Christmas

Christmas was wonderful. I love this whole time of year, everything is more magical, especially having Alli starting to be old enough to "get it" and be able to participate in a lot more things! We had so much fun making candies together-slightly frustrating at times :), but oh so fun to have someone soo excited to do everything and help me as much as she can! She was a great help decorating the tree, and it really was so much more fun having her help. Her little section where she put all of the ornaments she could find was probably my favorite just because of her excitement in decorating! Hearing her little voice singing "Jingle Bells" is also a new favorite sound of mine. When Ryan took around our neighbor gifts she went with him (Ilene and I went too-in the warm car) and caroled to some of her most favorite neighbors. It has been fun hearing how many songs she actually knows and just how much of them she remembers-Santa Claus is Comin to Town is another one she can pretty much sing all of. I want to video this so I can always remember her cute little voice singing these songs.

Christmas Eve morning we had a brunch with Ryan's sister and her family. It was a lot of fun hanging out and the kids (and Ryan) decorated cookies. They had Alli and Ilene in the cousin present exchange so they were having a ton of fun with her new toy animals and bubble gun. And Alli's "skirt" is her dress up skirt-she wasn't really wearing that as her pants just to make that clear :).


Alli in her new Christmas pajamas and robe (which she says "keeps her nice and warm").

The energy and excitement at my mom's Christmas Eve was out of control-literally. These kids just fed off each other til they were bouncing off the wall, but starting the present game quickly helped them calm down and it turned out to be really fun. And contrary to what it looks like they weren't being Power Rangers, just doing some crazy poses.

This past month we have been able to see a lot of family. It was so great to see them all! I am so glad to have family members who love us and accept us and who are so fun to be around-and have kids my girls (mostly Alli at this point) adore!
It was so fun having my sister-in-law Annie and her two daughters Julia and Audrey here for a few hours a few weeks ago as a Christmas present to her mom (thank you again for hanging out with us and coming to meet Ilene, it was soo great to see you!). Seriously one of the best surprises ever was being at Ilene's two week check up and having them show up! Alli had so much fun playing with them and watching a movie in her tent. She just loves those girls!! And an extra bonus was that they brought Alli Christmas presents-one of which she opened early :).

Another amazing surprise was finding out my brother James and his wife Natalie and their boy Scotty were going to be coming for Christmas! Whenever they are together Scotty and Alli are pretty much inseparable. They will follow each other anywhere and do anything-as long as they can do it together. They play so well together and are just so stinkin' happy in general-even though Scott looks like perhaps he isn't in this picture! They would dance around each other spinning til they fell over, sit and watch movies, and play/fight over toys and quickly make up and be best buds again.


Alli loves her cousins so much and is always soo happy when they come and soooo sad when they go (kinda breaks my heart seeing how sad she truly is!)!

Luckily she has had some new toys to kind of distract from her special friends being gone. Alli has had so much fun hanging out playing with her new toys.



And I have loved having her have new toys to play with-She has done my hair every day since Christmas with her fabulous battery-operated blow dryer and we've had a lot of fun playing play-doh. My favorite though is seeing the things she chooses to carry around in her special bags! The highlight for me (and probably even for Alli) other than seeing Alli open her presents was talking to my brother Phil on his mission. When we told Alli we were going to talk to him she was soo excited, her face completely lit up and she asked "Right now?" When he called and she got on the phone it was the cutest to see, she couldn't wait to sing him songs and just busted out with "When Christmas Comes to Town" from the Polar Express. It was so great hearing from him and it is crazy thinking the next time we talk to him he will have been out almost a year! Next year my plan is not to stockpile so much so Alli is actually only opening her Christmas presents on Christmas-instead of the additional things I accrued in previous months and saved. I think that will make us all a little happier so I am leaving myself a "note to self" on here to remind me!