend time with her. She made Jackson several blankets that he uses all the time and brought him the cutest little Christmas outfit which he wore to two parties (see below).




















He is quite the ladies man. Strangers don't bother him yet, but he sees our friends a good bit so he probably knows them by now. Sadly, our great friend Marisa moved back to Indiana. We will really miss her.

Meeting Cousin Meredith

My sister Rachel wanted to come see Jackson while he was still a newborn, so she and my mom and niece Meredith flew up to see us the first weekend in December. Meredith is a little over one and a half and I hadn't seen her since the summer so we were all very excited about their visit. Meredith calls Jackson "Jacka" and loves looking at pictures of him on the phone, but she was a little scared of him in person.




Since it was cold and such a short trip we didn't have time to do too much, but we made it over to the Botanical Gardens for an afternoon. Meredith had a great time running around looking at the coi and swinging on the swings.

Nana finally got to give Jackson a bottle while we were there. I think he looks a little like her in this picture, but for the most part he is a mini Matt. Meredith is 100% mini Rachel, which cracks us up. While we were at the gardens Jackson was in his little strap on carrier and when they got home Meredith spotted a lady at the mall wearing one and got all excited thinking it was Jacka. She was also convinced that baby Jesus was Jacka, and no amount of explaining ever got that one out of her mind. She is just adorable and I wish we got to see her more!

Turkey, Trees and Toddies

Before we got married Matt and I agreed that since our families are both so far away, we would "trade" major holidays every other year. This year I had Thanksgiving and he had Christmas. Since Jackson was only 6 weeks old I wanted to stay at home, and happily Matt's family was able to drive down to our house. My Grandad came up from the lake and our good friend Marisa was also there. You would think with a house full of southerners (minus Marisa) we could all make gravy, but turned out only one of us knew how... good thing I had a supervisor.

Matt made a cajun brined turkey on his big green egg that was pretty darn tasty. I wanted to try a few new recipes, one of which was Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes. Delish! We also made the infamous Atomic Peas. Nothing healthy about them, but not a pea left afterwards.
















There is a cut down your own Christmas tree farm not too far outside of Birmingham so the day after Thanksgiving we headed down there. My family is the "oh, it's Christmas Eve so maybe we should get the tree out of the attic now" type, so getting a tree in November was definitely a first. The tree farm was also doing hay rides and still had the corn maze left up so it ended up being a really nice little trip. I think we've started a new family tradition.


After all that work we needed some relaxation and football, so we headed over to the just opened Avondale Brewery. Their logo is an elephant. Turns out that years ago the zoo was in the same park where the brewery is now. The elephant trainer walked the elephant around the neighborhood every day and let him swim in the pond at the park. Little kids fed him ice cream. The elephant lived there for years until the zoo moved. The brewery has some great beers on tap and is off to a promising start for being a very cool place in Birmingham.





















We also went for a nice little hike over at Aldridge Gardens, one of my favorite spots. Mr. Aldridge loved hydrangeas and they still grow some of the prettiest flowers you've ever seen.