Christmas Festivities

We have had a great few days around here.  The Christmas Festivities kicked off on Christmas Eve with a visit to Grandpa Rick and Grandma Lesley’s house.  We had a fun evening filled with…

…opening presents

…the annual readings of Santa Mouse (by me) and Twas the Night Before Christmas (by Grandpa Rick).

 

…juggling with Grandpa

…and playing piano

Christmas morning we woke early, filled with excitement, to find out if Santa had really come to our house.  The first hint was a present, a new book, that had been left in Julia’s room… but she didn’t seem entirely convinced until we went downstairs.  This was the look on her face as she scoped things out:

Which was then immediately followed by this grin as she tried out her big present – a trampoline!

She was also thrilled with her other presents of a blue house for No-No (her stuffed bunny), a new wooden Thomas Train set, and a couple of different sets of blocks.  We spent awhile opening presents and Julia was very sweet.  She was obviously eager to open her presents but she made sure that Mommy and Daddy were each taking turns as well; although after a few Mom and Dad presents she did insist on opening a couple for me!  One of the highlights of the morning was when she opened a gift from Andrew and I (not Santa), a new ornament for the Christmas tree, and spontaneously gave each of us a big hug and kiss and told us she loved us.  It was so sweet and, of course, made me cry!

After some present opening we put together a special breakfast of cinnamon rolls, bagels, fruit, bacon (Julia’s favorite) and Blood Marys (Andrew’s favorite) and played with our new toys until Grandpa Rick, Grandma Lesley, Great Grandma Bid, and Great Grandpa Carl arrived.

When they did arrive they were bearing more presents including a workbench for Julia!

She was really into this and spent awhile figuring out the tools and pieces and hammering away!  She did make sure to wear her construction hat most of the time!

Then after a snack and a nap we headed out to the Geary Christmas celebration.  It was really nice this year because all of my cousins were there which hasn’t happened for a few years and we had a great afternoon filled with laughs.  Julia and Alex were having a great time playing with Alex’s new camera and Julia was using ours but unfortunately, there must have been some sticky fingers because all the pictures on our camera from the afternoon have blurry smudges!

So I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures from Alex’s camera because I think they got quite a few cute ones! 

Overall, it was a wonderful holiday.  Andrew and I both agreed that it was very nice to be home and not traveling for the first time in several years.  We felt like we were able to enjoy the entire season more, from preparing through the celebrations.

There are also a few more festivities planned for this week, with a family dinner at Grandma Laurie and Grandpa Boo’s tomorrow night and Andrew’s brother and sister-in-law arriving at the end of the week for a visit so we’re not done with Christmas yet!