Christmas in Review!
Well, we had a fabulous Christmas! I hope you all did too! I hope you don’t mind me sharing a bit of what we did this weekend…
Our friend Jenn from Asheville, who now lives in San Antonio came up to be with us for Christmas!
Friday night we had our traditional pizza by candle light dinner! (like here too)…. I didn’t get pictures! Whoops! After the girls were in bed, we decorated gingerbread houses.
Justin has been wanting to make an outhouse, and we had a lot of fun coming up with sayings like
“Have yourself a crappy little Christmas” or
“We hope you don’t have a crappy Christmas” sorry for the potty humor.
We had a visit from Santa on Saturday. I arranged things with the big man for a day sooner because church on Sunday was at 9:00 am and since the girls naturally wake up around 8:45… and Lydia takes a nap by 11:00 I knew that Sunday wouldn’t work!
We woke up and checked out all the wonderful things Santa brought! Which included a Rudolph stuffed animal, and he is one of Etta’s new besties now.
We decided on breakfast next, and our tradition is cinnamon rolls… but that has now been replaced with cinnamon roll pancakes, (much less prep time- same wonderful- calorific flavor!)
Then we went upstairs and opened all our presents… I should rephrase that, Etta opened all our presents. She was having the time of her life, and she pretty much assisted in the unveiling of each present until we were done (we do the take turns in order of age opening of presents)
(Lydia is a most adventuresome little girl, if she can get up on something she will, so finding her balancing on top of gifts has been a normal occurrence this month, This particular time was cute, cuz she climbed up to her toys all by herself and was quietly playing when we noticed her!
Gotta keep the husband’s tool collection well stocked, especially if I want projects to get done!
The biggest surprise was a Wii… and a Zumba game for me- I am really excited about this! Only 1 1/2 months to loose the rest of my baby weight before she is a year old!
By the end, Lydia was exhausted and ready for bed… and then I remembered the kitchen (Justin hadn’t forgotten, but I sure did)… Yeah, after 3 days of non-stop painting and sanding and everything else I totally forgot about the kitchen all tucked away in their playhouse. When I remembered it absolutely renewed the Christmas morning excitement.
The girls got busy playing immediately. Both of them, Lydia (10 months) loved it every bit as much as Etta. They played for 20 minutes straight as we just watched. SO SATISFYING!
Etta washed her hands and loaded the dishwasher (oven… oh well!) While Lydia got to cooking!
We asked Etta “Do you like your kitchen?” And her answer was probably one of the best pats on the back ever… she said and I quote “ I LOVE it!” And she totally put a huge emphasis on the word love!
We played and had a great Mexican dinner thanks to Jenn. Later we watched a few episodes of Once Upon a Time my current favorite show… that I hope makes it.
Sunday, we went to church first thing. Jenn had to be on her way home so we hugged her goodbye and sent her on her way home.
In the afternoon, we assembled and decorated one more gingerbread house with Etta, just minus about 90% of the candy options… besides, this girl cared for only one thing to go on her house, and that one thing was “sprinkl-ies” as she calls them.
We had one small incident, but humpty-dumpty was easy to put back together.
Lastly, (as if we hadn’t had enough sugar with breakfast… and no we didn’t eat the houses at least) I made a birthday cake to celebrate the Savior’s birthday.
Honestly people, this was probably one of the most fun things we did and my new favorite Christmas night tradition. Etta was in ecstasy singing the Happy Birthday song, and to top it off she got to blow out the candle… which she keeps telling us about. “I blow out the candle”. And Lydia got some good practice in for her first year birthday cake eating, she was rubbing cake all over her face and head, and licking her hands, it was really funny! ( I think I got 60 pictures of just her covered in chocolate)
Well, that was our weekend. I really hope you had a wonderful holiday!
Cassity Kmetzsch started Remodelaholic after graduating from Utah State University with a degree in Interior Design. Remodelaholic is the place to share her love for knocking out walls, and building everything back up again to not only add function but beauty to her home. Together with her husband Justin, they have remodeled 6 homes and are working on a seventh. She is a mother of four amazing girls. Making a house a home is her favorite hobby.
Love the pics! So adorable! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! I hope you too had a wonderful Christmas!
What a fun Christmas! That has got to be one of the coolest play kitchens I’ve ever seen. Your kids are adorable.
Such great pictures and I’m sure memorable memories:)
The kitchen you made is adorable! They ‘ll have so much fun with that 🙂
Thank you so much for your comment on my kitchen post yesterday. I’ve sent you an email!
What lovely photos. Great memories you made this Christmas. Thanks for sharing at DIYbyDesign.
The play kitchen is one of the coolest ones I’ve ever seen. My kids would love it too. We also had Christmas on Saturday morning and it was great. It made for a nice relaxing Sunday and it was easier to focus on the Savior that day.
Yes! I agree! I t was nice, not to have Christmas so gift centered, just a relaxing day with family!
Looks like a weekend filled with fun memories and the start of some traditions. Beautiful pictures! Your girls are just so darling (Mom is adorable too!) I hope you have an amazing New Year! Looking forward to getting together again in 2012 and seeing what you have planned! 🙂
OH yes! I agree we really should get together! Let’s hope for another great invite… (ps are you going to Haven?)
That was a great blog. Thanks. Love the full face pic of Etta.
Carol
Thanks Carol! It was good to see you on Sunday!
Looks like a wonderful weekend with your beautiful family! Thanks for sharing!
What a Merry Christmas you had! So happy to have you link up to the Tuesday To Do Party at The Blackberry Vine!
Happy New Year!
Smiles!
Jami
http://www.blackberryvine.blogspot.com
I love it! The gingerbread houses look great and you had so much fun making them.
What a fun Christmas! Great job on the rockin play kitchen!
Love the outhouses:), but that kitchen is amazing. Thanks for sharing. Tara @trophyw.blogspot.com
What a fun post!!! Thanks for sharing at Feathered Nest Friday!! Happy New Year! 🙂