Monday 12-23-13
Our friend June's mother passed away the week prior to Christmas, so on Monday, we invited June and her kids, Xander & Olivia, over to have a Christmas dinner in memory of her mom. Patti was spending Christmas with us, too, so we had quite the little celebration. Our menu consisted of a smoked turkey that we purchased from Pig In Pig Out along with crockpot stuffing (Jeff), sweet potatoes (Jeff), green bean casserole (Libby), rolls (Sam's club), rice krispie treats (Libby), and banana lime cheesecake (Jeff). It was super yummy! After dinner, we enjoyed some time just visiting and playing one of our favorite board games... Sharp Shooters!
Tuesday 12-24-13
Christmas Eve was a full day! We started the day with taking Patti to a doctor's appointment at noon, and then we went to the Christmas Eve service at church immediately after at 1:30. It was truly a beautiful NewSpring Christmas experience! After church, we had some last-minute shopping to do for Xander & Olivia, so we made a few stops to take care of those gifts. When we got home, Jeff wrapped their gifts while I baked a batch of cookies (sea salt caramel chocolate chip).
One of the things I most looked forward to this Christmas season is the 24 hr A Christmas Story marathon on TBS. I used to watch that year after year, but we haven't had cable in the past few years. So, I was not-so-patiently waiting for the marathon to start at 7pm. June and the kids came back over that evening to watch the marathon, play more games (SkipBo was the game of choice), and we gave the kids their gifts. It was a great night, and we even let Chloe open her first gift of the season!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZRTfNlzgBA
Wednesday 12-25-13
Christmas morning! After staying up way too late the night before, Chloe slept in til almost noon! So, I was able to get up early and fix breakfast (smoothies and ham/egg/cheese breakfast braid were on the menu). After eating, we got Chloe up to let the fun begin. We'd decided not to let her open everything because we wanted her to have some things to open the following day when Kendra was here. Here's her first reaction to Christmas morning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOElvgNY1bc
We were cracking up at her saying "uh oh! uh oh!" as she went through the gifts, and the excitement on her little face once she realized there was a toy inside that doll house from Santa was just priceless. She was jumping saying "help! help!" It was so awesome getting to watch her be so excited. Santa also covered the tree in candy canes, and we've discovered that she is a BIG fan of that tradition! More than once now I've found her eating a candy cane through the wrapper. LOL
Jeff and I also exchanged a few of our gifts. Because I'm old and can't remember what we opened on which days, I'll just list things right here. Jeff got me a coffee bean grinder, some delicious flavored whole bean coffees, lots of goodies from Bath & Body Works, a DVD of one of my fave old movies (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), and a staff t-shirt from my job at Sweet Shoppe to replace the one that I'd gotten bleach on. I got him a new keyboard, a Rocksmith video game, a Breaking Bad t-shirt, a wallet, and tickets to see Skillet & Third Day in concert in January. We also got a Kindle Fire HDX as a family gift. I'd say we both scored!
The rest of Christmas day was pretty lazy. Chloe played with toys while we hung around watching tv, taking a nap, and playing with the Kindle.
Thursday 12-26-13
Our Christmas celebration came to a close on Thursday when I got up early to drive to Tulsa to pick up Kendra. We made it back home by mid-afternoon, and we let the girls open the rest of their presents. For Kendra, the highlights were a guitar amp, guitar cable, guitar strap, guitar feedback buster, Carrie Underwood Blown Away Tour DVD, Taylor Swift Crossroads DVD, and a signed print of a quote from a song by Sidewalk Prophets (we picked this up when we saw them in concert earlier in the month).
Chloe was really overwhelmed opening all the gifts. She kept wanting to stop and play with each gift as soon as we opened it, and she was getting a little frustrated that we were putting things aside and just throwing present after present her way. In hindsight, we probably got her too much even though we didn't spend a ton. It's just the fact that there were so many gifts that was overwhelming. Santa brought her the doll house, and we got her 4 "search & find" books, a set of wooden blocks, a big back of lego/duplo blocks, Monsters University DVD, bunny puppet, baby doll carriage, baby doll, automatic bubble blower, car track, puzzles, and other little odds n ends (stickers, crayons, socks, etc). She loved it all, but I can't imagine what must've been going through her little mind!
The girls really had a fabulous time though, and we did, too. It probably took about 2 hrs to get through all the presents, and we wouldn't have had it any other way. Patti was still here to watch the girls open gifts, and after we were finished, we were all so wiped out that we decided to order pizza for dinner. So, we capped off our Christmas celebration with a marathon of Impractical Jokers and a big cheeseburger pizza from Knolla's!
Unfortunately, Rhys opted not to come for Christmas this year, so he wasn't a part of our celebration. Jeff did spend a lot of time choosing special gifts to send him though. In the end, he decided to send him a "date night package" for Rhys to use with his girlfriend Olivia. He got him gift cards to a sushi restaurant in Chico, a movie theater, and a coffee house. He also sent a book, an Audio Adrenaline CD (autographed), and a silly gift called "Soap Nuts" that we found a few months ago and thought he'd enjoy.
Lights on 12-28-13
On the Saturday after Christmas, we decided to go out to Botanica (where we got married) and tour their Christmas lights display. It was actually a nice evening with temps in the 40s, and we thought the girls would enjoy it. We were so right! As we started walking up into the parking lot, Chloe lost her little mind in her stroller. She was bouncing and pointing and clapping saying, "lights!" She was seriously so excited and had so much fun seeing the different light displays throughout the garden. There was a big tree covered in purple lights, and at one point she said "puh-ple ights!" She also loved the big electric train display that they had near the end. She and Jeff stood for several minutes watching it. She would say "bye bye choo choo!" as it rounded out of sight. While we thought the price was a little steep at $7 per person to get in, we agreed that it was completely worth it to see how excited Chloe was!
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