The Baranko Family: A Baptized Santa Baby

Santa sure was good to our baby. I guess he was on the "good" list for his behavior these first few months of his life. We had a very full weekend of Christmas festivities, to say the least! We're so lucky to have so many people who love us in our lives. Thank you to everyone for your very generous and thoughtful gifts and the fun times.

Christmas Eve morning began with a celebration at Grandpa and Grandpa Mackus's house in Brookfield, WI. PJ is at a great age for Christmas and she was fun to watch. Grandma made Luke his very own beautiful stocking, as she made Kristin and mine when we were babies, Matt and Cory's after we were married, and Paige after she was born. Very special! Luke also is the proud recipient of a gorgeous hand carved "rocking horse" motorcycle. He can't wait to grow into it.

Christmas Eve afternoon and evening we had the Mackus family Christmas Eve at my Grandma's house. Per TRADITION! TRA-DI-TION! we ate too many meatballs and shrimp cocktail appetizers and then had take out Chinese food for dinner. My camera battery died so I don't have any shots from there, but I'll try and get some from Kristin or Mom to post later (they're all in Mexico right now! Jealous!)

Christmas morning Matt, Luke and I celebrated at home for the first time as a little family! Pretty sure Luke didn't really know what was going on, but it was fun for us. We had Christmas mass here in Lake Forest and then headed up to Antioch to attend party #3 at Matt's Aunt Diane and Uncle Garry's house. We had the crowd pleaser "Grab Bag" gift exchange and tons of deliciousness there. It is so nice to have Ben and Linda in town, as well as our cousins Jenae and Jeremy.

Playing with Aunt Linda

Jenae, Jeremy, Lennon and River here from CO

Luke sporting his new hat, knitted by Jenae!

Christmas night it started snowing, but that didn't stop us from forging on into party #4 at the Baranko's house in Downers Grove, IL. We were toasty and warm with a crackling fire and yummy Christmas bourbon balls. Luke was spoiled rotten all over again. All of the wonderful gifts were too much for him, he had to rest his eyes.

We got home in the snow safely late Christmas night, but it seemed like our heads had just touched the pillow when it was time to get up and prepare for Luke's baptism that next day. The baptism followed the Mass and Luke did great for most of it. He was perfect during the hour Mass, and for most of the 45 minute baptism afterwards. It was really only the last 15 minutes of the ceremony that he was pretty fussy. Not bad. Welcome to the Catholic Church Lukers! It was very special that Luke wore the baptismal gown that his great-grandfather Eichinger, grandmother and father all wore when they were baptized. Thank you to everyone who came, and special thanks to Godfather Ben and Godmother Kristin for the lifetime role they have taken on in addition to their uncle/aunt duties.

After taking Mom and Dad, Kristin, Cory and PJ to the airport on Monday morning for their vacation to Mexico, Matt and I were glad to have taken the day off work to relax and get organized after the busy weekend. We even had a chance to go cross country skiing for the first time this season while Isolene watched Luke. It was gorgeous.

Here are some other cute shots from the week too. Isolene took Luke to the library for the very first time, and he loved it! He's really starting to interact more with books, and can turn the pages himself on some of them.