Christmas

We moved to Dallas so close to Christmas that I didn't think I could be ready by the actual day, but somehow I pulled it off.
Christmas Eve we had Sarah and Troy's family over. We had some yummy soup and rolls. (which I was a little worried to serve b/c the day before it was almost 80 degrees, but luckily Texas got snow Christmas Eve, the first time in nearly a century.) With such a small gathering for Christmas I thought it might be a little quiet, but Emma and Caden kept the party going. They love to sing Jingle Bells every time they get together. I have it on video from Christmas Eve when they were super hyper running around yelling it at the top of their lungs. They were sooo excited for Christmas.
We did books and pj's again. I love this cute little tradition. The book this year was another push and listen kind of thing with a ton of Chrsitmas songs. Needless to say, Emma has memorized a lot of Christmas carols and loves to sing them. It's pretty adorable. "Deck da hall wid bow of holly, falalalalalalalala"
After dinner I asked Emma and Caden if they wanted to go open some presents, and of course their answer was yes. So, while I was getting everything ready to do this, Emma and Caden went on their merrily to open presents, right then and there. By the time we noticed they had already begun, they had innocently opened a handful of presents. All I could do was laugh. I was the niave new mom who assumed they knew that they needed to wait for everyone to get there before they could begin. The time had finally come that somebody gave the ok and they were on it. Too funny.
Aaron tried to continue on the Gabbart tradition acting out Luke 2. Mia and Eli(the naef's little boy) were probably the best actors. Emma and Caden were too busy playing around the tree to really care about their parts as a shepherd or sheep. So, Sarah, Troy and I all stood there rather awkwardly as he continued to read the entire nativity. Hopefully it will work out a bit better for him next year.
All in all Christmas Eve was pretty fun, but I sure missed having all of our family around.



This is Christmas morning with Emma sporting her new tutu from Aunt Katie (so adorable) and her bike from Santa Clause. Most of Christmas is on a video (since my camera stuff has been "misplaced" in the move!) Emma was so patient waiting for Daddy to wake up. She sat up at the top of the stairs until she was allowed to come down and see. Mia was asleep upstiars through all of the unwrapping. She and Emma had been up a ton during the night b/c they both got sick. Emma, however, had high spirits all day long. (stocking candy and presents seem to help with winter colds) Christmas day was full of relaxation. Emma, Mia and I all slept for a few hours that afternoon. It was heavenly to get such a nice long nap...it made for a very merry Christmas.
As a final note: Thanks to Aaron who let me do Christmas without complaining too much about all the money I was spending, love ya!

I so wish I had more pics of this little one. She has turned into quite the noise maker herself. Having conversations with Mia are pretty adorable as well. She is just the sweetest thing. Something about being the second child, I don't know if she thinks she has no choice or what, but she is so tolerant of Emma. This morning I caught Emma on her all fours with her nose about 1mm from Mia's face singing so loud. Mia didn't do a thing but sit there and stare back. The past couple of weeks she's had a few nights where she has slept about six hours in a row. I love it!

Yes, my babies love to hold onto that cream in their cheeks. I thought this was a great example of that.