Christmas recap

welp.  here we are into March and I'm still working on getting Christmas posted.  yikes.  But this is the last of it!  I'm not living up to my goal of keeping this blog actually updated so far this year am I.  sigh.  Anyway, here comes a big long recap of all our Christmas festivities!

so, I’ll start things off with Christmas eve.  That’s when the celebrations begin for us.  We kicked things off with a visit to Grandma & Grandpa Henry’s for the first round of presents.   

As you can see, these two enjoyed themselves…

Grandma & Grandpa did their jobs and spoiled everyone rotten!  (I, however failed and didn’t get any pictures of Lilly with Grandma & Grandpa.  Boo.)

After we dug out of the wrapping paper and played with all of our new toys, we made our way over to Mama T’s for our annual celebration there.

Lilly helped aunt Terri play Santa, and boy did she get a kick out of that!  She probably could have just passed out presents all night, without even bothering to open them.

But we did talk her into actually doing so, and once again she was spoiled as can be!  

(And I, once again, failed, and took minimal pictures.  sigh.)

We got some good quality family time in, before heading home to get jammies on and get our cookies ready for Santa!  I’m not entirely sure Lilly grasped the concept of Santa fully this year, but she definitely got the idea.  I think next year will be pure magic. :)

After finally getting her tucked into bed (not without reading The Night Before Christmas of course), Matt and I found our way into Santa’s workshop.  I think I mentioned it last year, but another one of the traditions I hope to keep is a handmade gift for Lilly each year.  Last year we made a growth chart (that we kind of suck at actually using and documenting her height…really gotta get better at that!), and this year we settled on a play kitchen.  Definitely a more involved endeavor.  But I knew my handy husband could make it happen.  And boy did he!  My original idea (and by my I mean Pinterest) was to take an entertainment center and turn it into a play kitchen.  We even bought an entertainment center off of Craigslist for $20.  But, my perfectionist of a husband did not feel it was sturdy enough, so decided to build the kitchen from scratch instead.  Gotta love him.  Anyway, we burned the midnight oil (and the 1am oil, and the 2am oil I think…), but ended up with the absolute cutest final product.

Once Lilly woke up on Christmas morning we walked her out in the living room to see what Santa brought her. (after a horrible night of sleep!  seriously, it was awful.  literally minutes after we had brought the kitchen up to the living room and I started to accessorize it, she woke up crying. and would not go back to sleep.  I eventually just had to take her to bed with us, and it still took her a good while to fall asleep.  Needless to say we were all a little bleary eyed when Christmas morning did roll around)  I took a video on my phone, expecting a great YouTube-worthy reaction, but it wasn’t exactly that.  I think she started out confused, and then just wasn’t entirely sure this was for her.  But once we convinced her it was, she immediately dove in and excitedly played with it all morning.  We had to pull her away practically to open her other gifts and her stocking!

eventually we did tear her away, and she gave me that reaction I was looking for over another (not nearly as exciting) gift.  I think it was an outfit.  yeah, weird but it was cute nonetheless. 

Matt and I just got each other stockings this year, so we opened those and let Lilly open hers, and then moved on to Christmas breakfast.  I keep saying i’m going to start cooking something special for Christmas morning, but it was just canned cinnamon rolls again.  At least I put them in the shape of a christmas tree! sort of.  Next year I’m doing pancakes. Maybe. 

Anyway, after our brief morning at home, we all got dressed and headed back over to Grandma & Grandpa Henry’s to hang out with the other side of the family.  

Lilly got more presents, we ate a delicious meal, and it was an all around good time!  Unfortunately Lilly needed a nap and missed an hour or so of the fun, but luckily she did sleep a bit because I was worried it could be a rough evening otherwise.  

After we were good and full (and one of us was nice and rested!) we headed down to Grandma & Grandpa German’s for the evening.   We did another round of presents - Lilly and Lexi shared Santa duties and had a ball together.

We opened more presents, ate more food, and the girls kept everyone entertained with their cute antics. :)

seriously though, cousins, in jammies together?  does it get any cuter??  they had such a fun time together  I’ll never get over how cute they are!

This Christmas, although it went by in the blink of an eye, really was wonderful!  Seeing the holidays through a child’s eyes just can’t be beat.  It warms my heart to remember how much fun we had over the few months of the holiday season this year, and I absolutely cannot wait to do it again next year!  More than anything, I can’t wait to keep all of these new traditions going for years to come!! :)