Bits, Pieces and Crumbs: Merry Merry!!

We just had way too much fun this Christmas. I was debating on doing only one post or a series. I opted for one since most of the pictures are most appriciated by us. So her goes a long picture filled post :)

First Alex and I went down to 34th Street in Hampden one Saturday evening. It was cold and crowded and we didn't get many pictures (I only have so many hands and keeping a hand on her is FAR more importantthenpictures) but she loved it. Best part is that they were calling for rain that night. And rain it did, starting about 5 minutes after we'd gotten back to the car. Thank God :)

The final snowman prior to the feline attack

We were danger close to a white Christmas this year. And after last year's fiascos can you blame people for freaking out everytime snow is in the forcast? Well we ahve yet to get more then a dusting. Although this means that Alex gets all excited and wants to make snowmen. Like real ones. Anyone who has ever tried to make a snowman knows that you need a lot more snow then we had and it has to be a moist snow. We had fun anyway. The cat is always trying to escape to the freedom of outside. Stupid cat. He usually doesn't stay out long but there are a few issues here. 1-we want an indoor cat and 2 TECHNICHALLY in Baltimore County you can't have an unleashed animal outside. So the cat has a harness and we try to convince him to work with a leash. Not long after the picture was taken he slipped his harness and ran away. Stupid cat. But Alex and I had fun. Even if the snow was gone long before Christmas.

silliness

Then there was Christmas at Grammy and Pop-pop's with Alex's cousins, Eve's kids. She was a bit overwhelmed because she's not so used to so many kids being around but she had fun. And she got a super cool light up lady bug out of the deal. Judging by her lack of willingness to part with it, I'd say it's a pretty big hit.

She rarely sleeps soudly or long enough to get a picture. But how cute is sleepy Alex?

Before we knew it, it was time for the Christmas party at her day home. Alex loves her daytime family and was more then willing to help them open their gifts. By all accounts she had a great day that day. It was a party after all and so they got all sorts of treats and pizza and cool stuff to play with like horse on stick things and a stuffed penguin. Oh yeah. Did I mention that our daughters favorite things are penguins and ladybugs?

What fun would any of this be without some fingerpainting?

Christmas Eve found us attempting to assemble a gingerbread house kit. This could be a post in itself but alas I will only torture us all with a few pictures. It went poorly but Alex and I had a great time anyway. It was a mess and took a lot of trial and error but we eventually got 3 houses assembled. By then most of teh decorations had been eaten. But I would guess that that's most of the fun of making gingerbread houses. After church we grabbed some fast food and headed home. Magically between the time Alex left the house and her return a stuffed stocking appeared under the tree. She happily pulled out her goodies and we watched one of her new 'mato shows', which is how she refers to VeggieTales. Then there was only one more sleep until Christmas.

What it looked like before Alex found it all in the morning

So Alex can tell you that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. And she can point out Santa Claus in a heartbeat, even if she doesn't wuite get the jolyy elf thing at all. And she understands presents and ripping paper. She'd been told for weeks about how awesome Christmas is for all of these reasons. And she'd done countless Christmas crafts. But it seems as though nothing had really prepared her or made her ready.

We got up and sung happy birthday, the cake was chocolate strawberry shortcake, and started the rolls and made hot cocoa. Then it started.

Each gift was played with as it was opened, until we convinced her to move on. And eventually she was just overwhelmed and didn't know what to play with. We've been told to enjoy these years because before we know it she'll just rip everything open as fast as possible. I guess we enjoyed it, we took over 100 pictures in an hour and a half. lol

After a family day, Jackie came over and brought with her one of Alex's favorite new things, a lady bug pillow pal. Now she has teh light thing, blanket and pillow with her every night and every nap. It's getting to be a very lady bug bed. :)