Christmas

This Christmas was crazy busy, and a whole lot of fun. I really wanted to start some traditions with Abby this year, since she was just starting to catch on to the idea of Christmas. She talked pretty equally about Santa and baby Jesus, and seemed to understand the basic story of both. It was so fun to hear her talk about them. We spent the weeks before the holiday shopping for gifts, wrapping, making cookies, and decorating the house. Come Christmas Eve, we headed to church for a kid-friendly service. Abby has not sat through a church service (could you imagine??), so we wondered how it would go. She loved the singing and was very good for the sermon. She was thrilled when, instead of lighting candles, she got her very own glow stick to wave around. Smart thinking for the kid-friendly service! Here she is all dressed for church.

We spent this Christmas at home for the first time, complete with the first tree we have had in seven years. We love our new den all decked out for the holidays. It was really nice to be in our own home, and very relaxing.


Abby loves to cook and bake lately, so I decided we were going to make a birthday cake for baby Jesus. She understands birthdays and cake, and she seemed to catch on to the idea that Christmas was Jesus' birthday. We baked the cake, iced it, and then I let her loose with sprinkles to decorate it. She dumped them all in the same place, as you can see.


Then, she tried to fix it...with her fingers. This was the final result.


Here are some more pictures from Christmas day.


Then, we headed out to visit with more family and have two more Christmases! We like to celebrate around here. At Aunt Heather and Uncle Bob's, Abby got to wear an apron while she helped cook. I think she looked adorable.


And, since we only have one pack n play and now two kids, we had to improvise.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas as well!