Christmas

I'm so, so behind in updating still!

And this is totally going to skip Thanksgiving (mostly because I didn't bring my camera to Houston and the images taken while there are being held hostage on my dad's memory card!).

But, I wanted to jot down a few things about Christmas before I forget, but mostly because I know it probably won't happen after the baby is born and this Christmas was fun and memorable.

Craig's family is nuts!  And by nuts, I mean they stay up until midnight Christmas Eve to open presents.  A toddler doesn't last that long, so the kiddos got to open their gifts early.  But first -- a trip from Santa to the house on his busiest night of the year!  Grandpa donned the entire suit and passed out gifts to the kiddos.  The delight on their faces was priceless.  After Madeline tore into her presents, Craig attempted to put her down, but Christmas is pretty monumental to a 2 year old, and she wanted to stay where the fun was (can't really blame her!).  She finally went down and Craig and I opened our gifts. I know I grabbed my father-in-laws camera and snapped some images of the family tearing paper up, but again, I don't have those pictures!

We stayed the night at the in-laws, but headed back home Christmas day.  We wanted a still-sick Madeline to get a good nap in her own bed, so we headed home (and Madeline was sick last year at Christmas time, too! boo!).  Craig and I hadn't opened gifts from my family yet or from each other, so we took our time and opened those gifts and waited for Madeline to wake up from her nap to start round two with her gifts.  Girl. Was. In. Heaven.

Me, I was thrilled to watch her get excited about each gift (especially the bike she got from Craig and me).

 Don't you just love this smile? (hers, not mine :-)

 Don't you just love my belly in all these photos?!?

 And this dog?  It's is from her Aunt Katie and it barks and moves.  She is in love with it and once she opened the doggie, she almost didn't want to finish opening her presents!

We headed back to the in-laws for dinner Christmas Day, but the 25th was very low-key.  I liked it being low-key and spending one-on-one time with my little family.  Seeing Madeline's joy as she opened gifts was so much fun.  It's fun to open presents myself, but nothing tops watching your kid light up at Christmas.

This was a whirlwind post about Christmas, but I wanted to at least jot something down!

And I need to mention it here in case Josie reads this...one of Madeline's gifts was time with her Tio Nick and Tia Josie.  They took her to Build-A-Bear and Madeline made a fox that she named Buddy and adorned with a blue shirt emblazoned with a rocker holding a boom-box and red, Lightening McQueen shoes.  She has loved on Buddy daily since she made him and he must go everywhere with us.  Josie took fabulous photos to document the process (thank you!).  Post forthcoming complete with pictures of Buddy in his hilarious attire.