A little Christmas

We brought up the Christmas tree one night planning to just put it up while Addilyn was in bed. As soon as she saw the box, that plan was spoiled. She had to have it up as soon as possible. Decorating happened another night, but she was in such awe of the tree, and still is. In the mornings Addilyn will get something to step up on to flip our light switch and screams "Beautiful!!" and makes us come and look at the tree. I'm not looking forward to taking it down...

Listening to Grandpa Jadwin read "the Santa book"

a winner.

Decorating the tree

Addilyn did so well decorating the tree. And on top of that, the entire time the tree was up she did a good job of not touching it. I think she was too awe struck to even think about it.

A random heat wave in December...

In the parking garage during the fire alarm

Scott's company hosts a Christmas party in downtown Winston-Salem every year (at least this was our 3rd time coming). Unfortunately it landed on the same night as our church Christmas party. Our neighbor was able to stay at our house while our kids slept so that we could go to the party. They had yummy food and some great dancing! That's really why Scott and I go, an excuse to dance! It was a blast. During the dinner the fire alarm went off because one of the plates ran out of water and started smoking. Oops!

I have to tell you a secret about this dress that I'm wearing. I bought it at Goodwill for $5. I was so excited to wear a dress since I wasn't planning on nursing and I had been keeping my eye out for one that I might want for this party. I tried it on and loved it. My only thing was that there was some interesting rouching (sp?) on the sides. It wasn't totally noticeable. Then I realized. It's a Gap maternity dress. Of course. I decided that even if I don't end up wearing it for the party, it's a really cute maternity dress for next time. And no one could tell at the party too for the record.

boxes!

 

Christmas Eve morning we were cooking! We had to do rolls, Santa cookies, and some other dishes for our dinner. Addilyn was so excited for these cookies and she did a great job at helping me. Aside from the handfuls of coconut that she was shoving in her mouth....

Leading up to Christmas Addilyn has been eye-balling the presents under the tree. She never touched them! I asked her about the presents and she plainly told me that we were opening them on Jesus's birthday. She pointed to the picture of Christ on our wall and said "baby Jesus birthday!". I was so proud of myself (and her...). 

Christmas Eve we had the missionaries over for dinner. We had enough food to feed at least 20 people FULL. A 20 pound turkey, 30 rolls, 50 serving frog-eye salad, 5 pounds worth of mashed potatoes, yam and marshmallow dish, home made egg nog, steamed carrots and THREE pies. Umm. I don't know how to feed a small crowd apparently! We were so full and hardly made a dent that we decided to have the Elders over Christmas night and have pie.

Christmas Eve Addilyn wrote a card to Santa telling him to have a cookie and some milk and thank you for any gifts that he might leave behind. She wrote it in squiggly lines of course, but she tried! It was too darn cute. She kept saying, "Santa cookies! Santa's milk!" 

Christmas morning

Addilyn was on an emotional roller coaster while we were opening presents. She would be on a rush opening a present and then crash when we told her to wait so someone else could open a present. Addi was more then happy to assist Levi with his. She was ready to open anything and it didn't matter whose it was. She was a crazy girl. She was scream "Woah! Woah! Woah!" as she opened presents. 

As for all that food we made for Christmas Eve? Well, first of all, how grateful am I that I could have such a meal?! What a blessing. We froze 80% of our turkey and made broth with the carcass and made turkey and dumpling soup. When Scott would as what we were eating we would simply rotate between turkey sandwiches, soup, and a mini version of the main dinner. We didn't have to cook for quite some time.