Christmas: Part Deux

Okay, so this is a recap of the rest of our Christmas holiday.  I thought it would be a good idea to get moving on it since it is a new year already!


Thursday night we celebrated Christmas with my dad.  Before he came over, Carys got this crazy burst of energy and was running around the house with her cupcakes and cracking us up.  We tried to snap a few pictures with her in the kitchen, but she wasn't really interested.

When my dad arrived, we had a very nice dinner and then opened presents.  Carys got this sweet, little rocker from my dad and she loves it!

It was a pretty low-key evening.  It was nice to just spend time with my dad, and after Carys went to bed he was able to stay and chat for awhile.  We called it a night pretty early though.  Scott had worked all day on Wednesday and then got called back in and ended up working all night, so needless to say, he was ready to get some sleep!

Friday morning, Scott made us breakfast and then had to head into work.  Carys and I had fun playing with her new toys for most of the day while we waited for Aunt Lynnette to arrive from Nashville!

She loves throwing all her toys in the laundry basket and then hopping in herself!

Finally, Aunt Nettie arrived and Carys had so much fun entertaining both of us.  Unfortunately, most of the pictures we took that night were on Lynnette's camera, so I only have a couple.

 Showing Aunt Nettie the Christmas tree, 

cleaning up the house,

chilling on the couch, 

"calling" Daddy!

Scott got home in time to help put Carys in bed and then the three of us had dinner and had fun catching up with Lynnette.  Then Lynnette ran out to see some friends, while Scott and I got to work wrapping presents and getting everything ready for Santa's visit! 

Christmas Morning!

Almost all of these presents, had Carys's name on them - apparently someone thought she had been a very, very good girl this year!

We decided to stay home and celebrate Christmas together as a family and we had such a great day!  We were so excited for Carys to get up that morning and open her presents.  She loved unwrapping everything, but then she immediately wanted to open the box and play with whatever was inside.  Needless to say, it took most of the day to finally open all of her presents!

After getting about halfway through the presents, we took a break for breakfast.  Scott made an awesome egg scramble and we had cinnamon rolls.  The cinnamon rolls were always a tradition with my family, and I've decided we need to keep it going!  We just had the tube kind this year, but I'm thinking next year I'll get a little more fancy and try my luck with the Pioneer Woman's recipe, since they are supposed to be the best!

After breakfast, we opened more presents.  We spent most of the day playing with Carys and packing for our trip up north.  For dinner, Scott and I broke out my new cookware and made my MIL's Swedish meatballs.  They were SOO good and Carys loved them!

 

 Then we just chilled together for the night.  It was so fun to watch Carys enjoy all of her new toys.  One thing's for sure, we are both blessed with families that love this little girl and have no problem spoiling her!

Scott had to work again on Sunday, but the plan was to leave around noon to head up north.  Unfortunately, Scott got stuck at work and we weren't able to leave until Monday, so Carys and I spent the day cleaning.  

She loves to help vacuum

and mop!

On Monday, we hit the road at 4 AM hoping Carys would sleep most of the way.  Thankfully our plan worked, and we made it to the bridge in record time!  We were heading up to spend the week with Scott's family and they were anxious for us to get there!

Of course, there was a whole new round of presents to open, so we spent Monday and Tuesday just hanging out, opening presents and playing.  Carys had a blast and she was in her glory with the non-stop attention from Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Hoon!  

We had such a wonderful Christmas, and it was so fun to watch Carys really enjoy it this year!

We are SO thankful to both of our families for helping to make it so memorable and for spoiling our sweet girl with so many wonderful gifts!  

Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given,
   and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We had our first family Christmas tonight and it was such a fun day!  Before everyone arrived I asked Carys to help me clean.  Her version of cleaning involves making a giant mess and then putting two things away.  Baby steps...that's better than nothing, right!

   

And yes, I put her in this crazy outfit - I pulled out everything she has that is Christmas-y and put it all on!  Next year, I may need to step it up a little in the holiday apparel department.

My sister, nephews and mom all came over early in the day, so we could hang out while the guys were working, and we quickly got to work ourselves making some sweet treats.    

Of course, lots of silliness ensued, but eventually we managed to assemble something that resembled the cute,  tiny village on the box.  I can't say that every house had the correct number of walls (and one may be missing a roof, that we decided would be the open air theater), but in the end we were pretty proud of our sweet little village! Oh, and in case you are wondering, "Yes, it's all eat-able" at least according to Tyler.

The tall white one is the theater - the entire left side is missing open.

And no cookie village is complete without a tall glass of milk to wash it all down, so Travis and Tyler are wondering....

Got Milk? 

Unfortunately, Carys missed the crazy, cookie village party because she was napping.  Probably a good thing though because we would have been missing a lot more of our "materials" if she was around.  I swear the only candy that child has had is a dum-dum sucker, but somehow she has learned to quickly identify all varieties, and is not happy (to say the least) when she's told she can't have any! 

She was super happy to wake up and see that her cousins were still here though - she loves playing with them!

She was also really excited to see that there were quite a few more presents under the tree.  

Shortly after her nap, Daddy, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Dave, Great Grandma and Bumpa arrived and we had dinner and opened presents.

Visiting with Great Grandma

Trying to steal the candy canes off the top of the boys' gift.

Opening her first present 

The family representing the "D"

Lovely pot holder Uncle Kevin!

Boys with Bumpa

And last, but not least, our elusive family photo.

We had a great day, it was so fun to hang out with my family and it's even better to watch Carys playing so hard and having such a good time.  I'm looking forward to every moment of this season, and so very thankful that the Reason for this magical Christmas time has so greatly blessed our family.  

Wishing you the JOY and PEACE of the season that only comes from HIM!

Merry Christmas!  

O Christmas Tree

Today we went to cut down our Christmas tree and it was a winter wonderland outside!  I was ready to get our tree in November, but Scott has been working a lot of hours, so we wanted to wait until he had some time off.  I was so excited to wake up this morning and see snow!  It was a perfect day to hunt for our tree!  

First I have to show you what Carys looked like this morning.  Scott got her dressed and then she wanted her mittens and boots on, so she was running around the house looking crazy!  She's been wanting to wear these boots ever since we brought them home.  Auntie Jenn, mom of our favorite quads, passed them along to us.  They are a little big, but Carys loves them!

We all got bundled up for the cold, and headed out to the farm.  Carys is not looking too happy here because Dad went outside without her! 

We were excited to get Carys outside when we got to the tree farm.  She hasn't played in the snow yet, but we were pretty sure she was going to love it...and she did!  They had sleds to help you drag your tree back, so we grabbed one, put Carys in and told her to hang on!

Not sure at first...

 but I think she liked it!

 Dad even let Mom climb in and he took us both for a ride!

After sledding through the trees, we found one we liked and stopped to let Scott cut it down.  Carys did pretty good walking in the snow, as long as she stayed on our sled trail.  It got a little too tricky for her when she veered off and tried to break trail!

I gave her a snowball and of course she had to taste it, yummy!

Scott didn't waste much time - he cut this down before we could yell "timber"!

Eating more snow...

Our master tree chopper!

After we got our tree bundled, we loaded up and headed home.  The snow had been coming down pretty good, so Scott started shoveling and of course, Carys wanted to stay outside and play too! 

She was having a blast, but the snow was pretty wet, so her hands were soaked.  I decided it was time to head inside before she got too cold, and she was not happy about this idea.  I think she would have played out there all afternoon!

After we got inside, we got down to business decorating the tree.  Carys loved checking out the lights, and I so wish I would have gotten a picture of her face when we first plugged them in...it was pure joy!  She helped pull out all of the ornament boxes and stayed so busy getting them ready for me to hang on the tree.  

(notice she has her boots back on!)

Today was one of the reasons I so love this season.  We got outside in the beautiful, white, fluffy snow, listened to Christmas music while we decorated the tree, and had a great time together as a family.  And now we are going to curl up in the glow of the lights with the whole house smelling like fresh pine, and watch a movie - pretty much a perfect day in my book!