A Wife and Her Coach: February 2013

Morgans first Christmas didn't go as planned. I was upset about it but tried to make the best of it. I am bad about building something up in my head and when it doesn't go that way I tend to freak out and/or get upset. Cory's team was in a tournament starting the day after Christmas in Springfield. The weather man was calling for us to get 4-6 inches, then 6-8, and then 8-10 Christmas day. As the inches kept climbing they were afraid that if we didn't get to Springfield before it started snowing, we wouldn't get there. Since the tournament is so huge and teams come from all over they do not cancel it for anything. If you don't show up, you forfeit. So the decision was made for the ball team to spend the night in Springfield Christmas night. Which messed our whole plans up. The original plan was to miss Christmas eve at Tara's house, wake up Christmas morning at our house, then head to Corning to have Christmas with Cory's mom, and then go to Grandpa Prater's house for Christmas night. We would then head home early the next day. Nope, that's not what happened. Since the boys were spending the night in Springfield Christmas night, we headed to Corning Christmas Eve. Which meant we missed Christmas morning at our house. We missed Morgans first experience of waking up at our house. I didn't really know how important it was to me until this happened. I knew I had to change my way of thinking or her first Christmas was going to be terrible because of me. I surely didn't want that to happen. So, I put my smile on, and went on.

First, we headed to Tara's house for that side of the families Christmas. It was a little crazy because it seems every year we keep adding people to the mix; babies, fiances, spouses, etc. It seems as thought Tara's house is getting smaller and smaller. Morgan was very content to stay in my arms which was fine with me because there were so many people and I was afraid she was going to get stepped on. For the most part she just sat on my lap and looked at people. Every once in a while someone would come along wanting to hold her. She would go to them but usually ended up crying and wanting to come back to me. I knew the problem was because it was so chaotic and loud. She is not use to that many people or that amount of noise. She did pretty good considering how much she was passed around.

Christmas morning we woke up at Cory's moms house. We thought Morgan might sleep in since she went to bed late but that was not the case. She was up at 7:00. Once everybody was up we let Morgan dig in. She loved the toys she got and eating the paper even more.

When we finished up Christmas in Corning we headed home to have our own Christmas. Morgan really had no idea what was going on and really didn't "help" open her presents. She just wanted to eat the paper that she did tear off. Some of the presents she got from us were pajamas, books, bath toys, the movie Cinderella, a talking stuffed animal and much more. She looked so cute in her Christmas pj's. It was definitely different having a baby around this year in a wonderful amazing way. It's no longer about us but about the most precious gift we have ever received. I remember last year, sitting on the couch looking at the Christmas tree, thinking about how it would be with a baby around. I had no idea it would be this special. Christmas was always fun and exciting but it means so much more now.