This year we had three Christmas celebrations in three days. It was a very exciting time for Anna and she loved seeing all of her family members and especially loved opening presents. By the end of it all, I think she was pretty overwhelmed and exhausted, but of course, that girl just kept on going, until she finally crashed when we got home.
I'll do three separate posts, one for each Christmas, so we can recount all the great details of each one!
Our first Christmas started on Christmas Eve at home. This year's Christmas was much more healthy than last years; while we did have a scare--I got a pretty fierce cold a few days before, but luckily got meds and it was kicked by Christmas Eve.
We spent the day enjoying a nice day at home. Brian prepared prime rib and we had other delicious sides for our special Christmas meal together. We went to Christmas Eve service at 4:00. This was Anna's first time since last year at Christmas Eve sitting through the entire service with us. It was wonderful to have her there and of course, we did a great job of planning ahead to make sure she would enjoy herself. Luckily this is a kid-friendly service, so she wasn't the only one making random noises throughout the service.
Here's Anna all ready to go to church with her Christmas dress and her Hello Kitty bag filled with crayons, coloring books, and stickers of course!
I asked Anna to stand in front of the tree for her Christmas picture...she did a pretty good job of letting me get a few!
She loves that her dress has pockets...pockets are one of her favorite obsessions right now. She loves to put things in her pockets, including tissues so she can "blow" her nose any time she wants.
When we got home from church, Santa had already been to our house! He came early! He must have known that we were going to be getting up early to travel the next day! He brought Anna lots of presents, so many it filled the entire sled he brought too!
When we walked in the door from church Anna knew these presents weren't here when she left and she was so excited! She kept pointing at them and saying "Santa" at the bag with Santa's picture on it. She didn't hesitate when we asked if she wanted to open them! She dug right in and after oohing and ahhing at each present, she would toss it aside and say MORE!
She was a pro at opening her presents. She knew just what to do and loved every minute of it!
A new kitty sweatshirt!
Daddy had to help with the tricky ones.
More presents.
Trying on her Elmo slippers.
Looking for more goodies.
Anna made out like a bandit! She got lots of fun stuff from Santa and Mommy and Daddy including: a sled, tickle me Elmo (which she loved, but was scared of when he was turned on), Elmo slippers, a new water bottle just like Daddy's, new shoes, an ornament, Pull-ups, swimming suit for next year, other beach stuff, crackers, fig newtons, new clothes and lots more.
It was a really fun Christmas celebration as a little family. It's definitely a change from Christmas last year. Anna barely opened presents or cared last year and wasn't even walking at this time last year. She was just starting to pull herself up onto furniture. It's amazing to see the growth and changes in one year. She's a pretty amazing little girl!
She enjoyed playing with her new stuff on Christmas Eve and then we got up Christmas morning, finished packing up our suitcases, had some cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and headed south to Iowa for our next two Christmas celebrations with Grandpas and Grandmas and Aunts and Uncles!
More to come....
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