There is a lot of hype around Baby’s First Christmas. And to be honest, I wasn’t expecting Caroline to really “get it.” I mean, she is only 9 months old. But I was so surprised how much fun we had with her. We definitely set the stage for some Christmas wonder in the years ahead!

Christmas Eve we spent visiting my brother’s neighbors, relaxing on their porch enjoying some good ol’ wassail and champagne, and putting Caroline in her adorable Christmas dress. You can see how she felt about that.

Once she and my nephew were down, we has some serious Santa-ing to do, so we got to work. I don’t know why, but it wasn’t until this year that I fully realized and appreciated my parents’ flawless execution of Christmas. When I look back at all of the Christmases of my childhood, the word “magic” doesn’t even do them justice. They were spellbinding, take your breath away, awe-inspiring events. The idea that as a parent, you get to be in charge of someone else’s childhood–that to me is such an amazing, terrifying endeavor. You just want to make it amazing. You don’t want to screw it up. You want them to always have that in their back pocket, that they can pull out as they get older, and it makes them smile. Christmas is one of those events that you just want to give it all you’ve got.

Which is how we found ourselves into the wee hours assembling toys, drinking martinis, stuffing stockings, and distributing realistic-looking reindeer droppings in the front yard. Because you know, it’s the little things that help add to the magic of Christmas. By the time we headed to bed, the living room looked like a sea of gifts.

One of our very favorites was this cool toy called Tubelox that we had as kids (they were called Omegles then). We put this sweet helicopter on wheels together to get the shock value we were hoping for, from our favorite four-year-old.  My brother Louis found these online (after not seeing them for about 20 years) so both of Caroline’s cousins–ages 4 and 2–got them for Christmas.

And of course, the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Here is the view of the sea of gifts from the second level.

After all this fun assemblywork, we took selfies to capture our excitement.

Here is the late night crew–the gift wrappers, stocking stuffers, martini drinkers, reindeer dropping distributors, helicopter builders.

Bring on Christmas morning!