The Best Christmas Ever!

We had an absolutely amazing Christmas! I hope everyone had a great time with family and friends on their holiday! Our day was full of family, food, and fun!! I really feel like we got to focus on the true meaning of Christmas instead of the commercialism society has placed on it. It is my goal as Alexa gets older to share the true meaning of Christmas with her just as my parents shared it with me at a young age.

We kicked off our Christmas festivities at Jodi's on Christmas Eve. They cooked dinner and we ate and enjoyed everyone's company. After dinner my Uncle Jerry read the Christmas story and then we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. I thought it was really sweet on Sunday at church after the children sang two Christmas caroles it was announced that one of them had requested we all sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, so the whole church stood and sang. It almost made me cry. After we left Jodi's house I did some last minute wrapping, but the noise woke Alexa up so after I put her back down I went on to bed as not to disturb her.

I got up around 7:30 Christmas morning and finished up my wrapping before everyone got there for breakfast. Josh and Brenda came for breakfast as did Grandpa, Grace, and Uncle Jerry. Mama made a wonderful breakfast casserole, muffins, and cinnamon rolls and daddy fried bacon. It was all very yummy! When breakfast was over we let Alexa start opening her presents! It took her a while to get into it, and she got distracted several times, but for the most part she enjoyed ripping the paper!! She got so many nice things, thank you to everybody!

After we finished at mama and daddy's house, we got ready to go to our family lunch at Sylvia's. Alexa wore her cute new purple and green outfit with her adorable Nike shox that her daddy gave her. Her hat and mittens matched the outfit, but it wasn't cold enough for those! Most of our extended family was there, and it's always such a treat to get to see everyone. I hated that Jodi, Brad and Walker didn't get to come, and two of our cousins and their families didn't get to come either! That meant Alexa was the only child there, and she was super good the whole time. After lunch we opened presents again...Alexa didn't do much opening, she mostly ran around the room carrying a gift bag the whole time...she is too funny! She got some really cute clothes and toys, not to mention a subscription to Wild Animal Babies for the next year!! :)

Alexa would not take a nap yesterday morning, so by the time we left Sylvia's house she was exhausted! She fell asleep in the car on the way home, and took about a 2 hour nap after we got home. During that time we started watching a movie, and kept it on until she woke up and it was time to eat supper. While we were getting supper out Jodi, Brad, and Walker got there. Alexa just loves Walker...she calls him "Walk Walk"...she said it all day until he got there! They got to play with her kitchen some, and we all visited and ate before opening presents again. Walker and Alexa both got an adorable stuffed duck from Grandpa and Grace...you will see it in the pictures below, and Alexa LOVED hers! As a bonus Alexa also got a rocking caterpillar like Walkers. I was telling my Sunday School class about the caterpillar incident at our Christmas party a couple of weeks ago and one of the other mothers asked if I wanted one. She said her kids fight over it all the time and that she would be happy to get rid of it. So, they inherited an outside playhouse from another family in the class and the caterpillar showed up at our house on Monday afternoon! Thanks Bakers!

The highlighted gifts of the day would be...Alexa's kitchen and her duck! She loved both of them so much, and Gabe really liked the duck too! :) He tried to lay on it all day. Alexa and Walker both kept taking the sink out of the kitchen, it was so funny! It gives a whole new meaning to packing the kitchen sink!! :) Then mama got her Bernina. She has always wanted one, and she asked daddy to get her one this year. She knew it was coming, but she had no idea that it was going to be here yesterday! She was really cute about the whole thing. He has done the 12 days of Christmas for her, and it has been exciting for me to get to be a part of it. Jodi and I both got to be Christmas elves!! :) So, yesterday as the 12th day she got 12 sewing accessories, except I only put 11 of them in the basket. Then I brought out some extra bobbins and needles as the 12th gift and Josh came behind me with the sewing machine. She was so surprised because we told the people at the Inman Quilt Cottage about the surprise, so they were in on it! She kept saying, I wonder when they are going to call me about my Bernina...I can't believe they haven't called me yet! HEHE!! :) Then the biggest surprise of the day was Jodi and Brad's gift to me. It was the baby Cricut!!!!!!! I was SHOCKED!! I had no idea. It was an awesome present! Jodi bought it on Black Friday through the Wal-Mart deal to get the two carts that came with it and she was going to sell the machine on Ebay, but Brad suggested they give it to me instead. Thanks again Brad!! I can't wait to use it some. It's much easier to take the little bug to crops, and with the software you don't have to worry about the previous limitations the little one had!

Again, it was a wonderful day! I hope you all had as much fun as we did. Christmas is such a wonderful time of year when we get to spend time with friends and family and focus on the birth of our Savior and what He had done for us. Thank you Lord for all of the many blessing You give us, and Happy Birthday Jesus!

Here are some of the great pictures we took...

These are from a few nights ago when Alexa wanted to sit on the couch with Pop...then they started singing together and playing patty-cake! It was so cute!! :)

Alexa looking at the ornaments...she has done really well with the tree!

I love this one...she has this look on her face like OOO...what's that!

Pop and Alexa at breakfast yesterday

Josh and Brenda

Mimi and Pop

Alexa feeding Uncle Jerry

Alexa getting a bite from Pop

Eating her breakfast casserole with a spoon

Unwrapping her first present

Alexa with her cute new hat on...she has matching mittens as well!

So cool with her new sunglasses on!

Mommy helping Alexa unwrap her new kitchen!

She's getting excited now!

Anytime Alexa gets any kind of phone she puts it up to her ear and says "wewwo"...it's so cute!

Here is Alexa laying on her duck...she also gave the duck sugar several times!

Mama it's for you

Pop reading Alexa one of her new books...she loves her books and she has a million of them!

Alexa and Mommy on the duck

That's right, I'm eating again!

My cousin Matt playing with Alexa before lunch

Mommy and Alexa...clearly she was more interested in the paper wrapper from a chocolate covered peanut butter ball than she was smiling for the camera!

Silly Girl!

I like the cars!

Alexa and Grandpa playing with the cars...she liked running them into each other! LOL!