Our Christmas Celebrations!

We like to spread out Christmas each year which meant torturing Luci!  She figured out that presents under the tree meant she was getting new and fun things!  Being 2 means that we are short on patience and she constantly asked when she could "open presents...Luci presents".  She also isn't shy about asking the grandparents for "Luci presents".  The girl has got it figured out and she typically gets what she wants!

We had Christmas with Jason's side of the family the week before Christmas.  Our niece Allie has a birthday that week so we typically celebrate Christmas one day and have a birthday party the next.  Luci had a blast opening gifts at Pops and Nana's house and playing with her cousins.

Very serious about opening Christmas presents!

Loving on her new Sing-a-majig!  Don't know who had more fun with this toy...the kids or the grown-ups!

I am seriously loving Luci's new rockin' rain boots; she is enthralled with her new necklace!

Cousins playing on their new computers!

Serious conversation over dessert!  Notice the bowl of whipped cream by Luci...she kept refilling her plate.  The girl LOVES whipped cream!

Helping Pops make waffles the next morning.  Looks safe, doesn't it?!

We had our family Christmas (just the three of us) on Christmas Eve night.  We ate a ton of food and opened our presents.  One of Luci's that I am particularly thrilled with was a Custom Board Book with her story in it. I had it made at My Custom Story and they did a great job.  The quality is wonderful!  Luci loves it because it is full of pictures of her.  She is getting old enough now that she can start to understand some of her story and we thought this book would help!

Open these please!

A sleeping bag of her own...all set for spring family camping!

Her own story... she was mesmerized that it was a book full of Luci pictures.

Helping Daddy open his presents

Curled up in her sleeping bag with Mommy reading a new book.  (Yes, that is Luci's new bag and yes, it was the smallest camping grade one we could find!)

Christmas Day we headed out to Mom and Dad's farm in Big Flat.  We always enjoy our time at their quiet hide-away.  My brother and his wife came the next day and we celebrated Christmas with this side of the family.  While we were at the farm we decorated Christmas cookies and had a lot of fun watching Luci try to keep her food away from Ryan and Sherri's dog, Lucky.  When Luci eats, the food is about at Lucky's level so it is very tempting!  Jason and I also took some time to do a little bit of Christmas hiking in the National Forest...a nice 9 mile hike with gentle (HA!) rolling hills was just what we needed to get the blood moving after all the eating!  Sorry though; no pictures from the hike.  We left the camera at home so as to lighten our packs!

Rotten girl!  Look at all the packages...not like she is the only grandchild on my side or anything!

She loved her vegetables so much that she took the carrot, cucumber, and potato up to her nap the next afternoon!

"I'm so tired but will you please peel my potato?"

Cutting out the Christmas cookies...she is a PRO!

Making Daddy a special Red-Hot Santa cookie!  Notice the candy dumping technique Luci developed using the lids!

This is Luci's idea of cleaning up after the cookie decorating!

"Walk away, Lucky!"  This is my pretzel!

I truly hope each of you had a very Merry Christmas!  May 2011 be full of blessings!!!

Putting up the tree and other Christmas traditions

This entry is a little dated but this is the first I have had time to sit down, play with pictures, and update our blog.  We didn't just put our tree up...its been up for about 2.5 weeks. 

Luci is really getting into the Christmas spirit and excitement this year!  She absolutely loved decorating the tree and now she is super excited that there are "Luci presents" under the tree.  She checks on them hourly and has even tried to open one or two.  She isn't very subtle though; the ripping of the paper gives it away instantly!

Luci picked out her own ornament this year when we visited the Plaza in Kansas City after Thanksgiving.  She is very proud of it...a pink piggy just like her stuffed one!  She hung it on the tree and we found out that it is just as fragile as it looks.  She didn't get it hooked solidly and it fell to the floor.  Poor piggy's feet didn't survive the fall.  However, Luci didn't notice the missing appendages so I was able to slip a new piggy on the tree the next day (after a mad search for an identical one since the original was purchased 4 hours away)!

We continued our Christmas tradition begun last year.  Downtown Fayetteville puts on a beautiful Christmas lights display on the Square each year. Its always lots of fun for the kiddos in the evenings.  Luci particularly likes the ponies and loves to ride them.  (Don't let the picture fool you...she really does love to ride the ponies!  She just wasn't feeling her normal peppy-self that evening!)  Following the pony ride, we went to get a cupcake at Bliss.  Luci decided to bring her cupcake home to eat but she was more than happy to devour a shot of chocolate frosting in the cupcakery!  Mmmmmm!  Chocic!

There will be more Christmas happenings to follow another evening.  For now, Merry Christmas to each of you!