A belated Feliz Navidad!  We decided to stick to our tradition of heading south for warmer weather since Charlotte still doesn’t know about the whole Santa Claus thing.  It’s taken me a full week to recover from our week in Mexico with sweet baby Charlotte.  Her latest nickname is “Turbo” so you can imagine what a week of traveling with that little girl can do to a couple of parents (boo hoo, right?).  Needless to say, the beaches of Playa del Carmen made it well worth it.   We loved spending our first Christmas with Charlotte playing in the sand.

Playa del Carmen is one of our favorite places to vacation.  This is where John proposed to me three years ago so it was a full circle moment to have Charlotte with us this time.  Of course, it was quite a different trip with a baby.  Charlotte is such a trooper and, for the most part, a good traveler.  She loved the beach and pool which provided hours of entertainment.  She kind of struggled with sleeping due to a different crib and new noises in the hotel.  I think every trip we learn about ten new things we will do different next time.  For instance, it’s not a good idea to give Charlotte Benadryl on the plane.  It has the opposite effect and turns her into “super Turbo”.  That was fun.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the ancient city of Tulum.  It was great to get out of Playa del Carmen for the day to see some of the Mayan ruins.  John told me he would try his hardest not to bring up the Mayan calendar while on site … probably a little too soon in my opinion.  At least we made it to 2013, right?!

I also have to document one of the lowlights which was when John came down with a bad case of food poisoning.  I swear he has a stomach of steel so I really didn’t know what to do when he got sick.  He was down for a full two days.  Thank goodness nothing happened to me or Charlotte – such a helpless feeling to be outside of the country.

We had such a fun holiday.  The time spent together as a family is irreplaceable and what Christmas is all about to us.  The challenges make it all the more memorable.  Happy first Christmas to our baby Charlotte!  I hope she’s a really good girl this year so Santa will bring her more sunny days on the beach.