I was just thinking about how much has changed in two years. This Christmas, Little One will be more aware of what is going on than she was last year. Last year she was just learning how to open gifts. Okay, she wasn't really interested in the gifts and preferred playing with the boxes, gift bags, and wrapping paper!

What spurred this pensive moment for me?

 Wean Green is having a contest and to enter, all you have to do is give Wean Green your "green" holiday tips and submit your favourite holiday photo. I won't tell you what my "green" holiday tips are. DUH! I want to win the prize too! However, I will share my favourite Christmas photo.

Of all the adorable, beautiful, memorable family photos I've accumulated and stashed away in photo albums over the years, this one of Little One's first Christmas takes the cake. True, it doesn't appear to be spectacular or anything, but the story that goes with it is.

When I gave birth to Little One, she was twelve weeks premature. That meant she'd have to spend the first seventy days of her life in the NICU. That meant she'd have to spend her first Christmas there too. With Hubby having to commute between the Island and Toronto every other week to be with us, being there on Christmas would be a challenge.

Not only was I not able to be at home with my baby, but my husband was six hours away from us DURING THE HOLIDAYS!!! I know, I know. Sob, sob. Boo hoo.

What happened next changed my perspective on the whole not being able to be with my family during Christmas though.

The Linden Fund put together a Christmas dinner for all the parents with babies in the NICU! When I walked into the NICU, the nursery was decorated with Christmas lights, garlands, ribbons, and each isolette and crib had a stocking hanging for each baby in the NICU. Books, stuffed animals, Lindt chocolate, and some useful items for parents and tots filled the stockings.

I was touched. I cried. It really, really meant a lot to me that people would go out of their way like that for parents who are going through a rough time and who have babies in the NICU. It also made me feel like Mount Sinai was home away from home and the NICU/Linden Fund/other parents were our extended family.

Little One did get her first photo with Santa (above photo). We couldn't take her out of her isolette, but Santa was able to pose next to her!

Thank you so much to everyone at the Linden Fund and  Mount Sinai's NICU. You will always be family to us.