Christmas 2

On December 23rd, my friend from college, who now lives in TN came for a visit. She's back in SD for a few weeks and she and her husband drove down for the day to hang out with us. We met at Fazoli's (Kaelyn's favorite) and she showed them what kind of damage she can do on breadsticks...she ate four. They came back here and I put Kaelyn down for nap, during which she sang and counted and carried on. She never did fall asleep. When she got up, she warmed up to Stana, my friend, and had herself a new buddy! It was nice, I just sat and watched most of the time. :) Kaelyn is still really shy so the fact that she warmed up to Stana and played with her long and hard was really good. She even asked about her the next day.

My husband's dad had knee replacement surgery the weekend we had our first Christmas of the year with my family. That meant he wasn't up for much traveling and he wasn't up for much company actually ON Christmas. But we went down to their house on Christmas Eve, just for the day, to visit and spend a little time there. Kaelyn was REALLY good and we had fun. She napped really well and played with all of their stuff and the few things we brought with us. She even ate well so it was a nice day. We got home in time to plop her in bed for the night.

As we drove home that night, I told my husband I thought this Christmas was going to be the first Christmas EVER that I had been in my own home actually ON the day of Christmas. The more I thought about it, the more I think that's really true! Growing up, we always went to my grandparents house and were there Christmas Eve and Day. By the time that stopped and I would go to my parents house, I wasn't living at home anymore. So this year, I was actually in the house that I live in ON Christmas.

I always said before that I didn't care if we were home on Christmas. I just wanted to work out whatever was best for all of the families involved so both sides can get together whenever works. After being at home on Christmas, though, I may change my mind. It was SO nice and peaceful and relaxing and just all around enjoyable.

We weren't really planning on opening presents right away when Kaelyn got up, but I had brought them down from the closet I had been hiding them in. She saw them. Presents again! Presents again! She said until Sean went to get a shirt over his undershirt since we'd be taking pictures. By the time he got back, she had half of one open that wasn't even for her.

Again, she enjoyed the things she got, but mostly, she just wanted to open things. She was just as impressed with the shirts and posters we got him and the calendar and shirt he got me as she was all her cool things. She got a train, which she likes to have run into her face, an Elmo house toy, some Elmo books (with her name in them!) and DVDs. We saved her last present for after her nap.

Christmas was on Sunday we got ready and went to church after the present session. We managed to get Kaelyn to wear her Christmas dress again and we were ready early enough we could take pictures as a family. Kaelyn LOVES taking pictures. "Cheese again," she'd say. We were almost late to church. :)

When we got home, we had a quick lunch and Kaelyn has some Christmas custard. Her face was a mess. After that...she wanted to take more pictures. So we have a lot of REALLY cute pictures of her and of us, but her face is just a mess! Oh well, tis the season!

While she napped that afternoon, Sean and I watched The Christmas Story. We watched Elf the next day. It was just an all around relaxing, nice weekend. When she got up, we gave her her final present. A trampoline! Which she calls her bounce house. She spent quite a bit of time bouncing on it and throwing herself off and to the ground. Hopefully it will keep her entertained if we get snowed in this winter sometime.

I have to admit, I always thought holidays would be MORE fun with a child. The last two years, that has not been the case. When Kaelyn was a baby, she didn't sleep well and I never felt like I was "with it" because of that. Plus, with her nursing, etc I missed a lot. Last year, she was pretty sick around Christmas and it wasn't really much fun either. This year, though, it has actually been a lot more fun having a kid around. The wonder and joy of opening presents...the way she randomly says "baby Jesus!"...and seeing all the "pretty lights" around our house and out in the other neighborhoods. It's much more fun this year and I can't wait for the next two Christmases with Sean's side of the family...coming New Year's weekend!

Christmas 1

Kaelyn is one lucky little girl! She gets to have four Christmases this year! Actually, she has caught on to the phrase "I'm so lucky" and she'll often say that to me at random or when I put her to bed. She used to tell me she had a good day when she went to bed, but now she tells me she's lucky. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

Our first Christmas this year took place at my parents house the weekend before Christmas. It was the 17th weekend. Sean, Kaelyn and I drove over after he got off of work on Thursday night. Kaelyn ate her supper in the car and watched her Care Bears and Elmo videos. It was a strange time of the day for us to travel, but she did really well. We got to my parents house in time for her to play and have some ice cream before bed. Though, my sister and her family were there too for awhile and that got Kaelyn rather riled up.

Let me explain. She and her uncle Paul came up with a new game,
which she calls peakaboo. She would stand on a chair on one side of the pool table and throw a ball towards the hole on the other side. He put his face down low, level with the hole. When she got a ball in, he'd fall back like she had hit him. She thought it was HILARIOUS! However, they left and when it was time for her to go to bed, she cried for an hour and a half. It was a little too fun. :)

The next day, Friday, we didn't have much planned, really. We ran a few errands in the morning and had lunch at CFA, yum! Kaelyn napped and my sister and her family came back later in the evening. I managed to get Kaelyn upstairs to do her bedtime routine just before they arrived. I didn't want to rile her up again like we had the night before! She went to bed nice and quietly that night.

Saturday, once everyone was up and had breakfast, it was stocking and present time. I think everyone was even able to get dressed except the kids. They were in pjs all day long. As they should be! We opened stockings upstairs then moved downstairs for presents. Kaelyn got lots of neat stuff. You should have seen her face
when she opened the first hot wheels car from my
sister's family! They gave her 7 along with a hot wheels track, which she loves. Once we got it
home she also experimented by throwing other things down the track besides the cars. :)
She also got a musical Elmo that plays drums, tamborine, and sings. An elmo guitar that lights up and plays music. A stick horse. Some clothes. An aqua pet (which she calls her octupus and takes with her in the car so it can sing and dance to her) and several other things. Kaelyn liked everything she got, but while she was getting the items, she didn't much care. She would open one thing and then say "presents again! More presents!" and just want to rip through more packages. She opened most of Sean's and my gifts too. We needed the help. :)

After the present opening it was almost lunchtime and after lunch, Kaelyn napped again. The rest of the evening was play time and she enjoyed her cousin Tyler's new wall car track that he got. She also played a lot more peakaboo with whomever was around the pool table.

Sunday, we all got ready for church and went to my sister's church since her kids were going to be singing. I had gotten this cute Christmas dress for Kaelyn, but she's pretty picky about clothes (as in if it doesn't feature Elmo, she's not wearing it!) so I was unsure as to whether or not she was going to wear it. On Saturday, since the kids wanted to open presents right away, Kaelyn didn't take a bath till after suppertime. Since she had had such a late bath Saturday, we skipped it Sunday morning. That meant that I was able to sneak the dress on her while she was playing without her really noticing. And once she had it on she was pretty proud of it and wanted daddy to take picture after picture after picture. So we have dozens of pictures like this one above...all of which are cute.

After church we went back to my parent's house for lunch and headed out at Kaelyn's naptime. I was worried she wouldn't sleep because she was very keyed up and kind of going wild. But this is what she looked like 20 minutes into the drive. Unfortunately, she only looked like this for about 30 minutes. That was it for her nap that day! But she was fine when we got home and we played outside and managed to get her pretty dress all dirty so that was good. :)

It was a fun Christmas. On to Christmas #2!