With Christmas falling on a Tuesday this year, it was a nice long weekend away from work and time to just enjoy those around us and soak up the spirit of the season.
Rather than rotating all around to our different families, we decided to start some traditions this year to make it a little easier and stress free on everyone! Christmas Eve we will celebrate with dinner at my in-laws, then Christmas morning we will open our gifts at home, just me, Taylor and Lia, followed by heading over to my Dad's for brunch. After brunch, we will head to my Mom's for dinner. It is a full 36 hours but so much fun with all our family.
Lia was extra excited this year for Santa and to celebrate Christmas.... her joy of the season made it all that much more enjoyable for us.
Christmas Eve was a blast! We went over to my in-laws where Taylor's brother Morgan and his girlfriend Lynn and her parents joined us. We had an amazing prime rib for dinner... I swear my mother in law makes the best prime rib... followed by opening presents. Lia was more than ready and certainly tried to open more than her share of gifts. It was so much fun watching her enjoy the moment though. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures. One of the highlights of the night was when Santa (Taylor) called Lia on their home phone... Lia was hysterical. "Hello? Santa? Santa Claus? Where are you? Are you flying? Yes, I've been a good girl." She was too cute!
After we got home, we quickly put out some gingies (ginger snap cookies that Taylor's grandma Nan makes) and milk for Santa along with some grapes for his reindeer. Reindeer like grapes, right??? We were all out of carrots.
After getting Lia down to sleep, Santa got to work. Luckily, he got to work the night before too so everything was already put together and all we had to do was set it out. This was a great thing as I was exhausted by the time we got home and put her to bed!
This year's big Santa gift was Lia's pink and purple Jeep... just like Mama's white one. She also asked for some Barbies, a new Belle nightgown and white cheese balls, new candy and that is it. Santa also found some more princess nightgowns and a scooter and a Minnie's bowtique toy set to round things out.
The first thing she said when she walked downstairs Christmas morning was "my jeep, a pink jeep!" She was so excited!! And a bit overwhelmed! She was also almost more excited by a full stocking! That was a highlight of the morning for me watching her pull everything out of her stocking.
Santa ate all but part of one cookie and boy was she upset he didn't finish his cookies! Next year they will all be gone!
Here are some Christmas morning pics. Fortunately, we had a White Christmas here. It snowed all night on Christmas Eve and made for a perfect Christmas morning. Unfortunately, it was too snowy to take the Jeep out for a test drive, so our living room had to suffice. Look out!
After we finished playing we got dressed and headed over to my Dad's for Christmas brunch... once again, we didn't take hardly any pictures but had a wonderful morning. My brother and his girlfriend Alyssa joined us and my Dad, Shellie and Carlie. We decided to dive right into opening presents and had a blast again. Taylor and I were surprised with a new Nikon camera that will allow us to take some amazing pictures going forward. I feel so fortunate and blessed. I have been wanting a high quality camera since Lia was born and am beyond excited to get lots of use out of it. It even has a setting on it to take pictures of your sleeping babies' faces... how great is that!?! Everyone had a great time and then we enjoyed a delicious brunch. Lia even ate the eggs! She was a ham as usual and at one point asked the whole table to "laugh everybody!" at a joke she made.
After brunch and some play time we headed over to my Mom and Dave's for Christmas dinner. Since it was early afternoon, we started with presents. Lia now knows how to read her name and had a fun time picking out all her presents from under the tree.
The picture above is me putting on my new Tom Ford lipstick which was to die for and somehow that night disappeared... I am so sad about that! Guess I'm just not meant to have fancy lipstick!
Lia got a set of princess barbies and a new barbie box that unzips into a little house of sorts to set all the Barbies up on... at one point while we were cooking dinner, this is what we looked over to find.
She even zipped herself in in. This girl cracks me up!
Alyssa's daughter, Olivia, was able to join us in time for dinner. These girls love each other and I love listening to their conversations. So cute what goes on in little one's heads.
Lia also got a baby carrier for her Bitty Baby and decided to put it on along with a backpack and all sorts of other gear. If you look closely, you can see her Brownie baby's legs hanging out of it.
Oh man, those skittles are giving her crazy eyes!
After dinner we sat around talking and playing and I enjoyed playing with my new camera.
"what are you looking at?" Not the most flattering facial expression there!
We headed home around 9 and made it no further than 3 blocks before Lia was passed out in the backseat. It was one busy day and night and she was pooped.
We are so blessed and are looking forward to a great 2013 ahead!! Happy holidays to all with Love!
No comments:
Post a Comment