My First Christmas

by Gabriel Totten

This was my first Christmas. I was really excited for it because I heard a lot of talk about family get togethers (where I get held constantly and so I never have to have naptime alone in my crib) and also a lot of talk about food.

On Wednesday before Christmas, Mommy took me to Aunt Lisa's and Aunt Sara was also there and we decorated sugar cookies! Well, I mostly watched but a couple times I made suggestions about how to decorate and Mommy seemed to understand me (sort of...one time I very specifically said "ahh cahh", which of course means 'use red icing and draw concentric circles'....but Mommy used white icing and drew lines. I was sort of frustrated but I'm really trying to be patient with her because I've heard that it's hard to learn a new language when you're an adult). I heard Mommy, Aunt Lisa and Aunt Sara say "these cookies taste really good!". I thought I'd be able to try some, after being part of the team that worked so hard to decorate them, but -

Mommy gave me formula.

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and I was held pretty much the whole time (yesssss!!) and then it was time for dinner and I heard Mommy and Daddy and everyone laughing that we were having lasagna for dinner instead of turkey and everyone was saying it was really yummy and I thought I'd be able to try some, but -

Daddy gave me formula.

So I spit up A LOT all over my Christmas outfit, just to let everyone know how I felt about the injustice of the menu differences. Grandma and Grandpa gave me another Christmas outfit and Mommy was really excited that I would have another one to wear on Christmas Day, since I spit up so much on Christmas Eve (good! she noticed!).

Christmas morning we woke up and Mommy said I was so cute she had to do a photo shoot. I'm used to this by now so I gave her a few smiles (at first I thought Mommy had a weird black thing attached to her face but then I heard Daddy say "Gabe's going to think that camera is attached to your face" so I figured out that the black thing was a camera, and also Mommy talks a lot about "pictures to remember this time" when she's using it so I try to be good about letting her take lots of pictures. Thank goodness Daddy explained what was going on...he does that a lot and I sure am glad! Like the time when Mommy was holding me and I smiled at her and she started crying and hugged me really tight and I didn't understand how smiling and crying go together and I was getting starting to get a little squished by Mommy's hug but then Daddy said to Mommy "Are you crying? Gabe's going to think it's not okay to smile if you cry every time he does it" and then Mommy said "He's just SO PRECIOUS!" so then I figured out that she was crying because she was happy.)

Christmas morning Mommy and Daddy heated up a breakfast casserole that Grandma made and it smelled so yummy, but -

Mommy gave me formula.

I gave Mommy a really cool picture frame where she can put pictures of me during my first year of life (I figured she needed a place to display all those pictures she takes!) and I gave Daddy a really funny card and a couple of new black shirts that I can spit up on because Daddy loves it when I spit up on his black shirts.

Christmas day we went over to Aunt Lisa's and she was cooking a turkey and it smelled so yummy and everyone agreed with me and there was garlic mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and roast and sweet potatoes, but -

Daddy gave me formula.

AND - Mommy showed everyone my backside because apparently it had a reindeer on it!

I really hope that next year I get to eat some of the yummy food that everyone is talking about!