Our First Christmas

We had a lot of fun spending our first Christmas in Oregon. There were a lot of people that we had not yet met, so we were passed around and held a lot--we won't complain about being held! We also spent a lot of time having our pictures taken. While we won't both smile at the same time on command, we tried our best to cooperate. 

Our airplane landed in Portland at 1:00 in the morning. Of course, we didn't know the difference, but Mom and Dad were both pretty tired when G-ma and Papa met them in the airport. When we arrived at G-ma and Papa's house, our Great Grammy was waiting to meet and hold us. Mom and Dad didn't get to bed until about 4:00 am, which was 6:00 am Texas time. Oh well, we've trained them to function well on very little sleep. The next morning we all got up and had family photos taken. I got to meet all of my cousins, and they all got to hold me.

Here we are with Mom and Dad on our first Christmas.

Audrey wants to be a babysitter when she grows up. Lia gave her some good practice.

Even LuLu wanted in on getting to hold us.

Just the girl cousins.

All the Gerig cousins.

Lindsey and Lia--all dolled up.

We finally finished pictures and got to relax for the afternoon. It was a cold and windy day, so Lia and I stuck around the house and cuddled with everyone. The big kids had to go to the church for play rehearsal. That evening, everyone came back home and we had China Faith for dinner and opened presents. Mom and Dad told us that China Faith was an important place for us because that's where they announced that they were pregnant back in the Spring--but they didn't know there were two of us back then. Anyway, we had a lot of fun watching all the hustle, but we fell asleep before we got to open anything.

Lindsey helped pass out presents.

Rhett ate the presents.

LuLu organized the presents after they had been opened.

Audrey delivered presents.

Alex kept us all in line.

Uncle Jim, Auntie Jess, and Rhett.

Audrey's new book.

Lia's present from Great Grammy--a locket with her name on it.

My present from Great Grammy--a locket with my name on it. Grammy says we're supposed to put a picture of our boyfriends in it. Mom says boys are bad.

And this is how we spent most of our time amidst all the present opening.

Here we all are again! We love our cousins!

Once the presents were over, the big kids took their baths. We then had a whole new photo shoot wearing the matching PJs from G-ma. Poor Audrey was VERY upset because our cousin Lucy took her blanket. LuLu didn't want to give it up. So Audrey and I pitched a fit. You can see that LuLu was sitting in these pictures gloating with the blanket under her legs.

See how mad Audrey and I are while LuLu sits there with that smug look on her face?

Then, Audrey managed to calm me down. This made her much happier, and everyone forgot about the silly little blanket.

LuLu even decided to give Lia a kiss.

Audrey has a special way of making me happy--it must be because we both had weird belly buttons when we were born. We have a special bond. :)

Just the boys--we have them outnumbered, big time!

Lindsey and Lia had a good time together.

After awhile the adults all left us alone. Rhett was in charge. We laughed at his goofy hat, but he took good care of us. Next year, we'll give him a run for his money--two on one.

We decided to practice our synchronized swimming routines while no one was watching. Rhett was trying to teach us how to frog-kick. I guess two extra months give you some special talents that we don't have quite yet.

I was pretty happy playing with Rhett's babysitting skills, but I think we wore him out--he looks a bit overwhelmed. 

The next day, we woke up to go to church. We put on our nice dresses again. Our cousins held us during church and taught us how to stay real quiet. We were very well-behaved during the service as always. 

On Christmas Eve, we watched White Christmas--a Gerig tradition. Grammy got so comfortable holding Lia that she fell asleep. It seems we have that effect on people.

That night, the Toroks and Sloans came over for dinner. We enjoyed the smells of a ham dinner and once again got passed around.

Auntie Mary thought we were pretty cute.

Our cousin, Malia was pretty proud that Lia's name was very similar to hers.

On Christmas Day (which happened to be the first day we both slept all the way through the night at the same time), all the cousins came over again for turkey dinner. Auntie Katie had to work, but we still had a pretty great time with everyone. Audrey practiced her babysitting skills some more and is really good at calming us down. In fact, she sang to me a couple times which worked very well.

After Christmas dinner we headed to the beach where we got to spend time with Nana and Grandpa Jensen. We relaxed and watched movies together.

The two of us woke up each morning around 6:30. After our feeding, we'd fall back asleep together on Mom and Dad's bed. They kind of like this new sleep routine we've got.

Nana and Grandpa were good at cuddling with us.

All in all, we had a great first Christmas and are excited to be a little more present for it next year!