An Early Christmas

I bought new LED lights for our Christmas Tree. Knowing how long it takes to decorate the tree - and knowing that we'd be attempting family photos over Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to bring the tree up early.

This suited Miss Mia to a "T". She has been into CHRISTMAS since before Halloween. She is thrilled beyond belief if we go to a store where CHRISTMAS is set up. She claps in delight when we see houses with any type of Christmas light on. We've watched every CHRISTMAS movie I have in my collection . . . some of them over and over.

When I'd finished with the tree, and had minimal ornaments on it (yes, she is redecorating the tree non-stop), I got out the camera and snapped some pics of the little silly goose!

Pretzel Wreath Project

One year, in elementary school, we made pretzel wreathes for Christmas gifts for our Mothers. My Mom has kept this gift all these years, and it still hangs in the kitchen. Miss Mia is now getting to the age where she likes to make things, and I thought - what better Christmas gift than something made by Miss Mia????

So, today, we made pretzel wreathes! Miss Picky came up to help.

How cute are they??? I cannot wait to add the rest of the ribbon to the wreathes. I'll be using Christmas ribbon on some.

And to think - we only needed pretzels and glue!

Christmas Day 2009

The Photo calendar Tia and I worked on for Goobie.

Hansy checking out Miss Mia's log cabin.

Christmas morning, we had Miss Mia open her first gift while still in bed - the pjs from the night before. We put them on and then we let her see what Santa had left under the tree for her. She was a little hesitant when she came into the room. The gifts were all huge - and covered under king sized comforters. Great Grandma Surrena helped her "unwrap" the biggest gift, her log cabin. She also received a kitchen, duplo blocks, more pjs, a fisher price farm and socks. There may be more, but I can't think of them at present.

From our house, we made our way out into the freezing rain and slid our way out of my drive, down the road, into Mom and Dad's drive and up their steps. It was PURE ice and we "skated" to get anywhere. At Mom and Dad's, Miss Mia "helped" her Gramma Surrena open the traditional money box.

We spent some time at Great Gramma Surrena's before coming back home, taking a nap, going back to Great Gramma Surrena's for a late lunch, and then back home to play in the log cabin.

Christmas was wonderful. All family, and so much excitement with Miss Mia and her gifts!

Christmas Eve 2009

Amelia opening gifts from her Aunt Lisa. With each gift, she would get all giddy and giggly as soon as she began ripping into the wrapping paper.

Amelia sitting on Daddy's lap with her cousins, Curtis and Renee.

Amelia and her Daddy with her Gramma.

The little Princess awaiting her dinner.

Miss Mia eyeing up the huge block of chocolate her Great-Uncle John was holding.

"While visions of sugarplums danced in her head . . ."

Christmas Eve was traditionally held at my house, with Steve's parents and siblings (and their families) joining us for a family dinner and gift exchange. This year, Steve's Mom requested the celebration be held at her house as her health is declining and she didn't think she would be able to climb the stairs to our family room.

We spent late afternoon with Steve's family. We watched Amelia "ooooh" and "aaaahh" in delight over each and every one of her gifts from her grandparents, Aunt Lisa and her family and Uncle Jeff. They gave her some of the most awesome gifts - tons and tons of books, some cute outfits, a leapfrog, and a mini-vacuum to name some of the gifts I can remember off of the top of my head. She gave her grandma the digital photo frame that you can see in some of the pictures. A few nights before, I had gone through the thousands of pics on my hard-drive and pulled a few to install on the frame so Steve's brother wouldn't have to sit and try to figure the thing out (not to be mean, but his family is so technologically NOT advanced - they don't own cell phones, digital cameras and have never owned a single computer).

From Steve's parents' home, we drove the 1/2 mile to my Aunt and Uncle's home where we celebrated Christmas Eve with gifts and a yummy dinner.

Miss Mia was so tuckered out from all of the Holiday Festivities that she fell asleep in the car on our way home. She never woke up for us to give her the traditional Christmas Eve gift of pajamas. Even when we (oops, I mean Santa) was placing her gifts under the tree and making a bit of noise, the poor gal never moved a muscle!