Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Best. Christmas. Ever.

Wow. Christmas is so much more fun with children. This was the first year Parker understood what was going on and it brought me back to my childhood a little. In fact, I was so excited for Christmas this year that I could sleep Christmas eve. I woke up around 1 am and didn't get back to sleep until around 4. Well, part of that was excitement, the other part was anxiety. I woke up having braxton-hicks contractions every 5 minutes. How terrible would it be to go to the hospital on Christmas eve? It would ruin Christmas. I ate a little something and took a nice warm bath and finally they slowed down after about an hour.

I was a little stressed because my family was all coming over for a big Christmas Breakfast, then we were meeting up with Matt's family to go sledding, and then a big Christmas dinner party that evening with them at my house (not to mention I hosted another Christmas dinner at my house just days earlier). It was a big, busy and wonderful day.

Parker loved all his presents. He is such a spoiled boy, being the only grandchild on both sides of the family.

The breakfast was delicious. I made this french toast, but added homemade orange syrup (recipe from Amanda). There were no leftovers.

Then we took Parker sledding for the first time up Big Cottonwood Canyon. He LOVED it. He also discovered the joy of snowballs. He would pick up a handfull of snow and yell "SNOWBALL!" as he threw the chunk at us. Then Matt decided to go down a bigger hill and snow flew all over poor Parker's little face. Matt tried to take him down that hill again, and Parker just looked back at me with his arm extended and said "mama" as if asking me to save his life. Poor kid is always tortured by his daddy.

Here are some fun Christmassy things we did this year:
  • Made an advent calendar and counted down 'till Christmas
  • Went to a live nativity with Grandparents
  • Went to temple square
  • Made an ornament to represent our year
  • Did a service project for those less fortunate
  • Had french toast for breakfast on Christmas morning
  • Went sledding
  • Sat in Santa's lap
  • Made gingerbread houses
  • Listened to lots of Christmas music and drank lots of hot cocoa













3 comments:

Kateka said...

I love Parker's beanie. So cute. That french toast recipe looks devine!!

baxtersrus said...

Ha! I totally agree!I hadn't been so excited on Christmas for at least 10 years! It's so much more fun once you have kids!

Sheralee said...

Very cute post! I love the idea of making an ornament to represent the year. I'm going to have to make Casey start that tradition with me next year. :) I also love your new blog background!!