Christmas Day

Ok, so I'm actually finishing up the Christmas posts (yes, I know you're incredibly happy about that) and this might actually be the last one. You're welcome.

Anyway, this picture is actually from Christmas Eve and Tay asked that I show everyone her hat. It has the caricatures of our family members just like her stationery. Who knew this would be one of her most favorite gifts? 

Her most fav gift was actually an 8x10 collage of pics of the Puppy Posse for her room in a pretty silver frame. We have a photo of each member of the family (yes, they are family) on the mantle in the living room and she kept asking me if I was "through with them yet" so she could snag the ones of the pups. This way she has her own and she LOVED it.

Wow, that was a rabbit trail...

Anyway, Christmas morning brought a sweet little girl (with obvious bed head) to my door very early. Apparently she had actually woken up at 3:30am and snuck into the living room where she tried to check out what was in her stocking. As luck (or karma) would have it, her stocking holder broke when she tried to grab it, which scared her into going back to bed.

We headed into the living room quietly so as to let Davey sleep as he'd been working some MAJOR hours during the preceding days. There was a premature baby boom here in Waco during the holidays so, needless to say, the NICU was hopping. Majorly hopping.

Santa brought Miss Thang a giant tin of gum, 12 candy canes, hot cocoa lip gloss, a white chocolate polar bear (yum!) and a few other small items. She loved them all but then we had to move on to the main event.

Miss Tay got her Wii!!
...and she was absolutely thrilled...
...and then she found the game she'd asked for - Toy Story Mania (her favorite ride from our Disney trip) and was just beside herself...

See?

We hooked up the Wii all by ourselves and were doing a bit of bowling when Davey and the Puppy Posse woke up and joined us. I was so proud to have hooked it up and all Dave wanted to know was why I didn't wake him up so he could join in the fun. 

Really?!?!

Anyway, we spent the morning playing multiple Wii Sports games and then headed to my mom's for Christmas lunch while Dave hung out with Logan.

Lunch was delicious, as per my mom's usual, and it was nice to just have a relaxed meal and enjoy each other's company as my grandmother was leaving to go back home the next day. Because she had a drive ahead of her, we forced her to go sit down while we cleaned up the kitchen. She fought us at first but I think it was the right decision in the end.

Don't you?
We headed back home shortly after this picture was sneakily taken so we could spend some time with Logan as well. Dave had made chili that morning so it could gel in the crockpot all afternoon...let's just say we had some amazing Frito pie that night. :-)

We also played much more Wii (and continue to do so until this day...a great way to spend active, quality family time) and just enjoyed our kiddos. Perfect!

I made an active decision before the holidays began to slow down and really enjoy the season this year. That's why we made the big trip to Grapevine, attended several parties, why I took off a few extra days to be with Tay, and spent purposeful time with our family. Last year I was recovering from surgery during December (a really bad decision to have it at that time, to be honest) and didn't get to make many Christmas-related memories with my girl.

I'm so glad that I had that little talk with myself this year because Christmas '09 will certainly go down in my book as one of the best ones ever. Thus far anyway. :-)