Christmas Highlights

2009 was the Christmas it snowed and snowed and snowed!  2010 was the Christmas we went everywhere!  We started our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve with a visit to Doug's brother's house.  We had some snacks, the kids opened a few gifts and we visited and checked out my brother-in-law's new home.  Very nice time, except that we had to be there right about naptime.  This was no big deal last Christmas.  Katie napped anywhere.  Not so much these days.  She fell asleep in the car on the way there, but of course was wide awake when we got her out of the car.  Just a little 5 minute power nap.  Then she proceeded to not get more than 6 inches away from me for the first 30 minutes or so.  After that she was fine.  She happily explored this new place and found all the cool toys!  Thankfully, we were able to extract Breanne's stuffed leopard from her without too many tears.

After our visit, we decided a nice little drive around would be good before heading to Christmas Eve services at church.  Our plan worked, Katie fell asleep right away and got in a good 30 minute nap.  We felt pretty good about that and headed into church with a happy girl.  She made it through the first song or two and then the wiggling began!  This wasn't so bad, but she's getting pretty strong these days and I was having a hard time trying to keep her still.  Passing her off to Daddy wasn't an option, because that just made her mad and then she got loud.  Fortunately, there were some very nice ladies sitting behind us making faces and engaging her.  Still though, when she started the head butting, we decided it was time to leave (it hurt!)

We probably should have went home with our cranky and tired girl at that point, but we still had to go out to my Grandpa's for more Christmas celebrations.  Katie had a good time playing with her cousin Kirsten, as always and was generally in a pretty good mood.  Still, we knew she wasn't going to make it much longer, so we kept our visit short.  We still had to get Katie in bed and get ready for Santa!

Christmas morning was of course the morning that Katie slept in, not that we're complaining.  Doug & I were up around 7 or so, but Katie didn't stir until 7:30.  We were pretty excited to get her up so she could see what Santa brought her...

She was pretty excited when she saw it, she even said "ooh..."

Santa also filled Katie's stocking with some fun toys, books & bubble bath.  From Mommy & Daddy she got some new clothes, jammies and a book.  She loved that as well.

About halfway through opening up her gifts, she threw her hands up in the air and proclaimed "all done!" and walked away.  It took quite a bit convincing to get her to come back in and Mommy ended up opening the rest of her presents for her.  Doug and I had a nice Christmas as well.  Doug & Katie gave me some perfume that I'd been wanting and Katie & I gave Doug a magnetic drill bit thing-y for his drill that he'd needed. 

After we finished up our gifts we got ready to go and went to my parents' house.  There were many more presents to open there and once again, just not enough time.  But, it was still nice and Katie left there with quite the stash of toys and a new toy box (thank goodness!)  This was one of her favorites!

Doug & I weren't left out there either!  Doug got a new winter coat that and I got some new cartridges for my Cricut, among other things.  Santa just forgot to send the gift certificates for extra time to use them!  :) 

Our visit at Mom & Dad's was just the start of the day.  We had a really yummy Christmas dinner at my Grandma's...smoked turkey...yum!  Katie played with more of her cousins.  They had a blast playing "Ring Around the Rosie," Katie loved "all fall down!"  She was definitely wearing out though.  She had a bit of a meltdown while we were there (who can blame her, poor girl had been going nonstop for 2 days!) so we decided it was time to make a quick visit to Doug's grandma before getting our cranky girl home for the evening.

We had a nice visit there, and were pleasantly surprised to see Aunt Patty & Uncle Steve and Doug's mom met us there.  Katie played and was generally adorable and we were sent home with a plate of cookies and some Christmas money.  :)

Needless to say, Katie slept great last night.  We spent the entire day at home and she has had a great time playing with her new toys.   I think I've finally gotten everything put away!  We still have one more Christmas celebration on Tuesday night at our house with Doug's family.  Wednesday the tree will be taken down and Christmas will be over for another year.  We hope everyone's Christmas was as lovely as ours.  Goodnight!