Christmas Day!

We could not contain the excitement of this little girl Christmas morning! It was wonderfully after 7 am which I was thrilled about because this girl is usually up at 6. Here she is anxiously awaiting to go downstairs to see if anything from her list was waiting under the tree.

Her Christmas wish list:

- A Dora doll with Boots in a stroller

- Beauty and the Beast DVD

- A chocolate snowman

- and a candy cane

I love how simple her list was. She saw the Dora doll in an ad way back at the beginning of November. She decided that is what she wanted and added the other 3 things and stuck with it all the way until Christmas. When I was little I think I changed my mind a million times. I admire her decisiveness!

Well what do you know! She got what she wished for!

Chocolate snowman and all.

Zack was just excited to be there with all of the wrapping paper to play with. And he loved his new presents too. We needed some new baby toys. It seems like all Anna played with at this stage was toothpaste tubes and Listerine bottles.

This boy loves balls. He has been chasing these around the house ever since. Grandma G gave him a musical ball popper that makes him so happy. Anna and her friends play with it all the time too. In fact, Anna even has a dance made up to the music it plays.

Gotta love the thumb!

Anna was excited to pose with Dora by the tree.

Zack's new horse from Grandma Mary was a hit. Zack loves it, but I think Anna loves it even more. (see Anna crying on the ground in picture below)

It was a truly magical day! Mid-day it started snowing. Which is a big deal around here. They hadn't had a white Christmas since 1960 or something. So after lunch Anna and Dave bundled up and went out and played in the snow.

She was almost as excited as she was Christmas morning! They made snow angels and a snowman and she had a blast. Until snow got in her glove. Then that was it. Time to come in for hot cocoa.And that's it for pictures because unfortunately I dropped our camera at this point. Well, I put it on the fireplace mantel and it fell off. kaput! It was time for a new camera anyway I guess! An extra after Christmas present. No I didn't get a fancy one like I want, just your basic point and shoot, but it's great!

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas Eve with our little family and friends this year. Of course we made cookies for Santa. Anna was a great helper and looked so cute in her apron. Especially from the back.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished products. But I assure you, they were spectacular. Anna made a triple-decker cookie for Santa. Then Anna sprinkled glitter on our lawn to help the reindeer see our house. We got cleaned up and headed to our good friends, the Wards, for a Christmas Eve party. This is a good one of Zack and Dave waiting to leave for the festivities.

And we had to get some pictures by the tree before we left, because I had a hunch everyone might be a little too excited and/or sleepy when we got home.

At the Wards we had a great dinner with about 30 other people. It was so fun and they are so wonderful to host this each year. We won't know what to do next year when they're gone! After dinner we did the nativity and Anna was an angel. For some reason she was okay with not being Mary this time.

We came home from our fun evening, left cookies and milk out for the big guy and carrots for his reindeer, got in our new Christmas jammies and snuggled up for a long winter's nap. And that twas our night before Christmas this year!

Christmas-ness

Oh how we love Christmas at our house! There's just so much to be Merry about! Anna has been on perma-excitement all month. Every morning she wakes up and runs in our room, "Mom, let's go see where Buddy the Elf is today!" (Buddy is our Elf who keeps his eye on us for Santa.) She loves that little Elf and talks to him sometimes and wonders if he's cold. I'm just glad he comes around because good behavior is a little more frequent when he appears at the beginning of the month.

Before Grandma G left, we got to make gingerbread houses with her. Anna still prefers eating the decorations to actually decorating, but that's the fun in it anyway right? We were so glad to have Grandma G around to share some of the Christmas season with.
Anna really got into gift giving. Throughout the month, she has randomly selected things from her playroom to wrap up and give to each of us. Zack's gift was wrapped up in an empty oatmeal box, others were scrunched up in paper, and my favorite was the one she wrapped for me. I must have left the masking tape out and so this is how she wrapped up my gift...

A beautiful dress up necklace wrapped in a roll of masking tape and then zipped up in a ziploc bag. The girl's got skills. She was so excited to give it to me, she couldn't wait until Christmas, so she gave it to me the day after she wrapped it.

She also decorated her room. Notice the star ornament. very festive. She told me it was just like the star for Baby Jesus.

It's tradition to wear your Christmas best to church the Sunday before Christmas. Well, Anna is quite the fashionista these days and apparently the darling Christmas dress I had bought for her would not do. It had a collar for crying out loud. I was not aware that she had developed a strong dislike for collars. "I do NOT like collars! I will NOT wear it!" sigh...the cute red and black smocked dress with the round collar might have to wait for another girl to join our family. So, after fighting the battle all month (we tried for Dave's department Christmas party too) I surrendered and offered her last year's and even the year before's Christmas outfits. She chose the one from 2 years ago, and surprisingly it still fit! My petite 4 year old is wearing her 18-24 month skirt. I'll have to find the picture from when she was 2 and add it to this post. I must admit, she does look quite cute, even without a collar.

And here's one with Zack.

Zack was not happy about the pictures. Anna was so sweet trying to comfort him. I love this next picture with her arm around him.

And here's one of Zack in his Santa suit.

We had a little Christmas party for Anna and her friends. My friend Laura brought her nativity set and we did the little play. We drew names and Anna was quite upset she was a wiseman instead of Mary. But after some tears and some coaxing, she decided the shiny purple robe and crown were pretty cool too.

Although you can still see the envy in her eyes in this picture. So funny.

We made little gingerbread nativities and wrapped some presents to donate to the child abuse center. It was a fun way to wrap up the final Christmas festivities before Christmas Eve.

December goes by too fast!

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Christmas is in the air and I LOVE it! My favorite time of year got even better when I became a mom. It's so magical and joyful and I get excited about it in October. Although this year it just doesn't seem like it could possibly be the end of November yet.

Even before Thanksgiving, we got into the Christmas spirit. What better way to kick off the season than the Festival of Trees? First things first, meet with the big guy! Anna was excited and shy with Santa. And this was Zack and Santa's first meeting. It didn't go over well. Zack stared at him for a good 90 seconds without moving.
After his analysis was complete it was easy to tell that Santa did not pass. Zack did not approve. His serious face became squishy and sad and the waterworks began.
Maybe he'll go over better next year with Zack. Anna however, still loved Santa and Mrs. Claus and especially the elf because she's the one that gave her a candy cane.

Anna loved all of the other activities. She made lots of crafts and even got a Christmas Tree painted on her face. Which was the result of a major meltdown the next morning before church when she realized it had washed off in the tub.

That night we went on a little "Christmas Stroll" at a little shopping village nearby. We met some carolers and even got to see Santa AGAIN! Lucky girl!

This past week Anna and I had fun putting together a Christmas Box for a child in a 3rd world country. We found fun toys she would like, some treats, and hygiene stuff like toothbrushes and combs. It was a lot of fun and Anna got really excited about it, even though she really wanted some of the candy in there!

We wrapped it all up.

And dropped it off here. To add to this awesome stack of boxes.

I couldn't help but get a little emotional when I saw this. (There were even more boxes lined up against the other wall.) And this is only one church of many across the country collecting the boxes. I can only imagine the happiness and joy they will bring when they get to their destination. I love finding pockets of goodness in this crazy mixed up world of ours. It's so important to me to teach my children to give and help others and this was a great opportunity to do just that. Anna really loved it and I hope we are able to do it every year.

Need a little Christmas? in January?

Yes, this Christmas post is just a bit late, and I'm tempted to just skip it, but why not string out the most wonderful time of year as long as possible, right? I must admit, our tree is still up, but at least I finally took the rest of the decorations down 2 weeks ago. While I was putting the Christmas stuff away, I saw my Valentine's stuff and thought I should jump start on the next holiday. So now I have a Christmas tree and Valentine's decor in my house. It holiday-palooza over here until Dave's home to help take down the tree. I guess I should just try to do it. How do I always digress? Ahhh! Back to my Christmas post!

Instead of a long winded narrative about our Christmas season, I'll just post some pictures. The only motivation for me to do this is that these pictures will probably never be scrapbooked and so this is my only documentation that our family did in fact celebrate Christmas in 2007.


Surfin' Santa

One of my all-time favorite pictures of Anna!

This was my outfit when I was a baby. My mom played dress up with her while she was babysitting and did what she does best, had a little Anna photo shoot. Doesn't she look adorable? After all of the posing, she needed to get some wiggles out, so out came Surfin' Santa! If you don't know what a Surfin Santa looks like, just imagine a little santa in a red one-piece swimsuit and sunglasses, swaying his hips on a surfboard catching an awesome wave all to the tune of the Beach Boys' Little Saint Nick. Surfin Santa can't ever be thrown away because it is a favorite among all of the Boyack grandkids. Here's a little video that shows off her sweet surfin santa moves.

A Christmas Tea Party

Anna had her first tea party with the SLC Kelly cousins and both Grandmas. Anna didn't partake of any tea or hot chocolate of course, but she sure loved the finger sandwiches and the chocolate mousse and fruit. She loves doing anything with her grandmas and cousins, but it's more fun when you get dressed up and pretend to be fancy. I love this little tea party. I think it's so cute and charming. If we stay here, I want to make this a tradition for sure.

Beautiful little ladies - Romey and Anna

BFF!

After tea, it was story time by the fire

And then Anna begged Finn for a Skittle

And we danced to the grand piano's Christmas music. Anna loves to dance!

She's already driving the boys crazy

This picture of Josh Stohl was too cute to pass up. This picture will be cute in their wedding video one day.

Cute Cozy Cousins

Anna's other BFF Caroline getting cozy at Grandma's in their special chair.

Our Little Snow Puff

One of the benefits of Dave traveling around so much is that in Chicago, he was right by the H&M. Like the good husband he is, he went in and picked up a few things for Anna. My favorite is this adorable hat. He also got her the matching booties. This seriously is the only hat she'll actually keep on for at least a little while. And I must say that she looks pretty darn good in it!

A visist to Santa

Last year when Anna was only a few weeks old, she met Santa at Gateway. She really loved him then. When we went back again this year, she was not quite as content with the man in red. As soon as we walked over by him, she immediately turned her head and buried it into my shoulder, almost as if she was trying to hide so Santa wouldn't see her. Since a single shot with her and Santa was impossible, we made it a family pic. She kept her head forward the whole time and did not dare to even look at him. Then of course once we were done and a few feet away, she wanted to check this guy out and see what he's all about. Trust me Anna, this guy has got some good connections. You want to be on his good side!

7 Years

Dave and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. Yes, 7 years! And yes, we did get married young. (that's what everyone says when I tell them how long we've been married) Grandma and Papa watched Anna so we could go out to Fresco's and see my new favorite movie, Enchanted. There is such a thing as happily ever after...well, most of the time. ;)

Another Birthday Party

We celebrated all of the December birthdays with the Kellys (Anna, Mary, and Finn) so Anna got to celebrate her bday again! For every Kelly's 1st bday, it's a tradition to do this little test to see what the baby will go after and value in life. The choices are: Toys, the Gospel (Scriptures), Food (the cake), or Money (piggy bank). Everything was set out and then we put Anna down to make her choice. I totally thought she would go straight for the cute rocking horse, but instead she just sat there for a minute like, what are you guys looking at? Then she went for it...hesitated a little...and grabbed the piggy bank! Uh-oh boys, she's after the money! (Truth be told, I think she really just likes pigs. She always goes for the pig in any farm toys) So it looks like we better start saving our money. We had another fun party. Even with Anna not feeling so good.


Christmas Eve

After the Santa visit, Anna started to get sick. I'm not saying Santa gave her the bad cold, but maybe it was just payback. He's a tricky man. So poor little Anna was not too happy over the holidays. She was still a pretty good sport, but I knew she didn't feel well throughout it all. You can see it in her eyes, but she's a trooper and she still managed to have some fun at the Kelly and Boyack festivities on Christmas Eve.

First stop was the Kelly Christmas party where we had a yummy dinner and did the traditional nativity story. You really missed out on a good one, I mean, check out Dave as a wise man. You don't get better than that! Anna was baby Jesus, but it took some convincing for Crew and Titan to agree to this since she isn't a boy.

Next stop was the Boyacks. We had another yummy dinner and then we had a special guest. Santa! (Does he look kind of familiar?) It was only Caroline and Anna this year, and neither of them were very excited about this as you can tell. Santa was a good sport as always! ;)

Anna recovered from her Santa trauma when she opened her presents.

Christmas Day!

We started off the morning with Anna by our tree at home and tried to get her to open her presents. She was so sick, all she wanted to do was cuddle, and I was glad to cuddle her right back.

Then it was on to the traditional Boyack Christmas breakfast. Shredded Wheat, honey, whip cream, and warm milk. Sounds weird, but it's really good I promise. I've had this meal on Christmas morning for as long as I can remember!

Later that evening, we went to have a Christmas Feast with the Kellys at the Grand America.

This is how Anna felt about it at first. Although, this is before she saw her cousins and before she tasted the bread pudding!

Family photo by the tree

What a cute little package I found under the tree!

And we finished with dancing to the piano again. Anna loves to dance with Romey.

For the love of Bowling

A few days after Christmas, Ryan and Darcie invited us to their traditional bowling night. They go bowling on this day every year to celebrate their first date. Isn't that fun? Bowling was our 1st date activity too. And we were just shy of our 1st date 12 year anniversary by a few days, ours was the 23rd, but if you ask my mom it was the 27th. (She didn't know about the first one...oops! Sorry Mom.) See what a little game of bowling can lead to? Some pretty cute little girls, that's for sure.

Whew!

I am kind of ashamed to admit that I was kind of relieved when Christmas was over this year. It's sad because I have always la-la-LOVED Christmas. I think with everything going on and Anna getting sick, it was just kind of exhausting. As you can see, Anna felt the same way. I know with kids, it get busier, but I really hope I can always enjoy this holiday with our family and not get too stressed out. The traditions and spirit of the season are too fun to get uptight about. We did have a wonderful holiday season though and I am grateful we got to share with our families that we love so much.

And now we just want to take a nap!