12.28.2009

December

The month of December has flown by way too fast for us. I spent the majority of it in front of the computer, frantically trying to edit photo shoots for my families to have them back in time for Christmas cards. After I recovered from my computer coma I had a long list of holiday musts that kept getting longer and longer.  I soon realized that there just weren't enough hours in the day to accomplish it all, so I scrapped the list and decided to make this Christmas a simple one.

Some of our  highlights were-

Watching A White Christmas with Nolan because Rob refuses to watch it with me (not really, he was just at school, but he really has no desire to see it). I was pleasantly surprised that he actually liked it.

Making my ornaments for our annual Haynes' girls ornament exchange.

Making salsa for neighborhood friends (it was our first year giving away goodies and I quite enjoyed it).

Spending a weekend with my family at the Haynes' cabin. I still can't believe I forgot my camera. I don't have a single picture of Nolan playing in the snow for the first time. Huge bummer!

Nolan making gingerbread houses with Nana and cousins.

Spending a day baking with my Mom and being able to take home some of her famous cinnamon rolls.

Playing with cousins visiting from Utah.

Riding the train at McCormick Park. Since seeing Polar Express for the first time over a month ago Nolan has been obsessed with "Choo's". He was speechless the whole train ride, that is until it was over and time to get off, then he became quite the opposite of quiet.



Our one (and only) family picture of the season.

Every year we spend Christmas Eve with Rob's family. We eat a yummy dinner, act out the Nativity in their backyard and end with an awesome White Elephant exchange, which never disappoints.

Christmas day we spend over at my families. This year we convinced them to sleep in until 7:30 and it was heaven. I woke up at 6:30 thanks to a barking dog and I couldn't go back to sleep I was so excited. Christmas is so much more fun now having a child! I can't imagine what it's going to be like when we have a couple of kids that actually get who Santa is. I don't think I'll be able to sleep at all.



One of Nolan's favorites was this Cars toy that my parents gave him. He runs around the house yelling as he pushing this thing crazy.


My favorite was this train table. I was able to trade a photo shoot for it, so yeah, it was free! I knew from the second I saw it that he would love it. It made it even more exciting when not even two weeks later Nolan became obsessed with trains. We left it at Rob's parents so we wouldn't have to hall it back and forth. After we were done at my parents we came home and showed Nolan his awesome new toy. He also got a dump truck and Thomas the Train from Nana & Paco. I don't think we'll ever need to buy this boy a new toy again.






Through all of the gift giving and chaos of December we did have time to reflect upon the birth and life of our Savior. We are so grateful to have been able to spend time with those we love.

7 comments:

salena said...

My boys would covet that train table. How cool that you were able to trade for it!

Rebecca Irvine said...

Looks like Nolan made out like a bandit this year! Glad to hear you had a good Christmas.

angela hardison said...

merry (late) christmas!

Nancy Pitney said...

I love the picture of you guys at the train station. At least you remember to get in at least 1 picture! I need to hand the camera over more often so there's at least 1 picture of me! :-)

mad white woman said...

I agree that Christmas is much more fun with kids and their excitement. That is rad you traded that train table for a photo shoot. Oh, and I hope your wait in line at the train park was shorter than ours! :)

Deb said...

I had to scrap a lot of items on my christmas list as well because of stress and business.

Christmas is great with kids. I remember asking my mom when I was little if she was sad that she didn't get as many presents as I did on Christmas and she said, "no Christmas is for kids, I don't need any presents." At the time I didn't believer her, but now being a mom, I get it. I am just as happy seeing my kids open a gift and get excited as I would be opening my own gift.

ConnieB said...

I actually made a sad face when I read that you forgot your camera when you went up to the snow. Seriously, I would die.

What a fun Christmas- looks like Nolan got some great stuff!

And this has nothing to do with your post but I just feel like saying- thanks for being a great friend to me. I really appreciate you and care about you!