Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve's Eve marked our first Christmas of the weekend. We started the day off early with a family photo shoot for my mom. It had been about 5 or 6 years since my siblings and mom and Jon and I had had pictures together. It's also the first time in over three years all the family has been together! Three new members have joined the family since so it was time! We were planning this as my mom's Christmas present.

Then I took Livi to the clinic again because of her 4:30am coughing fit. We found out her mild infection that the doctor thought would go away became raging in one ear and invaded the other.

After naps we went to Jon's mom's house for a delicious and our only Christmas dinner with all the fixings! Gramma/Jon's mom makes a rice salad that is more of a desert and a favorite of everyone except Livi. Sofie had her first taste today and loved it! Her eyes got all big, she smiled and signed repeatedly for more! So cute. Sofie ate her weights worth of food and we all left the table amply stuffed. We got to open our presents then! A much loved gift card to my favorite clothing store for me and fancy leather gloves for Jon, along with some money for the family! The girls got spoiled as usual with books, clothes, a huge canister filled with play-doh, molds and tools, and play food for their kitchen set! This is perfect timing because just the same day we saw Sofie showing us her first pretend play skills using a bowl and spoon from the kitchen set! Both girls got pillow pets from their uncle Jeremy but the surprise favorite gift for Sofie was sunglasses! Her face lit up and she wasn't interested in unwrapping anything else after those!

Christmas Eve was a lazy day that we spent mostly in our pajama's. After a yummy taco dinner we headed off to church which the girls didn't do to badly at sitting through. It started off a little rough though. Then we drove around looking at the fabulous over the top Christmas houses marked on the tour route in our town. The best house had a projected Santa waving and peering through one of the windows. Livi screamed with glee and waved back! She was so excited the rest of the evening. She put out cookies and water for Santa as well as an orange for Rudolph. I didn't think she'd fall asleep very easily so I did give her a little melatonin! The best part of the evening was waking her up to the noises of Santa (Daddy) walking on the roof, saying "ho ho ho" and ringing jingle bells! When she came out of her groggy sleep and realized it was the reindeer and Santa she was hearing she was speechless. I wish had recorded her reaction. Her eyes were as wide as I had ever seen him and she screamed with delight at hearing the bells! It was priceless. Truly. We may be horrible parents for doing this though :)

Christmas morning was exciting! The girls climbed in to bed with us and waited "patiently" until we were ready to go check out the tree with them....

Livi was showing Sofie how the mix table worked!

Livi seeing her camera!

Auntie Sessa is a "special" kind of Auntie in her footsie pajama's

Little photographer in the making!

After we watched the girls open their gifts Jon and I exchanged ours. I gave him a bamboo hoodie that he asked for and he surprised me with a tattoo appointment :) I don't have a Sofie tattoo on my body yet :) We then went upstairs to my mom's place for Christmas #3! The girls, of course, got spoiled my Marmee and their Aunties and Uncle :) We enjoyed our tradition crepes breakfast together but there was some different opinions about what to have for dinner. One sister was adamant about having a turkey dinner when most of the rest didn't want to bother with cooking a full dinner and opted for pizza... so we had both! Those that wanted the turkey did the clean up :)

 Left is turkey, right is pizza.

 The dance party. Sean fell.

 Dance machine.

 Merry First Christmas Monkey!

It was really fun having everyone together. My family hasn't been all together in over 3 years! Although there are some underlining issues between some siblings from stuff that happened 3 years ago, everyone was laughing, talking, and seeming to have fun! Counseling has been our friend :) I know it did my mom's heart good to be a part of that too, finally!

Sibling Love. 

 Boxing day Livi and I ventured in to the malls. I won't do that again. I only bought two shirts because I was too overwhelmed with all the people! We went to visit my Grandma for lunch then went to a movie. We got home and took down the tree. I know it was early but I was worried it was contributing to Livi's ear infection some how. I also really wanted to get my living room and their toys back to organized order :) It was a busy day but a lovely big girls day out! Now to prepare for Mexico!!!