Christmas- Part One

This Christmas goes down as one of the highlights of my life so far. I am not exaggerating. Our first Christmas with Amelia was so special because we had our brand new baby girl with us to celebrate. Then, last year was fun because she had just turned one and all she really cared about was playing with the wrapping paper and boxes. But this year was all about the excitement!

The excitement had been building since Santa came to visit Amelia's pre-school class and brought her a baby doll. We had been talking about how Santa was going to come and bring more presents on Christmas. We even tried to meet him and have our photo taken with him a couple of weeks ago with Lindey and Pay, but I made the mistake of renting one of those strollers that looks like a car when we got to the mall and Amelia refused to get out of it. I was so over her for that! But what can you do?

We've been home for the last couple of weeks, we have been shopping, wrapping gifts, cooking and playing. We've also been talking a lot about Jesus and his birthday and Santa and the gifts he would bring. Amelia has almost "gotten it" this year. I'm looking forward to using these things even more next year as leverage for good behavior. She didn't quite catch on to "he's making a list and checking it twice" this year, but next year hopefully I'll be able to use this to my advantage.

Enough chatter, on to the pics!
Amelia, as always, had an extensive holiday wardrobe to squeeze into a few days. I know we are ridiculous, but what can I say? I just love her in red, and I never met a polka dot tight I didn't love. I appliqued this little Christmas tree shirt for her and I thought she looked so precious in it.

I was excited to start some fun traditions this year now that Amelia is old enough to participate, including making cookies for Santa. Mimi was pretty pumped to get to help in the kitchen.

The sprinkles were her favorite. She carried them all around the grocery store with her and couldn't wait to put them on the cookies.

On Christmas Eve morning, Papa came over to help You Know Who build the You Know What, and we happened to have his birthday gift waiting for him. Mimi was generous to help him open it. We try to always make sure Papa has a special birthday even though it is on Christmas Eve.

 Even though I didn't take a pic of it, he loved his new coffee mug with a collage of photos of him and Mimi to add to his collection. Funny sidenote: My dad is a huge coffee drinker. He drinks it all day every day, even when he's working outside in 100 degree weather. Last year, I thought it would be cute to get him a mug with Mimi's pic on it to enjoy while he drank his coffee. And I was right, he loved it. He loved it so much, in fact, that it is placed in a prime position on the mantle at my parents' house, lol.

Later on that day, we went to my grandparents' house for lunch. Amelia enjoyed playing with family, and especially enjoyed playing in this giant gift bag. Guess Santa could have saved some cash and just gotten her a few of those.

 This pictures aren't fabulous, but they are special to me because I love having photos of Mimi with her great grandparents. These are my mom's parents, the only grandparents I still have living.

 

After lunch, my dad came back over to give Cliff a hand, who had to miss lunch because he was still working on the swingset. Bless his heart, he worked so hard! They worked until after it got dark on Christmas Eve, but it was all worth it to see Mimi's face on Christmas morning...

...which is where I will pick up on the next post! We've got a lot of playing to do and not a lot of time to blog, so I'll finish this later.