A Merry Little Christmas

It's been a wonderful couple of weeks at our house. With all the activity of 2010, we decided we just wanted to stay put for Christmas this year. I'll admit that it was a little strange not being with either of our extended families, but we had a nice celebration just the four of us.

I have lots of pictures taken over the course of 3 or 4 days, but I'm just going to jumble them all in to one post. Seems like too much effort to break it up (or rather, I've got two kids who don't give me much time to get stuff like this done).

Dylan's new favorite game is Jenga. He loves to play the actual game, build stuff out of the blocks, or wear the game box as a hat. And occasionally force Lena to wear the box for a hat. Poor little Lena...she just has no clue that she will be getting harrassed from her brother and father the rest of her life.

Eight months later and this little girl still makes my heart melt. I fear that my attempts to keep her a baby a tad bit longer are keeping her from doing certain things (crawling, pulling up, eating real food). I just can't help myself. She's so teeny and loves to be snuggled; I'm eating it up.

The temps are keeping us indoors quite a bit, but Lena loves to sit at the back door and stare out at the snow.

I made several attempts to get a 'good' picture of my kids in front of the Christmas tree. I don't think I ever got a shot where both of them are looking at the camera. Ah well, this is life with kids.

Dylan had preschool up til the 23rd. On the last day before break, his class had a pizza party and a little gift exchange. Mrs Baker gave all the kids a Divine Grace t-shirt that has their names on the back. All the kids immediately wanted to wear their shirts. Dylan didn't take his off until the next morning.

Playing a game before the festivities.

I bought the kids super cute, coordinating Christmas outfits before Thanksgiving. I have been dying for them to wear them and get a picture. Unfortunately, Dylan being 4 and all, it didn't happen. It took me a half hour just to get Dylan's outfit on his body. Then he screamed about it for another hour. Luckily, Lena still loves the camera. She looked so stinking cute.

We decided to follow my family's tradition of celebrating on Christmas Eve. I made a nice dinner and then we opened our gifts.

Lena was into if for about, oh, 5 minutes. She started crying while opening her first gift and it went downhill from there. I ended up just putting her to bed and Dylan and I finished opening her gifts.

It's rare that I get a picture of Mike. Looks like he's posing for me, but this was a total coincidence.

Again, rarely a shot of me. Mike was not so kind with the expression he chose to take a picture of.

Dylan just kept telling me he loves me as I was handing him gift after gift after gift. This year was the most fun with him, so far. He was totally into everything and so greatful. He made out like a bandit.

Part of Dylan's loot.

I did save a gift for each child to see on Christmas morning. Since Dylan has shown no interest in Santa, Mike and I have decided not to push the idea on our kids. We'll tell them the idea and story behind the jolly guy, but really do not care that they believe he comes and leaves the presents under the tree. Dylan and Lena's Santa is their Grandparents. Gram and Pa gave each child their own chair this year. So, I put them together after the kids went to bed Christmas Eve and left them by the tree. When they came down in the morning, their eyes just lit up. Dylan was so excited and immediately sat down to play his Leapster in HIS chair.

Lena also loves her chair. She loves to sit in it and just look around while kicking her little feet. It is so cute to watch.

We spent Christmas dinner with my dear friends, the Pollard family. They are my adopted family and have been for years and years. It's nice having them around.

We're definitely looking forward to the New Year. As a whole, 2010 was not such a great year for us. So, we'll be saying good riddance come Friday evening.

Gifts A Plenty

I'm pretty sure that Dylan thinks he gets to open gifts every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So far, he has had three days of opening Birthday gifts and there will be one more when he gets a box from his other Grandparents.

We celebrated his Birthday while we were in Ohio for Thanksgiving so that everyone there could join in the fun.
Dylan was all about his chocolate cake. He was asking about it for a week before the party. Every day he would ask me if it was cake day.

I was a little surprised that he was actually able to blow out his candles on his own. He was so proud of himself.

When he walked in to the room where his presents were stashed, he exclaimed "Are all these for me?" After he opened each present he would turn to the next one and say, "What about this one?" Once he was finished he said, "Oh, thank you for my presents everyone!" So cute!

On Dylan's actual Birthday, he had preschool in the morning. We took cupcakes and yogurt drinks, per Dylan's request. His teacher, Mrs Baker, had a little party with the kids during snack time and Dylan got to be the line leader all morning. Before preschool was over, I picked up Dylan's friend Abby. When Dylan saw us at school, he was so excited. I took them out for pizza and then to Jeepers. Which is kind of like Chuck E Cheese...but cleaner. They had a great time playing games, climbing on the playground and riding the banana ride. Between the two of them, they won over 300 tickets. Of course they both wanted to trade them in for candy. So, they were all nice and sugared up.

Getting on the banana ride.

Little best buds.

When Mike got home from work, Dylan opened his presents from Mom, Dad and sissy. I'm pretty sure that his favorite gift is the Matchbox Car Wash. He's excited that he doesn't have to build his own out of blocks anymore.

May your days be Merry

I always loved the Christmas season growing up...still do. I think a big part of the reason I love it is because of my Mom. As far back as I can remember, she has had the most beautifully decorated home at Christmas time. I love it. It just makes everything seem so warm, so cozy, so fun. So, everywhere I go, Christmas decorations just remind me of home.

I am attempting to re-create that feeling in my own home. I do not, however, have the eye for decorating that my Mom does. Thankfully, she has helped me out through the years and has created a collection of decor for me, as well as some ideas on how to put displays together. Mostly I just try to copy what she does.

Last year, my Mom made a display on our mantle with these vases. We don't have a mantle in this house, so I had to modify. Above the kitchen cabinets seemed like a good place, out of reach of little curious hands.

Dylan was all about helping me weave the garland and twinkly lights on the stairwell this year. He also attempted to tie up a few of the bows. Granted, I had to 'fix' a couple things after he went to bed, but it was fun having an excited little helper.

My favorite holiday decorations are snowmen. I just love their smiley faces.

It was fun adding another stocking this year. Matchy matchy is not my style, I prefer to coordinate.

I think I need to hit up the after Christmas sales this year to find a new tree. After 5 years, this one is starting to look a little rough (could be from all the moves). We couldn't get the star to stay on top this year because it's all bent.

Love seeing this display as I'm doing dishes. The wooded area out our back window makes for a great backdrop...especially now that there is snow out there!

Dylan loves this nativity. I think mostly because I let him play with the pieces.