Christmas 2010

This Christmas was probably my favorite Christmas ever. We had so much fun. It was great to be able to experience the joy of Christmas through Ayla's eyes. It was the first Christmas where we have been together alone, just our little family. While I miss my parents, sisters, nieces, and nephews, it was really great to be able to experience the holiday alone with just us.
We had been preparing Ayla by telling her about Santa and Jesus. We read the children's version of the New Testament about Baby Jesus numerous times. It got to the point where she would actually help me tell the story. She would point to Mary and say "Baby's mommy" and she would point to King Herod and say "Bad guy, hurt babies". It was really cute. I don't think she gets the connection between Jesus and Christmas yet but we have time to work on that. She did come out of with with some slight confusion however, at night when she says her prayers now, she blesses the baby (meaning the one in my belly) but she always says "Please bless baby Jesus". We're working on it. No I'm not naming the baby Jesus.
We decorated the day after Thanksgiving. I used to think it was a little early to decorate, but I found I really liked having the decorations up that long it really brought the Christmas feeling into our home. Here are a few pictures of our decorations.

I had to put the nativity set on top of our computer desk because when it was under the tree Ayla played with it and I didn't want her to break the figures. We used the nativity set to help tell the story of Baby Jesus.

We used to hang all of our Christmas cards on the refrigerator but we got so many this year that we couldn't fit them. It was great. I decided to hang them up all around the door frames in the kitchen. See if you can find yours.

Before Ayla went to bed Christmas Eve we explained that Santa was coming and that if she had been a good girl he would leave presents under the tree for her. After she went to bed Lucas and I brought out all of the wrapped gifts that we had hidden in the house and put them under the tree. Before we went to bed we literally put an obstacle course of chairs and things in front of the door to the living room just in case Ayla got up before us she wouldn't be able to get into the living room without me hearing her (or so I thought). If you've never been to our house let me describe it a bit, it's a little house, only two bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, and bathroom. Our bedroom is literally about two feet from the door to the living room and we always sleep with our door open so we can hear Ayla if we need to. I was sure that she wouldn't be able to get by our "obstacle course" without me hearing her and waking up. Well apparently I was wrong. I still can't believe it, normally I hear her little feet walking down the hall before she even makes it to our room. Well not Christmas morning, apparently she got up before us and openend a couple of presents. One of Lucas's (he only had two to open) and then she started ripping open one of hers before she decided it might be a good idea to get Mommy and Daddy. She came running into our room, climbed up on our bed and yelled "Mommy presents!" I said " Oh did Santa come?" and she said yes. At this point we still weren't aware that she had already opened a couple gifts. I told Lucas to go out and turn the tree on, and start the Christmas music CD and Ayla and I waited in the room. It was like trying to hold a monkey back but I managed. He came back into the room and told me how she had gotten into the gifts already. I really couldn't believe it. Lucas was really kind of mad that she had opened one of his. It was kind of funny. I was like "Do you want me to take it back into the room and wrap it even though you already know what it is?" We decided that would be unecessary. We figured Ayla was probably a little confused as to why Santa had brought her a Wii Goldeneye game. Anyway even with the rough start we had a great time opening presents. Ayla was so funny. I'm used to watching my niece and nephews, who are quite a bit older open gifts and they just tear them open and then quickly move on to see what's in the next box. Ayla was very different. She had to SLOWLY open each present, eventually I started helping her even though she kept yelling "No Mommy, self!" at me. Then after she opened each present she would have to stop and play with whatever it was for a few minutes before I could convince her to move on to the next gift. Lucas and I didn't mind, we got great joy out of just watching her. It's a good thing she's the only one right now because I have a feeling if she still is like this in a couple years her brother will be quite irritated waiting for her. It took over an hour for us to get through all the gifts but, like I said it really was fine with us. We really enjoyed watching Ayla, it was a great morning. Here are a few pictures of our Christmas morning. Please be nice when looking at pictures of me, keep in mind I hadn't even brushed my hair and I'm pregnant so I really don't look very pretty.


One more picture of our Christmas cards.

Our tree after we had wrapped all the presents and put them under it, before Ayla got into them.

The first gift that Ayla opened was her Abby doll. (Abby is a Sesame Street character, Abby takes a close second place to Elmo in Ayla's heart.)

This is her Ariel doll. I originally bought it for her to play with in the bathtub, but she likes to brush and style Ariel's hair so Ariel rarely goes in the tub, mostly she is out with the other toys. Here's a picture of Ayla brushing Ariel's hair. Ayla calles Ariel "Princess".

This is probably Ayla's favorite gift, it's a little people animal farm that makes animal noises when you open the doors. She plays with it a lot.

After opening her Abby shirt, princess skirt (tutu), princess headband, and princess shoes, we had to take a time out to change. Here she is after changing.

Her princess skirt is a little "itchy" as she put it without her pants on so it quickly came off. Here she is opening another one of her favorite gifts. It's a little Elmo driver. She calls it her "Elmo car." It makes funny noises. When you turn on the turn signal it's Cookie monster's voice saying "Cookie, Cookie, Cookie, Yum,Yum, Yum, Yum. When you press the horn it's Bert's voice yelling Beep, Beep, or Ahhhuuuuggga. It's really cute! She loves it.

Ayla is my little fruit lover. Seriously she would rather have an orange than anything else. So she was quite excited to find the orange in the toe of her stocking.

Here's Daddy opening one of the gifts that came in his stocking. One of the gifts that I ordered for him didn't come in time for Christmas so I cut up a cardboard box, wrote on it, and wrapped it up. That's what he just opened. Lucas got a new toothbrush (Woohoo!) A Wii Goldeneye game, a Wii car racing game, and a Transformers 2 special edition 2 disc set.

Here's Lucas about to open his toothbrush. It might sound like a horrible gift, but a few months ago his electric toothbrush just quit on him and since then he keeps looking at different kinds. So it really was something he wanted.

Here am I opening one of my gifts, (again please be kind when looking at these pics of me). I got a Mario Bros Wii game, an Amazing Race wii game, a Jeopardy Wii game, a baby names book, and the new Daughtry CD.

Here I am expressing my joy after opening the new Daughtry CD. I love them!
A little cuddle time with Mommy after opening gifts.My pretty princess all dressed up in her red Christmas dress before going to Grandma and Grandpa's.

Christmas day afternoon we headed over to Lucas's parents house for a little family get together. We had a wonderful turkey dinner and just enjoyed being together. Lucas's brother Cody is on a mission for our church in Idaho, we were able to Skype with him. It was really cool to get to see Cody as we talked with him. He seems to be doing quite well. He said that he is having a very successful mission.

Ayla got a number of tub toys for Christmas. Santa brought her a couple and then my Mom and Ray bought her two more. We brought along her new tub toys when we visited Grandma and Grandpa because they have a huge tub in their bathroom and we figured we could give Ayla a bath and get her ready for bed before leaving and that way Ayla could enjoy playing with her toys in the big tub that they have. She really enjoyed herself. She likes to pretend that the back wall of their tub is a slide and she gets her little bum as high up on the wall as she can and then picks her legs up and slides into the water. Here is a pic of her enjoying herself in the big tub. Aunt Emily and Uncle Ike bought Ayla a Toy Story 3 lego set. This is a great toy for her because she already has a lego set that she loves and this can just add on to it. Here she is sitting with Aunt Em while she opens her gift.

Ayla got a chance to play "Santa" and hand out the gifts to family members. Here she is about to hand Grandma and Grandpa their gifts from Aunt Em and Uncle Ike.
Here is Ayla handing the gifts to GrandmaHere is Uncle Leif getting in a quick cuddle before she ran off again.

We loved our time together this Christmas. I know Thanksgiving is a more traditional time to share what you are thankful for but being together with my little family this Christmas really made me realize how lucky I am and how thankful I am for what we have. I have such a wonderful husband and daughter. I am so lucky to be able to bring another child into this world. When I think back to where my life was 7 or 8 years ago compared to where it is now it doesn't even feel like that was me. I am so happy being a mom. I'm so glad that Heavenly Father has given me the opportunity to be a mom and to be a wife to my wonderful husband. This Christmas I really understood what the joy of Christmas is. The joy of watching my daughter enjoy her Christmas was more joy than I think I've ever gotten from getting a gift.