Nolan's Advent Basket

I'm not entirely sure how to write this post. I've always felt incredibly grateful for my life here in AZ. We live in the same city as half of our family, which is such a great blessing and a luxury that many young families don't have these days. We have wonderful friends that we've grown up with, married into (Amy, Jackie, Becca) and had children with. And, we both have jobs (not a given in today's economy) where we get to do what we love and work with amazing people.

I especially am thankful for the people that I work with...they keep me grounded, help me when my days are going rough and make sure that I never get too stressed out with the daily grind. When I started with General Mills 7 years ago, I definitely didn't envision staying in the ever-so-glamorous (please note the sarcasm) grocery industry for long. However, I found that I enjoyed the work (at least most of the time) and that I LOVED the people. General Mills has brought me some of my closest friends and I can't imagine my life without them. One that I have to mention is Erin, aka, Auntie E. She, along with her husband "Uncle Gavey" have taken it upon themselves to spoil Nolan absolutely rotten. In years past, Erin has always done an Advent Basket for Gavin in the month of December. An Advent Basket is a basket filled with 24 gifts, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas. Well...this year, Erin asked if she could do an Advent Basket for Nolan as his Christmas gift. Normally, I'd refuse this as it is quite an extravagant gift, but if you could see how much joy Erin got from hearing the daily recap of how Nolan opened each gift the night before, you'd definitely understand how much she loves our little guy. Consequently, the Advent Basket has been renamed...the Basket of Love!

Thank you Auntie E!! Nolan loves all his gifts and I am thoroughly enjoying dressing him every morning since he has so many cute clothes now:)

(Erin and Nolan during the Holidays)

(His first night of opening gifts. Look at how full the basket is!)

(Didn't take long for him to catch on - by night two he'd learned to grab the package that he wanted to open that night)

(Wearing two of his Advent basket gifts. How cute is this hat!)

(Nolan loved the ribbon and strings that wrapped each gift)(Nolan reaching into the basket for gifts...he definitely understands what he's doing!)

(He's trying to eat the tissue paper...which just made it into a pasty mess!)