It's been so long ago, I don't know if I remember everything from Christmas, but I'll try!
Here are some pictures of the kids after we put up our tree.
We also took the kids to see Santa at the Riverwoods Shopping Center in Provo. Anna fell asleep on the way. Then when we woke her up she was all excited to see Santa...until it was actually our turn, then she screamed and cried anytime we asked if she wanted to sit on his lap. Paul didn't mind though.
We celebrated our 6th anniversary a few days early, also at the Riverwoods. We got a sitter for the kids and went out to dinner and took a little winter walk to see all the Christmas lights.
The next day was our ward Christmas party. The planning committee went all-out with the decorations and we had a full cardboard Bethlehem backdrop. The evening included dinner and a program with songs and messages about the Savior. It was a change from the usual Santa visit, and I really loved it.
Anna testing out the cookies I made for the Christmas party
The day before we left for SD, Derek took the day off work and we had a little early Christmas with just our family. We opened our traditional pictures of Christ and the gifts we got for each other (excluding Santa gifts). The kids loved their new cars and car tower, and Anna played with it almost all day. (Paul couldn't really put the cars down the track, but now that he can stand up on his own, he loves it a lot more.) We built Anna's first snowman in our front yard, using baby lid jars for eyes and a jalapeno pepper for a nose. :) We just had a really fun day together as a family.
We left for Mitchell the next morning (Saturday before Christmas). Paul thankfully did really good on the drive. We were nervous because he didn't do so great on our San Fransico trip, but I think he figured out that it was going to be another all-day trip and just resigned himself to being stuck in his car seat haha.
My whole family was home for Christmas which was so nice. We got to see Maggie for the first time since she got home from her mission (and, for Paul, for the first time ever)! Our week in SD was pretty laid back. We went to see a Christmas concert by Point of Grace at the Corn Palace and Maren and her choir got to perform couple songs with them! That was fun. We got family pictures taken OUTSIDE and they turned out really good despite the fact that our teeth were all chattering. We baked and (intricately) decorated Christmas cookies...seriously, some of those cookies were works of art! Grandma watched the kids one night while the rest of us went to see the new Star Wars movie. We went ice skating. We played lots of games. Anna played lots of Littlest Pet shop and doll house and Pretty Pretty Princess (mostly with my dad haha). Paul practiced standing on his own, learned to climb the stairs, and tried (unsuccessfully) to corner the cat. We all ate way too much food. And just enjoyed being all together for a whole week. I was terrible about taking pictures, but here are the few we took.
Our beautiful cookies
Playing Pretty Pretty Princess
The Reindeer food and poem my sweet dad put together for Anna.
The ball pit Paul got from my parents was a hit!
Anna riding the tractor in the lobby of the Corn Palace
Just having a little heart-to-heart with Aunt Maren!
The day after Christmas we were planning to drive to Denver to spend a few days with Derek's dad and stepmom, but we got about a foot of snow Christmas day and were stuck in Mitchell until Sunday. Luckily, the kids had lots of new toys to play so it wasn't too bad sticking around an extra day. Anna also had a blast playing in the snow with Uncle Trevor and Aunt Megan. Luckily, Megan is awesome about taking pictures, so I was able to steal these from facebook.
Being pulled in the sled
She's the cutest
The next day was Sunday, so we went to church and left right after sacrament meeting to drive to Denver. The roads were pretty clear, and we made it in just over 9 hours. We enjoyed spending a few days with Mike, Joy, Kyle, and Amanda, and also enjoyed seeing Emily and Quinn as well as Derek's grandparents. We also took the kids to see The Good Dinosaur...Anna's first movie in the theater, and she loved it! And technically Paul's too. He wasn't too interested in the movie, but LOVED the popcorn. He ate about half the bag and then promptly fell asleep haha. And I don't think I took a single picture the whole time we were in Denver. Sad! I really need to be better at taking pictures!
For New Year's, we had lots of Derek's family in town for his cousin Kailey's wedding. We had his mom and aunt and their husbands stay with us and had the whole crew over for New Year's Eve (again, no pictures!) But here are a few from the wedding reception, which was Jan 2nd.
Christmas is hands-down, without a doubt my favorite holiday. I love everything about it. Derek always laughs at me because I get so excited about everything Christmas. For me, the anticipation usually starts as soon as it gets cold and snowy outside. That's when I start feeling Christmas in the air! Usually in Utah, that's about the beginning of November. However, Derek is in the "No-Christmas-music-or-decorations-before-Thanksgiving" camp. We've argued about this before. He's of the opinion that Thanksgiving should be it's own holiday with no Christmas overlap. He thinks it gets "overshadowed" by Christmas. I, on the other hand, do agree that Thanksgiving and Christmas get blurred together, but I like it that way! The way I see it, Thanksgiving is about being thankful and what do we have more to be thankful for than the birth of Christ? The two holidays go hand-in-hand in my mind, and therefore, I am perfectly alright listening to Christmas music all through November AND December. We do, however, wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up the Christmas tree and decorations. Sometimes, a happy marriage involves compromising. :)
This Christmas was extra special because it was Anna's first one. I kept thinking back to last Christmas when we were waiting for her to come any day. It's so weird to think that just over a year ago, she wasn't born yet. The last year has gone by so fast, but at the same time, I feel like Anna has just always been a part of our family. I can hardly remember what life was like without her!
We went to Denver this year for Christmas. We were able to stay a whole week, which was really nice, and we got to spend time with all of our family members who live in the area. Everyone loved having Anna around. I'm so glad she's the type of baby that will go to almost anyone. She loves people! And they love her!
Here are some of the highlights...
Watching the Broncos game and making Christmas cookies at Mike and Joy's.
Going to the Riddle family Christmas Eve-Eve party.
Making tamales on Christmas Eve. It is an almost all-day affair. It took Karry, Sterling, and I almost 45 minutes to assemble them all, then they had to be cooked in two batches, which took another several hours. Tamales are quite labor-intensive, but oh-so-delicious!
Getting to be in a nativity "pageant" with Scott and Kristine's family. We stopped by to say hi on Christmas Eve and they asked us if we wanted to join in. Anna was a rather large and active (and female) Baby Jesus, but I guess she fit the role better than the teddy bear they were going to use before we showed up. :) I was glad we got to participate because it is one of my favorite Ireland Christmas traditions.
Watching Anna "open" her gifts Christmas morning. We actually got to sleep in until 8:30...one of the nice things about Anna being too young to care about Christmas! She loves the baby doll she got from Santa. She is so cute with it, cuddling her and giving her kisses and patting her head.
Building towers with Anna's blocks and watching her knock them down.
Going to Derek's grandma's house for Christmas dinner. She has a beautiful rustic home nestled right up in the mountains, and I had never been there before. The view is gorgeous! We had a traditional Lontine Christmas meal of pickle enchiladas (yes, pickle...don't knock it till you try it!), rice, and pinto beans. Ted, Michelle, and Trevor were there too and we had a nice evening visiting and exchanging gifts.
Anna got two gift bags full of CUTE clothes from Great-Grandma Lontine!
Spending the day after Christmas in Colorado Springs with the Boyds and Grandma Buckner and Ron. We spent the afternoon eating, playing games, shooting sling shots...and opening more gifts.
Attempting to go to the zoo lights, but changing our minds when we got there and saw the hundreds of cars and people waiting in line! Instead, we went downtown to the civic center which was less decked-out, but also much less crowded!
All in all, it was a really good Christmas. Even though Anna didn't really understand what was going on, it was so fun to have a kid around for Christmas. We loved helping her open her gifts and watching her play with her new toys!
The only downside of loving Christmas so much is that I'm always just a tiny bit sad when it's over. But luckily, with each new year comes plenty of new things to look forward to. Here's to a happy 2014!
