{"id":10921,"date":"2011-12-06T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/blog\/?p=8368"},"modified":"2011-12-26T16:59:36","modified_gmt":"2011-12-26T21:59:36","slug":"365-days-of-bliss-babys-first-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/365-days-of-bliss-babys-first-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"365 Days of Bliss &#8211; Baby&#8217;s First Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Hello Sweet Shoppers! Lydia here. I hope you&#8217;re all having a wonderful December so far and that you are all enjoying the holiday season stress-free, sickness-free, and calorie-free. \ud83d\ude00 Many of you know that we had a new baby in our family this year\u2014our last. She came four weeks early, and I have to say that everything about her has been different from my other babies. It has been a different kind of adjustment than what I expected. But, she is SUCH a sweet, good-natured baby, and we love her to bits.<\/p>\n<p>Having a new baby brings lots of &#8220;firsts.&#8221; But, since we won&#8217;t be having any more kids, I am also very aware of the &#8220;lasts&#8221; that are occurring in our lives. This is our last &#8220;first Christmas&#8221;\u2014the last time that we&#8217;ll get to introduce the magic of the season to one of our kids. And, over the last week or so, I&#8217;ve been working on a little project that also marks a &#8220;last&#8221; for me: making a Christmas stocking.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after DH and I were married, I went to a local quilting store and found a pattern for some stockings. I made our stockings that year, and every year that we&#8217;ve had a new baby, I&#8217;ve added one stocking to the mix. Each of our stockings is unique in some ways and also incorporates fabrics from all the other stockings. I really love looking at all of them and seeing the pieces that they have in common but enjoying the ways that they are different as well.<\/p>\n<p>As I put together baby Kaylin&#8217;s stocking this year, I was very careful to make sure that pieces of fabric from all of the other stockings made it into hers. I really wanted her stocking to be a symbolic &#8220;wrapping up&#8221; of the family\u2014pulling us all together. I have to say it even made me a little emotional. I completed her stocking several days ago, but I decided that I hated the top portion, so I ripped it apart and redid that section of the stocking. I&#8217;m much happier with it now. And, here it is:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Kaylin's Stocking\" src=\"http:\/\/i184.photobucket.com\/albums\/x32\/ltarbox\/Kaylins-Stocking.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"318\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And, here is the whole family line-up. We&#8217;re complete now. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Family Stockings\" src=\"http:\/\/i184.photobucket.com\/albums\/x32\/ltarbox\/Family-Stockings.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"380\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When, I was a kid, every time we added a baby to the family (and I come from a large family of seven kids), we sang this song at Christmas time. This song always makes me happy, so I&#8217;m sharing it with all of you:<\/p>\n<p>Oh hang up the baby stocking<br \/>\nBe sure that you do not forget<br \/>\nFor the dear little dimpled darling<br \/>\nHas never seen Christmas yet<br \/>\nWe&#8217;ve told her all about it<br \/>\nShe opened her big blue eyes<br \/>\nI&#8217;m sure she understood us<br \/>\nFor she looked so cunning and wise.<\/p>\n<p>Oh I know what we&#8217;ll do for the baby<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve thought of the very best plan<br \/>\nWe&#8217;ll borrow a stocking from Granny<br \/>\nThe very biggest we can<br \/>\nAnd hang it by her dear Mother&#8217;s<br \/>\nRight here in the corner so<br \/>\nAnd write a letter to Santa<br \/>\nAnd fasten it on the toe. Write:<\/p>\n<p>This is the baby stocking<br \/>\nThat hangs in the corner here<br \/>\nShe hasn&#8217;t seen you yet, Santa<br \/>\nFor she only came this year<br \/>\nBut she&#8217;s just the blessedest baby<br \/>\nAnd, now before you go<br \/>\nJust cram her stocking with goodies<br \/>\nFrom the tip clear down to the toe.<\/p>\n<p>Oh hang up the baby stocking<br \/>\nBe sure that you do not forget<br \/>\nFor the dear little dimpled darling<br \/>\nHas never seen Christmas yet.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m off to cuddle my sweet little one before she&#8217;s grown and gone. But, I&#8217;m sending happy holiday wishes to each of you and your families. I hope this will be the happiest most peaceful season yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello Sweet Shoppers! Lydia here. I hope you&#8217;re all having a wonderful December so far and that you are all enjoying the holiday season stress-free, sickness-free, and calorie-free. \ud83d\ude00 Many of you know that we had a new baby in our family this year\u2014our last. She came four weeks early, and I have to say [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[129],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10982,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10921\/revisions\/10982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweetshoppedesigns.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}