The Poe Family Blog: January 2013

I consider our yearly trip to Wild Lights at the Columbus Zoo as our official kick off of the Christmas season. (My sister disagrees since we go before Thanksgiving). This is where we take Zoey to see Santa. My niece came with us this year, which was nice. It was a bit stressful because it was pretty cold and Zoey is at that age where keeping gloves and a hat on her is a challenge. We also walked all over the zoo before finally figuring out where Santa was. Zoey still didn't really understand the whole Santa thing this year, so she wanted nothing to do with him. However, Santa was great. He gave her a candy cane, let her sit in his chair without him, and then snuck around the back so we could get a picture. It was a great illustration of Zo's personality, give me food and let me steal your seat.

Waiting in line for Santa

We had a lot of different Christmas gatherings this year in an attempt to spend some time with as many family and friends as we could. Our first gathering took place with our friends from PA. We met up in Akron for a fun day of playing at the mall and then a nice lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse.

Harrison opening his Batman Copter

Nick and Kristy

Little People castle

It's so hard to get four kids to cooperate for a picture

Zoey loved her cash register and played with it all the way home

As far as our actual Christmas went, it was fairly low key (in comparison to the norm). We have a tradition in which we open one present the day before Christmas Eve. This is always how we did things when I was growing up and since Scott isn't the biggest fan of Christmas I get to make the rules. LOL! Anyhow, since that day landed on Sunday and Scott had to work late, we decided to do it a day early. Unlike the tradition in my home, where we picked any present we wanted to open, I decided that we would open the present our elf left for us.

Our cute little elf gave us each some cute jammies, hot chocolate and cups to drink it from, and the movie Brave. Zoey got cute Agent P jammies, Scott got some awesome Cookie Monster ones, and I got some comfy jammie pants and a t-shirt.

She loved her crazy straw cup

Yum, hot chocolate

Happy in the new jammies

For Christmas Eve we started out with some special Christmas pancakes, which Zoey helped Scott make. She is loving the learning tower we got.

After breakfast, we headed up to Scott's mom's house for the afternoon. We had a good time opening presents and just hanging out.

Enjoying the snacks and awesome socks Grandma gave her

Enjoying some lunch

This is how Scott prefers to spend Christmas


Scott got a Nerf gun from his mom. We all love it

Another tradition in my family, which is a newer one, is that we get a sandwich tray Christmas Eve and just kind of munch on it all day. Then we open presents Christmas Eve night. My sister and my nephew, Trey, came over. We had a good time. Trey opened all his presents first. It was hard to tell what was a hit and what wasn't. Teenage boys are hard to read.

Zoey got to open her presents next. We didn't get very far because she opened her present from her Aunt Tia and immediately wanted nothing to do with anything other than her new pots and pans. LOL! She also seemed to really enjoy her new guitar, and will now be able to join in when we play Guitar Hero. She also was a huge fan of her doll house.

Once Zoey finished opening her presents, we took a picture to remind Santa that Zoey had been good and then we sat out some milk and cookies to bribe him in case he didn't believe us.

The adults then got to open presents. Scott got quite a few video games, some matching pimp jammies from Zoey, and a watch and pants. The jammies didn't quite fit. Pants were way to big and the shirt was too small.

I got my awesome Skillet bag from Zo, and the complete series of Dawson's Creek (so happy). I also opened my super stocking from my sister. She puts together an awesome stocking!

The real highlight of the evening was the awesome trick I played on my sister. My sister and my mom have a history when it comes to Christmas presents. Tiffany is kind of hard to buy for and despite my mom's best efforts, she has a history of buying clothes Tiffany hates. Well this year my mom got it right in a big way and got my sister a Kitchenaide mixer. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to mess with my sister, so Shaylin and I went to Walmart and picked out some of the ugliest clothes we could find. I then wrapped them up in a box with a picture of her mixer at the bottom. It worked better than I could have hoped. She even cried because she was so upset by the ugliness of the clothes. It was great!!!

Face as she saw the awesome clothes

Actually crying

Zoey sharing her dollhouse stuff with Tia's new mixer

Loving her new mixer and the apron Zoey gave her

Santa decided that Zoey was good so he dropped off a few things for her. She got a kitchen with lots of pretend food. I should have had a conversation with Santa about limiting the amount of food he got her cuz I constantly have plastic food all over my house. LOL! She also got a Innotab 2 and a couple of games for it. She hasn't really played with it yet cuz it is a bit old for her, but the movie player function will come in handy on road trips. Santa also gave her a cute little stuffed husky, a guy for her Imaginext set, and a large pen and some random stuff in her stocking.

Checking out what Santa brought her

Showing Daddy her castle guy

That's one big pen!!!

Woo Hoo!!! Activity packs

Christmas morning I got up and made our traditional monkey bread. The recipe I used this year was a keeper. It turned out so good!!! Zoey really seemed to enjoy it and I caught her several times trying to "cut" pieces off of it.

She spent most of the morning either sitting in her learning tower or playing in her room with the pots and pans and doll house she got the night before.

My sister and nephew came over again and we had a great Christmas dinner. Scott playing video games with Trey while Zoey played with her new toys and Tiffany and I hung out. Later that night, Scott's dad and his girlfriend, Connie, came over to shower Zoey with even more presents.

Opening presents with Connie

Yay! Zoo Talkers

Grandpa was in charge of opening the packages

Nothing more comfortable than sitting in a box

Reading with Grandpa

Our Christmas activities didn't end just because Christmas day did. We still had Christmas gatherings with both sides of Scott's family. Scott's sister and her family came into town after Christmas, so we got together with Scott's mom's side of the family the Thursday after Christmas. Zoey had been coming down with something, so she was not in the best of moods that night. We were still able to have some good times though. Our niece, Neko, "taught" me how to sew. Zoey and Robbie got to play with some of their new toys before Zoey turned into a stinker.

Checking out the stash of presents

Cool! A gas pump for my car.

Fun time opening presents

Later in the week on Saturday, we had our last Christmas celebration, which was at Aunt Sherry's house. We had lunch and then the other kids enjoyed some quiet time watching a Thomas video. However, Zoey wasn't really into watching Thomas, so instead she went downstairs and played with trains. We then had a good time opening presents. Zoey got the Samurai castle that was on her wishlist and a guy to go with it. She also got a learning toy, Disney gift card and an autograph book for when we make our trip in October.