Merry Christmas 2011!

We celebrated Christmas with our little family here in Coppell, Texas on the 18th and 19th of December before flying out to Utah. We are trying to establish our own Christmas traditions, and both this year and last, we read the New Testament account of Christ's birth and let Zach "act it out" with our ceramic Nativity figurines the night before we opened gifts. Once the kids are older and there are more of them, I hope we can actually act it out. 

I really tried this year to focus on the Savior the entire holiday season. I was getting sick of shopping and Santa pretty close to Thanksgiving this year, and Zach was obsessed with Rudolph and Frosty, which is fine for a three-year-old, but he is definitely capable of understanding the true reason we celebrate Christmas. We got some great books from the library and watched several church nativity videos that we all enjoyed throughout the month of December. Oh, and Elf. :) One of the library books had the exact words from Luke 2, and after reading it a few times, Zach had most of it memorized, which was beautiful. He recited it a few times over the holidays--readily at first, but I had to bribe him after the 3rd Christmas pageant!! 

 We put up a tree this year, even though we weren't home for 10 days of the month. We all loved it! I loved sitting in the glowing lights, and would often turn the lights on in the dark, early mornings while snuggling and reading with the kids.

 Zach was super-excited about Santa's delivery of the gifts on Christmas morning. We didn't place any under the tree until the night before we opened them, because we knew he and Zoey would tear into them.

 Zoey's reaction to her first doll--one that moves and makes baby sounds-- was PRICELESS!!! I didn't think a 10 month old would really care or get what was going on, but I decided it was time we give her a girl toy since she has only had Zach's trucks and tools to play with. She was honestly ECSTATIC and excited as could be, squealing and waving her hands like mad! It was seriously the highlight of our holiday!!

 She was almost equally excited about Zach's Toy Story tent. They both love that hideout, and now maybe we won't have to make tents with blankets all over the house!

 We also got Zach a Leapster 2 as part of his birthday gift from Nana. He is always wanting to be on our computers to play learning games on Starfall.com, Sesame Street, etc., so we wanted him to have something a little more versatile and age-appropriate to play on. He hasn't had much of a chance to learn how to use it yet, but I am hoping he will dig it!

Corey and I also exchanged gifts. He got me a nice white sweater and some chocolates that he thought I loved...:) (Ferrero Rocher sounds and looks like Almond Roca--an honest mistake we laughed about after I asked why he got them for me!!), and I got him an alarm clock/docking station for his iPhone and some computer stuff and some T-shirts. Everyone received more gifts on our vacation also. Too many!

We flew out to Salt Lake a few hours after opening  our gifts, which I will hopefully have time to post about before too long!

'Twas a very Merry Christmas for our little family!