Christmas

Christmas just gets better every year! And this year although it seemed like I was so ready for it to come, then it all of a sudden came and went so fast. But with Taylor I really did enjoy it so much. It was even better than last year and I am sure next year will be even better!

This year she had an obsession with Santa. Or as she liked to call him, "anta". She still didn't get the whole idea that he brought her gifts or anything like that, but pointed him out everywhere that we went, she even associated him with things. Frighteningly enough, when we would sometime have our little discussions about Jesus, she would sometimes call him Anta, even though she knew full well He was Jesus. Pure obsession! Except that is, when it came to sitting on his lap, then it was a full blown meltdown like when Santa came to Grandma TT and Papa's house...


For Christmas Eve, my Aunt Paula (my mom's sister), my cousin Matt, his wife Jen and their kids Emery and Isaac come over for our Christmas Eve feast. I look forward to this every year! Most importantly because my mom and sister are actually here to celebrate a holiday with me which is the very best and also because I actually get to play hostess for a night which although I need a lot of work at, is a lot of fun! Unfortunately my sister didn't come out this year which was sad for me and for my mom. It wasn't the same without her.

Our Christmas Eve feast for the most part, however, is virtually the same from year to year. It has been since from before I can remember when I would spend the holiday coming out here to visit my mom's family with my Grandparents who have now passed on and all of my aunts and uncles. We start with a salad, this year we did a Caesar with my mom's yummy homemade dressing (although the salad changes from year to year), Prime Rib cooked medium rare, except for Jen, (although hers is getting a little more rare each year, probably because we give her so much crap), Twice Baked Potatoes, Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce and then the dessert varies from year to year. This year was my friend Amy's yummy chocolate cake. Jen did all of the appetizers and brought the rolls which were excellent. And after a day of cooking with my mom, I am one happy and fulfilled girl! It's one of my very favorite holiday traditions! Even Dustin has grown to love it as well.

After dinner, Paula read a book to the kids and Dustin read the birth of the Savior from the bible. Then it was time for presents. Jen supplies the pj's for the kids. Yes, Taylor has wet hair because she had to take a bath after smearing butter in her hair during dinner... that girl sometimes!

Christmas morning Dustin was so excited he barely waited for my mom to get upstairs. I virtually had to yell at him to stop in his tracks! It's not like Taylor knew what was going on outside of her room and in the mornings she can play in her room for hours! We had one of Santa's present set out on the coffee table and a couple more wrapped on the sofa with her stocking. The rest of the presents were under the tree. I must say that I have not done very well thus far with presents for Taylor. You would think since I spend all day with her I would know what she wants, but Santa on the other hand this year struck GOLD! Once she saw her Disney Princess Castle, she didn't look at anything else... litterally!

We had to open the rest of her presents and show them to her. Since then, she has loved all of her presents and we realized that we did pretty good this year. The grandparents did pretty darn good too! Later that day we went to Grandma TT and Papa's house. They got the kids a playhouse for their house. Taylor played in the playhouse the whole time we were there! She didn't care about opening any other presents at their house either.

When we came home, she went back to playing with the castle. PJ's went on and she was all about her castle and the Dora microphone. Although I think Daddy had just about as much fun singing and playing with the microphone that night as she did with the two of them going back and forth... it was priceless! It went something like "I did it" "Tay Tay did it" "Daddy did it" singing to the tune of Dora. Let alone the millions of other things they were singing.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I didn't get any pics of our New Year's festivities, unfortunately. Those were spent at Dustin's parent's house eating lots of food and playing on the Wii doing some Dance game and singing Karaoke, laughing my butt off. Nothing like making a fool of yourself in front of family. But the kids LOVED it! Taylor was shaking her little rump like nothing else and loving every second of it. 2010 was such a great year, I can't even imagine 2011 being any better!