Christmas 2011

To say I am behind is an understatement.  I have had many posts to post but no motivation to do so.  I would rather spend Kate’s nap time reading Nicholas Sparks, or napping, or talking to my friends on the phone.  But this nagging that I feel to get my blogging done will not go away, so since James is out of town, I will spend tonight trying to get caught up.

Our Christmas this year was wonderful for so many reasons:

1) We were in our very first house!

2) Kate was older and it was so fun to watch her excitement and anticipation.  She really seemed to understand that Santa Claus was coming to bring her presents!

3) James was off from work for 11 straight days – heavenly!  I wish he could do that every few weeks :0)

4) James’ mom was able to come and spend a week with us.  It was so heart warming to see Kate bond with her Grandma Ruth and heart breaking to see how sad she was when Grandma Ruth left us.

James picked his mom up from the airport Christmas Eve and when they got home, we had a nice dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, and broccoli.  We then read Luke 2 from the scriptures and had Kate open her Christmas PJ’s.

These pictures are actually from Christmas dinner and not Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning we had to wake Kate up.  She opened presents for awhile and then informed us that she was hungry and needed breakfast.  After we ate breakfast, we all got ready for church.  Once we got home from church, Kate wanted to play with the toys she had already opened instead of opening the remainder of her presents.  She was so spoiled this year – and not necessarily by her parents either!  We got her a big fluffy bear from Costco that we knew she would love to snuggle on and he was the first thing she saw Christmas morning.  We also had some smaller presents that I got for her on black Friday for incredible deals.  Then, some of our friends asked us if we wanted a play kitchen.  They were giving it away!  I knew Kate would LOVE it so we could not pass it up!  She also had gifts from both Grandma’s, her Grandpa, and friends of one of her Grandmas.  We finally convinced her to open her play kitchen and as we knew she was delighted.  After that, we didn’t push her to open any other gifts and it took her until three days after Christmas to finish opening all of her gifts.

We finished the night off with a delicious dinner made by James.  He spoiled us with prime rib, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.  It was such a wonderful day and I am excited to see how Kate reacts to Christmas next year!