Christmas 2013

I love Christmas!!!! It is by far my favorite holiday. I was extra excited for this Christmas because we were in a new house that I was excited to decorate, and I hoped that Zoey would get into Christmas this year. My decorating plans didn't go quite as planned. I started my outside decorations, ran out of time that day, and then just never got around to finishing them. Oh well, there is always next year.

Now when it comes to Zoey and her excitement for Christmas, she got a kick out of the advents I had and on finding Elfkin, our Elf on a Shelf. She still didn't quite get the whole concept of the elf, but she enjoyed looking for him in the morning.

When Elfkin decided to help Zoey with potty training

Elfkin as a pirate

One thing I was worried about this Christmas was how Zoey would do with the presents under the tree. I imagined a constant battle with her about opening them or touching them. She was actually really good about presents this year. We only had one issue. The morning after I put the first presents under the tree I heard Zoey come out of her room and she didn't come into our room like she normally does, so I got up, found my glasses, and went to check on her. I walked down the stairs to see her standing at the bottom of the stairs with an opened present in her hands. Luckily she picked the best present she could have opened (it was some darts for her Nerf bow and arrow). After that though, she didn't touch the presents again.

Our Christmas celebrations start the day before Christmas Eve. When I was growing up we always got to open a present on Christmas Eve Eve. I'm not sure why or where that tradition started. Personally I think it was because my parents got sick of us asking if we could open presents. LOL! Well, I wanted to keep that tradition going with my own family, so it worked out great that Elfkin heads back to the North Pole to help Santa get ready for the big day and leaves us a present on Christmas Eve Eve. That's assuming we have all been good. I'm not sure what he would do if any of us were bad and hopefully we never find out. We were good this year so Elfkin left us all some new jammies and Kung Fu Panda 2 to watch while we enjoyed some hot chocolate.

Elfkin left us a picture with our present

We also got a note telling us we had been put on the Nice List

Opening our present

Enjoying some Hot Chocolate in her new jammies

Scott had to work part day on Christmas Eve, but was able to get off around 10:30 in the morning so we headed over to his mother's house. We had some yummy lunch and opened presents. Zoey seemed to enjoy running around and wrecking havoc in the basement. LOL!

After spending the afternoon at Scott's Mom's, we headed back home and my sister and nephew came over to open presents. We had a good time laughing and joking and watching Zoey be her silly self.

Is there anything else in there?

Sock Monkey became a wrestling partner

Zoey stole Tia's birdcage for her ponies

Tia was excited by all her presents

Scott's Grinch shirt, which made Zoey cry

Matching monkey jammies from our Mom

Scott enjoying his new pillow bed (He got it so he would stop stealing Zoey's)

Family jammies from my dad

Tia's awesome jammies from my mom

Tia and Trey's family jammies

Tia opening her stocking from me

Trey opening his presents

After Tiffany and Trey left,we let Zoey play with her presents for a little while and then we got ready for bed. Of course before going to bed we had to get some milk and cookies set out for Santa. For bedtime we read The Night Before Christmas.

Letting Santa know that she's been good

Christmas morning came and Zoey was excited to see that Santa had come during the night. He brought her a giant pirate ship, along with a pirate ship full on pirate treasures. He also brought her a trampoline to get some energy out on those cold winter days when going outside is not possible. All in all, I think she was happy.

Once we had spent some time playing with Zoey's cool new stuff, Zoey and I got busy making our traditional Christmas morning breakfast, Monkey Bread. Zoey helped by shaking the pieces to get them coated in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. She even got to make her own little pan.

After breakfast, there was some more playing and then we got ready for Scott's dad to come over. He and Connie came over and brought Zoey even more presents to open. (She was one spoiled little girl). We opened presents and then spent some time playing with them before they headed over to the Poe family Christmas. We decided not to go anywhere for Christmas this year and just stayed home to enjoy the day.

Reading her map

Playing pirate with Daddy

Hanging out with Daddy while he plays video games

Tuckered out from all the excitement

Now you would think that would be the end of our Christmas festivities, but it wasn't. After the new year, Scott's sister, Angela, and her two kids, Neko and Robbie, came into town to celebrate Christmas. So we had gathering with both sides of Scott's family that weekend.

The first fathering took place on Friday and we got started while Scott was still at work. After dropping off Angela and the kids' stuff at our house (they stayed the night with us), we headed over to Magic Mountain for some inside play fun. Scott's mom and step-dad joined us, as well as his cousin and aunt. Zoey and Robbie played in the climbing structure/gym thing the whole time. Neko went between that and the upstairs arcade section where the other adults were playing.When she was downstairs, Neko was an excellent cousin and helped Zoey along.

After a few hours of fun at Magic Mountain, we headed back to our house for some dinner and more present opening.

The next morning, the kids got up and helped Scott make pancakes for breakfast. Neko and Robbie were very impressed with Uncle Scott's pancake making skills.

After filling up on pancakes, and playing some more, we headed over to Scott's aunt's house to do Christmas with the Poe side of the family. Once again there was lots of present opening and children laughing and running around.

We really had a wonderful Christmas season and are very blessed to have such wonderful family to share it with. However, I must say that by the time we had out last Christmas gathering, I was ready to leave Christmas behind until next year. (Of course it still took me another few weeks to get the house undecorated. LOL)