Christmas 2014

Christmas Morning:
Natalia and Quinton were up bright and early at 7am.  Those two are like clockwork.  We had to hold Natalia off until 8am, because we really wanted to let Lydia sleep as much as possible.  The girl needs her sleep, and with late nights and no naps every minute in the morning counts. So 8am rolls around and Charlie went to get Lydia out of bed.  Thankfully she was happy to come downstairs and not grumpy that she was just woken from her beauty sleep.  We had the kids open their presents from Santa first.

Princess Twilight Sparkle with rainbow wings

Fluttershy with rainbow hair

Quinton got a rocking horse toy thing that Natalia had picked out at Target and deemed as what Quinton should ask Santa for.  Then we had our cinnamon roll breakfast that Natalia had also asked for.  

After breakfast it was present time!  Stockings were up first!  

Quinton got more of a kick out of just holding the wrapped presents than actually opening them. 

This little football is one of his favorite toys right now!

Princess Palace Pets.  She was disappointed that she didn't get it from Santa, but that's because Mommy and Daddy got it!

**My theory on Santa gifts:  So I don't want Santa to be the one to bring all the cool gifts, or all the gifts period.  Those will come from mommy/daddy.  Santa brings one or two smallish things, but not everything they ask for.  So I try to focus on the main thing they wanted (the ponies this year) and then they got a small stuffed pony as well.  Everything else comes from us.

Yes, we have a Frozen obsession in this house. What house with little girls doesn't?!?!?!  ha ha

She was so happy to get her own Elsa doll and not have to steal sister's all the time.  Natalia liked to remind Lydia that it was her doll whenever Lydia was playing with it.  Seems absurd to have two Elsa dolls, but sometimes that's just life and I don't want to deal with the fights! 

They really wanted scooters, but we didn't want to buy two scooters! Especially when they have bikes in the garage that they are still mastering.  So we got just one scooter and told them they'd have to share it.  And guess what?  So far they've actually done a pretty good job of doing that.  SHOCKING!

Layering her Christmas, Elsa jammie dress, Elsa dress up dress, and a Minnie puffy vest ha ha ha

She got her Anna dress up dress, this red elf cape, and she's holding some dolls.  

Charlie and I exchanged gifts in the kiddo chaos as well.  I went with a "Warm" theme this year since he is always freezing.  It started out with an electric blanket because I thought it would help him at night when his feet were freezing.  (Then I thought what a great idea, and asked for one from my mom ha ha ha)  After that I just kind of went to town buying things to keep him warm.  New thermals, new warm socks, new pants, new sweatshirt, new warm PJ's.  None of it was the coolest gift ever, but it works right?  He got me a new HUGE tree storage bag that could honestly fit my old tree and the new Chrismas tree in it ha ha.  And a couple of small things I asked for.  But my fun present was a Fitbit!  I've gotten such a kick out of it because it tracks my steps etc.  But, it aslo tracks how many times I go up the stairs at home (which is a lot!) and it tracks my sleep, so it's been fun to actually see how often I'm up with the baby, and when, and how restless I am when I do sleep.  It'll be nice to have when we do the walking challenge with his work in the spring too!

Then it was off to Grandma Debra's to do Christmas with her and Charlie's sisters.

I was particularly excited for this one because I felt like I'd found the COOLEST gifts ever for our nephew and nieces, all used, and all so perfect.  The kids had drawn names this year. So Quinton had Adam, Natalia had Jocelyn, and Lydia had Cypress. Originally the idea was to take them to have the pick out gifts, but when these items popped up I couldn't help myself.

So I went to "the bins" with Steph and John a couple of months ago.  It's basically the Youth Ranch ware house, where they just dump what doesn't sell into large box (bins) and you sort through it at your own risk.  OH MY WORD.  It was so fun, and I found so many treasures.  They weigh your cart and you pay by the pound.  It was awesome.  I randomly came across a razor scooter in pretty great shape.  Steph mentioned that Adam really wanted one.  So I quickly texted Ali and asked, sure enough he did.  But those things can get pricey!  I added it to the cart, and maybe paid $2 or less for it based on it's weight.  I then ordered new handle bar grips and wheels for it in red (his favorite color) cleaned it up, and it turned out pretty spiffy!  I didn't wrap it and just had Charlie bring it in when it was Adam's time.  He was speechless.  I thought maybe I'd screwed up, but Alison said if he's speechless then that's a good thing.  ha ha ha.  

Just an adorable shot of Cypress hugging Lydia after she gave Lydia some Frozen jammies and Elsa shoes. 

I didn't get the best shot of it, but for Jocelyn I found a huge lot of Strawberry Shortcake dolls on Facebook.  She's pretty into her right now and loves the show.  This lady had probably 40 something dolls for sale for super cheap.  Old school ones that still had the smell, and the new cast too.  It was sawheeet!  Jocelyn had the excited reaction I was looking for from the kiddos.  She got super excited and started frantically pulling out all the bags from the box and shouted "strawberry shortcake stuff!!!"

Up last was Cypress.  We saved her for last because her present was huge and would pretty much end all of the present opening.  I handed her a carrot and told her to hold it for her present.  Charlie went out to the car and brought it in.

It was a huge animatronic horse!  This thing is so freaking cool!!  It's head moves, makes sounds, the ears twitch, the mouth munches on the carrot, the eyes blink.  Seriously so cool.  Again randomly came across it on Facebook for sale for super cheap.  Cypress is obsessed with horses and has been asking for a real horse she could name Polly.  I thought this is the next best thing.  She was in SHOCK when she first saw it.  Her face was priceless.  I thought for sure it was a huge mistake because she just stood there staring at it.  And then it clicked and she had the biggest smile and was so excited.  After that it was all about Polly the horse, petting her and loving on her.  OMG it was cute.

We stayed for a bit so the cousins could play and then had to head home.  We were hosting Christmas dinner with my dad that night.  The last two years I've attempted a ham and in some way or another have managed to screw it up!  So this time I stuck to what I know I can do and that's a pot roast.  Ha ha.  Grandpa had new Barbies for the girls and lots of new books (from their wishlist after the book fair at school, score!)

Quinton got this cool bowl/spoon set.  The spoons are shaped like an airplane and train, and he was loving playing with them, it was super adorable! 

He got us a copy of Unbroken which I'm supposed to be reading for book club and just haven't found the time to do so!  I even got it from the library and then had to return it because my time was up but I just didn't get a chance to read it.  ha ha ha.  Now that we are hopefully out of the busy season I'll find some time to read it.  ;)  Right?

The next morning we had a nice warm bath (because they'd gone to bed so late the last two nights they hadn't gotten one) and put on fresh new jammies.  Best way to spend the day after Christmas!  

Another wonderful fantastical Christmas in the books.  We are so lucky to have so much family to spend time with.  It gets kind of crazy trying to schedule everyone in, and get it all done... but in the end it's so worth it and it makes Christmas so much more special sharing it with so many people.  We have the best families and we are so grateful to all of them!!