Christmas

Well now over a month has passed since Christmas and Alli is starting to ask if it is almost time to have Christmas again and I still have not posted about Christmas.  It was so much fun, Alli was so excited about everything and I know it will just keep getting better for these next few years! At the beginning of December we took Alli to a Christmas "Princess Festival"-kind of a bust, but she really liked it so I guess it was worth it?

Alli is showcasing her posed smile in both of these pictures :) We were so lucky to get to see my brother James for a few days when he came out for an interview for the Psychiatry residency at the U. Alli was loving seeing him and was only sad she couldn't see her buddy Scott too!

I love Ilene's shy little smile! I was horrible at taking pictures Christmas day! We had a wonderful, relaxing day with family and lots of time hanging out at home playing with toys!
This is actually a few days after Christmas, but we went to Zoo lights at Hogle Zoo.  It was great because it wasn't super cold and the best part was we saw the tigers seriously fight each other.  We had just walked up and were standing 3 feet from the fence when they started chasing and growling and swatting.  Apparently someone had gone in somewhere they were not welcome! It was probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen to see them so active in real life running and jumping.

Christmas Eve we were able to do a cool thing and release balloons with notes for those we love who are already in Heaven. I think it is one of my new favorite traditions.

We were also lucky to have our neighbor Doug come with us, Alli and Ilene love to go visit him and his cute dog, Shea, and we miss Glenna dearly!!

Ok somehow it was out of order, but that was Alli's Santa surprise, she has been wanting that playhouse since the beginning of November so she was thrilled! 

And seeing as I have a serious lack of pictures-maybe there are some hidden somewhere else on the computer? But a few other things I want to remember about this Christmas.  A few days before Christmas Alli came upstairs SOOO excited because she had found the coolest rocking horse-Ilene's main Christmas present :) downstairs in the furnace room.  Why was she in there? Valid question-she was looking for more Christmas books to read.  So a little bit later since she had found one of Ilene's presents she thought maybe she would luck out and find one of hers-she found those lovely elephant chairs.  So they quickly became presents from mom and dad-Santa only brought Ilene a stocking this year, but mom and dad were extra generous to make up for it.  The best part is Alli was completely unconcerned because she KNEW those presents obviously were not from Santa-otherwise they would not be in our basement-makes sense.  Then a few weeks after Christmas, she found some special Minnie Mouse wrapping paper that Santa had used on her presents.  No worries though she just explained that he must have found it when he came to our house and he knew she would love it so he decided to borrow some-yep that is exactly how it went :).  Apparently Ryan and I need to up our game  in the sneakiness department next year....

We were so lucky and really one of the best Christmases I have ever had.  We got so many things that we have wanted and the girls were completely spoiled with so many fun things.  Alli's favorite things have been her playhouse and kitchen/kitchen utensils.  Ilene is kind of scared of her rocking horse, but she really likes Alli's playhouse and their kitchen too.  Ryan's favorite Christmas present is his snowmobiling date :), and his blasted XBox game :(.  My favorite present was our printer seeing as we have not had one for a few years :), and new clothes and definitely the Christmas card from Ryan and Alli!!