Our Little Christmas

I feel like I have officially entered motherhood with all of my little Christmas projects this year.  It was so fun to spend my evenings/nights sewing, prototyping, and constructing Emily’s gifts (especially while Andrew was on campus).  I watched hallmark movies and had a marvelous time. I made a play mat that cinches up and holds all of her blocks (instructions here).  I also constructed a chair for her out of cardboard after making lots of paper models and using ratios to figure out my final dimensions. I could not wait for our Christmas morning to share them with Andrew and Emily!

I also put together a little phone for Emily using the sticker from Christine’s new itouch.  She has been playing with the empty Vivint phone case for months and we thought this would be a fun upgrade.

Emily helped me put together a care package for my brother Derick who is still serving a mission in Florida.  She chose the Minion fruit snacks for him.

Andrew used Saturday to reconstruct a rocking chair we had gotten for free a few months ago.  We were told one of the arms was broken, but within 36 hours of bringing it home, the ENTIRE chair had completely fallen apart.  It is a fabulous upgrade from the floor and office chair that we have been using in Emily’s room.

Sunday night we had a simple Christmas Even dinner of french toast.  Andrew and Emily gave the tree some good attention. We put Emily to bed and played a board game.

Christmas morning started out with the usual. A diaper change and reading books (Emily’s immediate request upon seeing us enter her room).

As soon as we came downstairs she grabbed the little kit kats and oranges we had laid out with stockings and played with them through breakfast.  She was thrilled with these little toys and balls.  When we started opening the presents she was a pro and knew just what to do.  After the first few she started ripping little pieces off of all the presents before settling on one to focus all her attention.  We played with each of her gifts before moving onto the next one for a few minutes because she had to see what it was.

We attempted a bunch of selfies and Emily was determined not to smile – hence our over animated faces in trying to get her to join us.  This is as good as it gets.

We had a slow morning and then Andrew went to campus for a few hours to run some statistical models he needs the campus computers for.  When he came back we made gingerbread cookies and packed up for our trip. We went to a friend’s home for dinner and annual Christmas scripture reading and sing-a-long. It was a perfect end to our own Christmas.