Christmas 2010

Alex's playroom - reorganized yet again to fit her toys.

Even adults like Whack-a-mole

Alex playing her Vmile Motion Game

Christmas brunch.......we had bacon, eggs, and toast but Alex ate a slice of pizza, a piece of bacon, and toast...and vegetable/fruit juice

Papa was the go to guy to open the boxes and help put the toys together

playing doctor

cheese!

playing with her animals

daddy....open it!!!

a play doh kit - always a big hit in our house

Some of the gifts under the tree

And more on the train table

Alex helping Titi with the cheeseball and Nana with the "sorry sausage" (inside joke)

Alex loved Nana's singing hat

This year Nana, Papa, Titi, and Nona all joined us for Christmas at our house. It is always nice to all be together on Christmas morning to watch Alexandra open her gifts. During their visit Nana, Papa, Titi, and Nona were a big help (as usual). First of all I was able to sleep in a bit because Nana was entertaining Alex at 7 am. I was sleeping that is, until Chris came up and beckoned me a 9 am to come down for breakfast (I am usually the one jumping on him at 11 am to come down). Still I slept until 9 am....how wonderful. And then to get a shower in privacy without the little kiddo coming in telling me she needs something was nice!

Christmas Eve was pretty uneventful. We just hung out and relaxed which was nice. We didn't go to Longwood Gardens like last year which was fine because it was freezing anyways!l Maybe that could be an every other year tradition instead of every year. Dean and Chris worked on building Alexandra's new closet the entire time during the day. They worked really hard over the break and now she has a great looking closet. That evening we did open up some gifts for the baby boy. Nana and Papa and Nona got him clothes so I opened up those gifts on Christmas Eve.

We were excited for Christmas to come. I purposely didn't have Alex take a nap on Christmas Eve because I wanted her to go to sleep early. Well my plan worked! We went up at 7:30 and she actually was asleep by 8 and fell asleep as Nana was reading her a story. Before she went to bed she actually got sick and threw up so I think she wasn't feeling well either. She had eaten some food off of our plates and also had a part of a cookie so I think the combination of food made her tummy upset. The poor thing said "I had too many cookies" while we were cleaning her up.

We did leave Santa a note and a plate of cookies and milk before she went to bed - and he ate them!

So Christmas morning came and I was excited to see what Alex's reaction would be. I was armed with the video camera downstairs waiting for her to come down. She saw a pile of presents on her covered up train table and said "PRESENTS!!" and then made her way toward the tree and said "more presents!" and then looked at all of the stockings that were by the fireplace.

This year while opening presents I wanted to take it slow. Last year seemed to go so fast - probably because she was really too young to open the presents so we were opening them for her - and therefore I wasn't able to even see what all she got because we were all opening them at the same time. This year she opened her presents from Santa and as she opened them she wanted to play with them. So it took her a few hours to get through them because she took alot of breaks and opened a few at a time. I was able to get dinner ready while she played and then later in the afternoon she would open some from Nona and Titi as well as presents from Chris and I. She seemed very grateful after opening the presents - she would thank people for the gifts and she really enjoyed them.

I think we all enjoyed Christmas together. My Christmas gift came early with our newly remodeled kitchen! I do enjoy opening gifts but I enjoy cooking in my new kitchen (and watching Alexandra on Christmas morning) even more. So again, to Nana, Papa, Titi, and Nona - thanks so much for helping out so much! And to Chris and Dean - thanks for all of your hard work with Alex's room!! (pictures of the room will come after it is done!)