Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful and busy December enjoying all the Christmas festivities.  The week before Christmas Allyson got the flu, the 24 hour stomach flu.   She was our usual tough girl and recovered pretty quickly.  Then a few days later I got the flu (our Polar Express Night, I was sad I was too out of it to participate). It was miserable, I felt even worse for Allyson now that I knew just how bad it had been.  By the next day (Christmas Eve) I was starting to feel better.  My mom had planned our big dinner for Christmas Eve this year, I sat that one out I wasn't ready for food yet.  Thankfully everyone else was able to enjoy it because the sickness struck again that night and Christmas Day for my unlucky sisters in law and nephew.

Christmas Eve we had a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Ally was still a bit unsure about Santa, but with a little coaxing she got on his lap and there were no tears this time!

Santa asking if Jimmy was a good boy this year.  He was apparently very good since Santa brought him a .22 Christmas morning.

Tiara with Santa

After Mr. and Mrs. Claus left we had a really nice Christmas program (we only did part 2) and it turns out we are a pretty musical family! We sang songs, Tiara played a piano solo, and James played a Harmonica solo.  It was a nice way to help us remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas Morning I was finally feeling like myself again.  Since Allyson is not really a morning person (we struggle to get her up in time for 9am Church) we hid her gift from Santa until after Church.  It was so nice to go to Church on Christmas, it was such a nice relaxing meeting.  No extra stuff to worry about, just a Christmas program to enjoy.  I forgot to take a picture of Allyson in her Christmas dress, she did look adorable though.

After Church it was evident that Allyson was in desperate need of a nap.  Too many late nights with cousins and Uncles had caught up with her.  Good thing she is young enough that she wasn't impatient that we put off the gifts yet again.  I love her Christmas jammies, a sweet sister in our ward gave them to her and they are so cute.  

Allyson woke up from her nap while we were skyping with Steve's brother Brandon who is on a mission in Brazil.  So we covered her gift from Santa with a blanket and she was so good to read and play until we were done.  It was fun to be able to have all of Steve's family on the call at once. 

Here she is checking out her new Kitchen for the first time.

Enjoying her play food from Nana.  I am pretty sure this is the only time she will ever eat peas, mostly because I don't like them and so I never cook them.

I love that she jumped right in a started playing with it.  Here she was heating up her milk in the microwave just like we do every morning.

She was a bit concerned that water wouldn't come out of the tap.  She kept saying 'mommy help', so I had to tell her it was for pretend only.  That seemed to satisfy her.

Her favorite feature is the phone.  She is constantly talking on the phone to Grandma, Papa, Nana, or mommy.  I love it, it is so cute.

We headed over to my parents to open stockings and tackle the mountain of gifts.  This is one of the only pictures I took that day.  We were having a pretty low key day since the sickness had struck the house.  It was so fun to be able to be together with all of my family on Christmas.

Allyson playing with one of her many gifts.  This is from my parents, I love it.  It is the leap frog Alphabet set,  she loves it since it makes all the letter sounds just like her Letter Factory DVD (which is a favorite around here).