Our (belated) Holiday Fun

I'm super bummed that I didn't take any pictures Christmas Eve. Honestly, Christmas Eve is a bigger deal to me and my family than Christmas Day, and it makes me sad that I didn't document it!

I always go to my family's gathering with my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc on my dad's side. We're a lovely German family, and we have fun traditions on Christmas Eve like eating German cold cuts and singing Christmas Carols. Makes me warm and fuzzy inside :) We dressed Ellie up in her fancy dress that her Oma (German for grandma, that's what she will be calling my mom) picked out for her about 6 months ago! She was all fancied up, and we toted her around to my aunt's house in Mt. Vernon, then all the way back to Smokey Point to join Scott's family for the rest of the evening. We usually miss out on his family's festivities, so I was so glad that we made it back in time to see his ginormous family and celebrate with them. There was lots of present un-wrapping, laughing, yelling, and game-playing. It was one of those nights where you leave to go home and you're sooo exhausted, yet so refreshed and happy at the same time.

Christmas morning was just our little family. I woke up at 5:00 am and could not, for the life of me, go back to sleep (must be the kid in me, I guess)! So I snuck into the kitchen and started working on some homemade cinnamon rolls (that would have made for a great DIY Wednesday post.....oh well!).

Eventually Elliott woke up, and we went together to tell Scott that it was officially time to wake up! I popped the cinnamon rolls in the oven, and we sat down to open gifts.

There was very little under the tree for Scott or myself, but that was actually ok with us! I know it sounds cliche, but it was SO fun to watch our daughter open her presents! I'm sure it will be even more enjoyable next year and the year after that, but the looks of awe and surprise on her face were priceless! I feel like we took our time and really treasured our first Christmas with Ellie. We took turns holding the camera and the video camera, and alternated helping her open her presents. Some stuff she loved, other stuff she really didn't care about :)

I think her favorite was the sock monkey, but she also got tons of cool stuff from her aunts, uncles, and grandparents that are far more entertaining than what mom and dad Santa got her. We enjoyed our cinnamon rolls, and while Ellie napped we removed all the cardboard, plastic, and wires that so carefully held all the toys in their pretty boxes. We wanted her to wake up to a whole new world of toys :)

Our re-designed living room now accomodates all of E's new toys

We spent the rest of our holiday playing and relaxing, and we visited my family for more food and gift-giving. We had an awesome Christmas, and I hope you did too!

~Amanda