Hope everyone had a great Christmas - we had a great time, made all the more special by having Oliver this year.

Erin's family came over for Christmas morning, it was a treat to be able to celebrate Christmas in our own house this year - Oliver must have known something was up because he was actually bright and alert as soon as we got him up (morning is usually the time he just sleeps away - the kid is usually a night owl).

After a brunch with Erin's parents we headed over to my Mum & Dad's for the Coleman family Christmas - far from a subdued affair with 20+ people round the tables. In both places Oliver was spoiled by both families - thankfully babies don't remember this age or it would take us years to change his expectations of Christmas! ;)

We had a great time with both families but it was also nice just to spend some time alone as a family once we got home last night. That's when Oliver decided to give us his gift.

He's been looking like he was on the verge of giggling or laughing for a week or so now, and even gave Grampa Jim a sneak preview earlier in the day (a dress rehearsal you could say) - but we didn't expect him to let loose quite like that just yet. That clip is the tail end of his little giggle session - we were to busy staring at him in shock and laughing to grab the camcorder right away.

It truly was a special end to a very special day.

Ryan

Well - Time sure flies doesn't it. Between Oliver's arrival, Christmas and increasing amounts of work the past couple of months have just been a blur. I finally managed to wrap up the last of our Christmas shopping yesterday - the snow storm provided excellent cover to keep the crowds at bay in the different shops. Two days before Christmas and Wal Mart was a ghost town!

We managed to keep up with most of the Christmas stuff this year - we got our first real christmas tree this year. Erin loves it, my skin doesn't. The putting up of the Christmas tree resulted in a pretty interesting reaction all up my arms - needless to say it'll be long sleeves next year (if I can't talk Erin back into our nice "looks real" tree). Erin did her usual fantastic job of decorating the house, giving us a great festive feel.

The only thing we didn't get around to was Christmas cards - they just didn't make the schedule this year. So if you didn't get one, you haven't been taken off the list or anything - no one got 'em. We'll be sure to send extra nice ones next year.

Oliver is doing great, every week brings something new for us (and him). Every week his "stories" get a little longer and a few new sounds are thrown in. We're in the licking and tastng phase it seems too, everything seems to take a pass by his mouth if he gets it close enough. So far he's been a really happy, mellow baby (knock on wood) - he doesn't really seem to have a fussy time, if he's acting up there's usually a reason. And, after 9 weeks, we're finally starting to be able to pick out which cry is which.

He still sleeps a lot of the day, but when he's up he's alert and playful. He'll happily sit and yabber on about something and as long as some one is paying attention to him, he's happy and smiling. Having him for Christmas will be really special - although I suspect next year will be the really fun christmas when he can open his presents himself. Erin was wrapping his presents the other day and commented "It seems kind of silly when you realise that we're wrapping these so we can open them".

The little guy is over 11lbs now and has even gained over 2" in length - he's just starting to grow out of a bunch of sleepers and such. But thankfully that means he's also growing into a bunch of outfits that Erin has just been dying to put him in.

Well - I should run, we're off the to now traditional Christmas Eve @ the Cooneys. We're doing our Christmas morning here at home this year, which we're both really excited about.

Hope everyone has a great Holidays!

Ryan (& Erin & Oliver)