A Southern Holiday with a celebration of 1 year of Harper

I can't believe how late this post is...Harper turns 1 and mom stops documenting. What kind of a mom am I? This is our trip to Texas for the holidays. We celebrated Harper's first Christmas and first birthday. It was wonderful to see so much family and watch Harper discover the wonder of the holidays.

The fun began Christmas Eve at Grammy Vecchio's house with Aunt Andrea. Harper got gifts from Aunt Deirdre, Uncle Martin and Aunt Pat, Aunt Andrea, and Grammy. Here she is opening a fun bath toy from Aunt Pat and Uncle Martin. We then went to Aunt Therese's to celebrate with the Lindners, and Bartholomews. This has been a tradition in Grammy's family since we all moved to Flower Mound in the late 70's/early 80's. I cannot remember a Christmas where I didn't celebrate with my cousins and aunts and uncles at Aunt Therese and Uncle Dale's with the trains below the tree. It meant so much to me to introduce Harper to the same tradition.

Christmas morning, Harper got to experience the Wille tradition of stocking opening. Her stocking, thoughtfully made by Nene was bigger than her, but she loved discovering everything inside. We all enjoyed laughing and spending time together while we opened gifts and enjoyed a yummy holiday dinner.

The best gift of the day was this activity table from Aunt Heather, Uncle Curtis, cousins Connor and Hunter. She still loves this table...almost 2 months later.

We had fun playing with the box...typical.

We took Harper to the park around the corner from Nene & Papa's house. Of course she loved the swings and eating bark.

Dinner with grown-ups...Harper made the transition to whole cow's milk and ate everything we ate the entire trip.

Harper and her cousins Hunter (Longhorns) & Connor (Red Raiders).

Aunt Andrea, daddy, Harper and I took a quick trip down to Kingwood to see Nanna & Nanno. We got a chance to reconnect with our cousins Frank, Mark, and Valeta Vecchio and their families. Frank's birthday was Dec. 28, so he and Harper celebrated together. Harper was also infatuated with Mr. Freeze's dog bed (Valeta's dog). Mr. Freeze wasn't so fond of Harper.

Exploring Nanna & Nanno's porch.

After returning back to Flower Mound, we spent time with Aunt Andrea and Grammy at Grammy's house. New Year's Eve, we went to Sonoma Grill (Aunt Andrea's and my favorite restaurant in Flower Mound). We had a great time although none of us made it to midnight (11:30).

We got a chance to see Uncle Marcus and Mollie. They brought Harper a fabulous teddy bear bigger than her. She also took her first steps at this Starbucks (although she didn't truly take off walking on her own until we returned home).

We made sure to celebrate Harper's first birthday with family. Aunt Trudy and Uncle Jerry provided the appropriate attire (my first birthday onesie). We had Nene, Papa, Grammy, Aunt Andrea, Uncle Dale, Aunt Therese, Aunt Monica, and Uncle John, yummy food and H's first birthday cake. She wasn't so sure what to do at first, but she quickly embraced the sugar of the cupcakes. :)

Everyone was spectacularly generous and Harper really started to get the hang of opening gifts. Dare we say she started to enjoy it?! It was a fabulous first birthday for our first baby. And can we just, holy cannoli, it's been a year and we're all still alive and healthy.

Harper is so lucky and so are we to have such a loving and supportive family.

We had time for one last trip to a park before flying out. Harper loved the swings and slide again. But this orange thing-y was not her favorite. Thank Aunt Andrea for saving her!