Friday, December 23rd
The Eddins family must have been on the nice list this year! We had an amazing Christmas, spending time with family and friends, and we were beyond spoiled this year with wonderful gifts. It has left us very humbled and also asking ourselves where we will put it all?!
I had Friday off to do some last minute prep for gifts and celebrations. Lila and I had a big gift up our sleeves for Mike this year and I was hoping that it would get here in time for Christmas, but I wasn't so sure. I got a phone call from the company saying the gift was ready and could be dropped off at 2:30 on Friday, so I made sure I was home in time to get the present tucked away in the garage. I ran to get Lila from daycare so she could get in on the surprise and then we waited for Daddy to come home!
He pulled in the driveway a little after 5:00 and as the garage door lifted this is what he saw...
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| Surprise!!! Merry Christmas, Daddy! |
Mike's face was absolutely priceless. He actually stopped his truck about half way into the garage because he was so stunned! After a rough day at work it was a welcomed surprise and something he was totally blown away with. We look forward to shaving off some mowing time in the spring and summer so we can spend more time on the swingset, riding bikes and just enjoying each other!
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| Daddy & Lila (she was terrified that he was going to start the mower) |
When Mike got home we loaded the car up and headed straight to Jason and Jen's to celebrate with my Mom and Terry. My Grandma and Grandpa Harvey were there to open gifts and eat with us as well! It didn't take long for the girls to dive right in to the gifts! Lila was so tickled with some new books, a husky pup named Jingle and her very first American Girl Doll -- the girl of the year Kanani.
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| Snuggling with Gram & Jingle! |
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| Thrilled to be included with the BIG girls! |
We had a yummy lasagna dinner and then settled back in to open more gifts! Celia and Ruby were over the moon excited to receive the latest in Barbie trends, printable hair extensions! I wish you could hear Ruby in the picture below with her squeals of excitement!
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| Thanking Grammy & Terry for her big girl bedding! |
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Mike posing w/ this Shonn Greene signed helmet!
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Lila got the book Boogie Monster, which is the sequel to the book Tickle Monster. She wanted nothing to do with the cute leg warmers that come with the book, but Celia and Ruby weren't afraid to try them out and give 'em a whirl!
When I picked Lila up from daycare I was informed that she didn't have a nap on Friday, so her night ended a bit sooner than we had hoped for and there were a few tears shed due to being exhausted, but Grammy provided a wonderful resting spot!
Our time together on Friday seemed short, we don't see my Mom and Terry that often, so the time we do get to spend together, though too few and far between, is very special to us. The girls can't get enough of their Grammy and they especially love that Terry brings his guitar with him wherever he goes, so music is usually a part of every gathering!
Saturday, December 24th
Saturday morning found us heading to Belle Plaine in the morning for the Zumbach family gathering. We were a bit embarrassed showing up at Mike's Aunt Chris & Uncle Eldon's house before everyone else, but they were very welcoming and understood that we had other stops that day. The gathering was very relaxed and less about the presents and more about spending time with one another. It was wonderful. With our crazy schedules it doesn't seem as if we get to see these guys as often as we would like, so the time spent catching up was a gift in itself!
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| Lila opening her butterfly pillow pet that she couldn't love more, she has demanded that she sleep with it! |
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| A photo with Grandma Zumbach! (how amazing is the weather?!) |
We left Belle Plaine in the early afternoon hoping to get Lila home for a nap before our next celebration. She not only slept in the car, but she slept for another two hours once we got her home and in her bed. Catching up from no nap the day before!
On Christmas Eve we have a tradition of going to church and then heading to either Jason and Jen's or back to our house for soup with my Mom's side of the family. This year Jason and Jen hosted the soup. We ended up having to skip church, we felt that it was in our best interest to let Lila get as much sleep as possible. We got to Jason and Jen's around 6:00 and enjoyed homeade chili and Mexican stew, cornbread and other baked goods, it was yummy!
We had to exchange presents this year with my Mom's family as we weren't going to be able to make it to the festivities in Strawberry Point on Christmas Day. Lila helped open her Dad's gift (yes, in a VS box, no it wasn't from VS) she was very much into unwrapping gifts this year, but can you tell she is a bit tired as she is laying down opening it?!
I mentioned before that Terry doesn't go far without his guitar in hand, we ended the evening all snuggled in the living room signing Chrsitmas carols! Absolutley one of my most treasured memories of the season, being all together like that, singing and laughing, it truly is the magic of the season.
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| "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells..." |
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| "Jingle all the way!" |
Sunday, December 25th
Christmas Day!!! Due to all the late nights we actually had to wake Lila up! We had two other Christmas celebrations to make that day other than our own, so we needed to stay close to our schedule. We received the book, "The Elf on the Shelf" this year and Lila loved the fact that Buddy the elf was watching over her and would report back to Santa each night. She couldn't wait to find him the next morning. She was thrilled to see that he was sitting atop her pile of presents from Santa to confirm that she was indeed a good girl as well as to tell her goodbye for the season!
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| Did Santa bring Daddy some stuff, too?! |
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| A toy from when Mommy & Daddy were little! |
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| Baxter is checking in to see if Lila needs any help with her gift opening?! |
Lila asked Santa for two things this year: Wonder Pets & Thomas. In the previous post, I mentioned that Thomas was a gift from my cousin's little girl, so Santa's only job was to be sure to bring Wonder Pets. Lila opened all of her gifts and got a Wonder Pets video and a little sticker book, but she didn't get any of the dolls...well, that sneaky Santa had placed the dolls in the tree! You can imagine Lila's excitement when she saw her little friends looking back at her from the branches of the Christmas tree! We had one happy little girl on Christmas morning!
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| We can't forget the pups! I'm not 100% sure they were consistenly on the nice list, but they are too cute to not spoil! |
We got cleaned up and headed over to have a late morning get together with Mike's Eddins side of the family. We all brought a breakfast food to enjoy, I have to say the food was delicious! It was fun doing something a bit out of the ordinary as far as the food goes and it was nice that Elaine didn't have to slave away in the kitchen as much.
Lila's present stack kept getting bigger and bigger! We tortured her a bit by making her eat before we opened presents, but all in all she handled it pretty well. But she was all the way ready to start opening by the time we were finished eating!
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| Looking at her giant floor mat w/ Grandma! |
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| Showing off her coloring box with Aunt Maria and Dan! |
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| Using all of her coloring supplies with Grandpa! |
We made it home just in time to get Lila down for a nap and for Mommy and Daddy to sneak one in too before heading to my Dad's house for our final Christmas celebration. We arrived at his house around 5:00 to the smells of Christmas dinner cooking in the kitchen, YUM! Once everyone was there we opened stockings and the kids launched into present opening. The girls all opened a pair of Converse tennis shoes, but they are unique to each one as Carson, Laura's daughter, used her art skills to draw on each pair! What a thoughtful gift!
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| The shoe designer and her recipients!!! |
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| Eat your heart out Jimmy Choo! |
Lila has a very soft spot in her heart for Grandpa Smith, it is really quite the site to see them interact together! She was tickled that Dad and Laura got her this Baby Alive that actually eats food, drinks water and then disposes of it in her diaper...gross!!!
Mike continues to add more and more sports memorabilia to our basement! He has quite the collection and was thrilled to add this signed piece of Ricky Stanzi, Tyler Sash and Adrienne Claiborne!
After we finished up a majority of our presents the kids spent some time burning off energy by dancing to the Kinect! It was hilarious! Even Lila was shaking her booty with the big girls to Party Rock Anthem!
Grandpa and Laura had a big gift for each of the girls that we saved for the very end of the night. Lila being the youngest went first and was totally surprised when she pulled the blankets off of her brand new Power Wheel Camaro (just like Grandpa's)!!!! It was SO cute! She wasted no time shouting at Ruby, "let's get in!" The car is pretty amazing, it even has AM/FM radio in it!
It was time for the bigger girls to open up their gifts! The theme was clearly things with wheels! I don't know who was more excited about the go-karts, the girls or Jason?! And how cool is Grandpa to let the kids drive their brand new cars/karts around the house?!
It wasn't long before everyone bundled up and we headed outside to really try out the new toys! Dad's circle drive provided the perfect track to drive on!
While outside Dad brought out
wish lanterns for us to all light and send up in the sky along with our Christmas wish. It was such a neat experience, all of us lighting our lanterns, waiting and willing them to take off along with our wishes!
With all the hustle and bustle of this time of year it can be easy to forget the true meaning of Christmas. Our wish this year was that each of you were as lucky as us and were surrounded by love, laughter, family, friends and the true magic of the holiday!
