Our Happy Holidays

Over the past few months we have been fortunate enough to travel to both Tennessee and Utah twice (well, Nate couldn't come to one of the Utah trips) and it was so much fun to see family, friends, and visit our hometowns again with Elliott. Elliott was severely spoiled during all these trips by doting aunts, uncles, friends, grandparents, and cousins (just as it should be). Flying with him is getting harder and harder as he gets more and more mobile, but we survived all the flights (although flying alone with him on three of those flights was very difficult), and the reward far outweighed the cost, especially since last Christmas we were not able to travel since I was late into my pregnancy. On my red eye flight on the way home from Utah, the couple sitting next to me wouldn't look at him when he was staring and smiling at them trying to get a response.  I was pretty appalled that you could not melt when he is smiling at you!

Our first trip to Tennessee was for a wedding for a high school friend of Nathan's in Kingpsort, TN in October.  I had never seen TN in the fall before and Elliott hadn't been at all.  It was very gorgeous with all the fall colors. In addition to Nate's parents, we also were able to see two of Nate's sisters who came up for the weekend as well. Elliott loved the half and half peanut butter and chocolate shake from Nathan's beloved fast food restaurant Pal's (seriously guys, he loves Pal's more than ALMOST everything), and the mexican food from La Carreta, the other restaurant that must always be visited whenever we go to Kingsport. He did great at the wedding (except when he cried when the bride held him) and of course looked super dapper all dressed up.

 

For Thanksgiving we went to Utah, and got to see the whole family. This was the first time that Elliott had ever been to Utah, and my mom was pretty dang excited, and she set him up his own playroom, which had all the toys that I instantly recognized from my own childhood once I saw them. His grandma was very entertained by feeding him all sorts of food that babies shouldn't be eating, just like my grandmother would. He also got to meet his great-grandmother for the first time. I enjoyed typical Price-style Thanksgiving this year of eating mainly stuffing for my Thanksgiving dinner (from inside the bird, the real deal).

Always gotta get me some cafe rio when in Utah

After just a few short weeks of being home, (during which I had a ton of work to do, like a meeting with my dissertation committee) we were able to travel to TN again for Christmas. Good old facebook kept reminding me of what happened there 5 years prior, the first time I spent the Christmas holiday in Kingsport, when I met the South, Nate's family, Pal's, La Carreta, DB high school, Church Circle, and the friendly man who helped Nate cut down our Christmas tree all for the first time, and Nathan proposed to me. Those 5 years have been preeeetttty amazing and I loved introducing Elliott to all of those things.  Elliott loved his first Christmas and all of our first Hanukkah (my BIL is Jewish).

exploring Boston

His new cozy Coupe from Grandma Price

Choosing our own tree in Boston

After Christmas, we went to Utah for a second Christmas, where the most important gift was a brand new, perfect, baby niece. Nate wasn't able to make the trip with us because it was a very long vacation, but Elliott loved getting more gifts, more food, seeing more of his grandparents and didn't really love his cousin stealing his attention, but I'm sure he'll love her soon!  In Utah, there was lots of snow, so he got to go sledding for the first time, which he loved, and I got the White Christmas that I was dreaming of.

Throughout all these travels and the past few months Elliott has really grown up into a little boy, and less of a baby. He is walking, says a few words, waves, claps, has LOTS of beautiful hair, he slept 13 hours last night without waking up, he is social, clever, loving, and so happy.  He now has food preferences, he still eats A LOT, but now he does so pretty well on his own since he has 6 teeth. It is SO COOL to watch him learn new things at such a fast rate.

We're so grateful for the past year.  Having Elliott was the best thing ever, and brought so much meaning and joy to 2016.  I am in awe of our child, I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! However, being new parents was pretty stressful. I loved enjoying quality moments with Elliott, but also all of the challenges of parenthood and working (mostly the combination of the two) made me feel like a lot of 2016 I was in survival mode and now that we are more normal functioning again (we're still crazy, but we were pre-baby, too) we are excited to start the new year and add back in some of the less essential parts of life that got lost somewhere between the sleep deprivation, pain, and stress.