Curran's First Christmas.

What a special Christmas we had this year! 

Our first Christmas as a married couple we drove 2,000 miles in 10 days to see both families, and last year Joey was working---and since we had spent the whole summer traveling, we decided not to really do Christmas. So not only was this our first official Christmas at home as the Joseph Fleshman family, it was also our first Christmas with our sweet, seven month old Curran. 

Since the little guy has been waking up early after getting over a cold, we got a pretty good start on presents on Christmas morning. Curran was very interested in pulling off the wrapping paper....annnnd putting it straight in to his mouth. But once we were able to pry the soggy paper from his drool-covered hands he was quite attracted to his new toys his grandparents, aunties, and uncles sent him (thank you!).

[Watching him sit up on his own is the cutest. And Remy was such a help (hardy-har-har) with presents]

[This is Joey's attempt at his favorite Megan Conrad face. If you're not familiar, see here again]

[And yet even with his new toys he still wants his trusty Sophie]

For the past several months we've trying to come up with what our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals will be as we create our own family traditions. We weren't sold on the turkey spread because really, its just Thanksgiving a month later. So this year we did braised lamb and saffron rice with homemade flatbread for Christmas Eve, and for Christmas day, a lasagna bolognese with fresh pasta and a homemade bolognese sauce so good we even ate it on just steamed broccoli a couple days before. And to top it all off we made an out-of-this-world chocolate croissant bread pudding with raspberry truffle ice cream as a nod to one of our favorite desserts from our trip to Boston. All of our celebratory food was certainly a labor of love, but that labor was well rewarded and we think we've found our Fleshman family Christmas meals.

But as wonderful as watching Curran open presents and our Christmas meals were, the best part was having Joey home with us to celebrate Christmas and spend time as a family. I'm so grateful for the time he and Curran have had to bond and get to know each other. Honestly, Curran laughs more for Joey than he ever has for me. He loves Joey and Joey loves him, and its absolutely heart melting to watch the two of them interact. I love my boys!