Christmas Day

Sunday December 25, 2011

I have attempted to post this blog a couple of times over the last week but apparently I haven't had the correct approach to the posting of the pictures so I am trying for the last night and taking it slow and steady to win this race...I still have a whole bunch of blogging to do to get my New Year's Resolutions out there. But I digress....

So the first things that Santa left on Christmas Eve was our stockings. I loved Sydney's little bunny in her stocking and I will BRAG that all of our Stocking Stuffers came from Dollar Tree and total I spent about $15-$18 for all 3 stockings. She got some board books and Daddy got some wax melters. Very little known fact is that Cory LOVES anything candle related. I hope he is ok that I shared that fact about him.

Then Santa's helpers put together the Easel that he left for Sydney. We had no idea how much Santa's gifts really were going to be such hits with our little angel!

Santa's left this for Sydney as well. She had "asked" for a slide on her wish list, but somehow it got expanded. Such a treat for someone who was so good this year!

All put together with a little message from Santa himself. 

Then Santa ate his goodies and went on to the next house to share the spirit of giving with another special family. I am sure that Santa loved his 7 layer bars and white chocolate macadamia cranberry cookies from the Mitchell household!

So then on Christmas morning we got to see the first real eye-sparkling-excitement from Sydney. The first place that we went (guided her) was to where we had left Santa's goodies. I have to admit that we prepped the Santa thing very thoroughly. Between the phone calls to Santa and all of our talks about the "big guy". So when we said "let's go see if Santa ate our treats" she ran right over and this is how we captured her reaction...

No way Mommy...

See the smile on her face? Mommy he really ate them! and he drank the milk!

Daddy, I am so embarrassed! He really left me presents! She didn't know what to think!

Oh man! Now we can get down to business, there are stuffed animals involved!

And back to the Easel...we came back to what was already set up and ready to play with! Which actually happened a lot... ha ha

Soft blocks from Uncle Colton

And Sesame Street foam play mat!!! She LOVES this.

 Uncle Colton also spoiled Daddy and he was very pleased. These were the only gifts that Daddy had to open on Christmas Day because Mommy got Daddy money for Christmas. He had asked for this as his gift so that he could buy himself more military collectible goodies. And let me tell you... this habit has been growing like wildfire and our bedroom is turning into a military museum. Our future house will need a nice sized "man-cave" so that I can claim our rooms back. But I digress again...

Another great gift from Uncle Colton

Mommy got some FANTASTIC gifts from Daddy. I had provided a great list of options with the theme that the gifts should allow me to "spoil and pamper" myself. So he did a great job with a gift card to Lane Bryant, a Spa package (massage, mani/pedi), and 2 jugs of GNC's Lean Shake meal replacement system with a blender bottle. (More on the latter in my New Year's blog)

Uncle Colton did so good, this was Daddy's reaction to the penguin hat that he got. He has one JUST LIKE this one that has certain been worn out so this was perfect.

Then we pulled up the curtains for the big reveal!

What's going on? These kids are pretty much programmed to know when Christmas Day is and what time to wake up...this girl woke up at 630AM! So this explains the sleepy face! 

Now we are getting excited! 

So cool!

My very own slide!!!

Then after breakfast (strawberry pancakes) we all got ready and went to Nana's for Christmas Day festivities. She had a BIG gift waiting there for her so we all wanted to see her reaction to it!

Peaking around the corner....

Our BIG kitchen!!! She was a little taken back by it so not the explosive reaction that we will see in future years but Uncle Billy did a great job showing her how it works. Now we love to cook meals for all of our stuffed animal friends.

Didn't I say that Daddy got spoiled? He got this throwback Crosby jersey from Uncle Billy. Not to mention the ROCKING golf shoes that Daddy got from Papa. I mean...this kid is SPOILED. 

Tickles from Uncle Billy

Nana got some GREAT digs from her guys for Christmas.

What do you buy a redneck for Christmas??? ha ha

So as you can see, we were all very blessed for Christmas. We also had an early Christmas with my Dad. Sydney got the Leaptop (yay!), a really cool Nursery for all of her babies and a Christmas bear. My Dad always got me a bear for Christmas and this year was Sydney's first year. She LOVES the bear and sleeps with him every night. We can't wait to have many more blessed Christmases to come!