Bicoastal Christmas 2011

This Christmas was a special one as we enjoyed the holiday with our little guy and celebrated from coast to coast.  We spent the days leading up to Christmas with the Kelletts in New York and enjoyed a chilly, cozy Christmas eve with family, delicious food, and lots of dogs!  Carter loved chasing the 4 pups around the house and was spoiled rotten with lots of presents from Nana and Grandpa Kellett.

We returned to Boston on Christmas day to prepare for our trip to the West Coast to celebrate with the Nelson clan in California.  We took a few shots of Carter in his Christmas pjs in front of the tree before getting packed up for the long trip.

The flight to the Bay Area was easy going and enjoyable primarily because we were unexpectedly upgraded to first class for the 7 hour flight.  Carter slept for a good portion of it and Chris walked the aisle to keep Carter entertained.  After the flight I actually thought to myself, flying with a baby isn't so bad after all.  Little did I know the return flight would be a different story.

First class, but hard to tell from the picture.  Only the best for Carter Bear!

The weather in California was amazing!  It didn't feel like Christmas outside, but I didn't mind too much because it was in the 60s & 70s and sunny!  We enjoyed our second Christmas celebration with Grandpa & Grandma Nelson and Uncle Ian & Aunt Liz.  Carter took the cake when it came to presents and he also discovered some new foods!  Surprise, surprise, he took quickly to ice cream, but he also gobbled down dozens of raspberries and lots of cheesy bread.  He also started cruising along the furniture and pulling himself up on everything!  We are excited and nervous about how mobile he has become.

We flew back to Boston and were fortunate to snag a whole row with high hopes our return flight would be as pain  free as our departure flight.  Carter enjoyed his seat for about 5 minutes and then he was determined to let us know he had no interest in sitting for the remainder of the flight.

Chris must have walked a few miles by the end of the flight going up and down and up and down the plane keeping Carter happy.  Finally the flight attendants noticed that Carter's head was bobbing and his eyes fluttering so Chris grabbed his seat for the descent at which point we sighed with relief that Carter had finally fallen asleep.

No sooner had we relaxed, when Carter's eyes opened 15 minutes later!  Chris and I looked at each other completely exasperated, but we tried to keep calm as we counted the minutes until we were on the ground. Fortunately we made it safely and are all recovered from our travels.  All in all it was definitely worth it to be with all of our family this Christmas season.