Christmas

Santa made it to our house this year. This year was so much fun because both Amy and Parker were excited about Santa coming. Well, Parker wasn't that excited to open his presents in the morning. He had everything he wanted, trains! He had a hard time staying interested in opening presents. He wanted to play with his new toys. We let Parker open his when he was ready. Amy of course plowed right through hers. When Parker was ready to open more presents she thought he got more than her and started to cry. We had to explain what had happened. Everything has to be fair when your 5. We thought, oh brother here she has a ton of gifts and she is crying that her brother has more. Sometimes we have a lot of drama around our house.

Parker was too excited to pull himself away from the trains. So I only got a picture of Amy in front of tree after they woke up.

Here is Parker playing with his new train set.

Before we opened presents we had Abelskivers. David's family has a traditions of eating these on Christmas morning. We haven't done it yet, since you have to had a special pan, which we found on sale 1/2 off at Williams Sonoma before Christmas. They are round pancakes that you can fill with jam or other types of fillings. Since it was my first time making them, I didn't fill them with anything, yet. (I tried it a couple of days later and it was upper easy.) They are very yummy. This will be one tradition that we will do at our house.

This is a picture of the finished Abelskivers with a ton of powdered sugar. Both Amy and Daddy liked a lot of sugar on them. Here is the family picture,minus mom who was taking the picture, before we opened presents. We need a tri-pod.

Amy opening her stocking.

Parker opening his stocking.

Parker got another set of trains from Grandma and Grandpa in Colorado. He is in train heaven! He plays with his new train sets everyday. Now we just need a train table.

Amy is enjoying the trains as well.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Meridian. We had a great dinner and opened up presents. I was having a hard time with my pictures not coming out that night. I forgot that I had turned off my flash for Amy's Nutcracker performance and forgot to turn it back on.

Amy really enjoyed opening the presents.

Parker was so excited to get a train set. He lifted that baby right up (it wasn't light) and moved it to somewhere he could get a better look at it.

Parker's cheese ball grin.

Parker checking out the trains.

Nutcracker

On December 19th Amy was in the Nutcracker as a "doll dancer". Her dance studio puts this on every year. I was only able to get good pictures of the dress rehearsal. Even those didn't turn out the greatest. Since we couldn't use flashes at the performance the pictures came out blurry. Amy did a great job. They danced with Clara and were able to sit an watch her dance with her toe shoes on. It was fun to watch the girls faces when Clara danced. It was better than seeing a rock star. Amy said to me, "Wow, mom she was beautiful! Did you see how good she danced?" They were able to see her dance several times at the rehearsals and the show and I don't think they were bored by it at all.

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus

After going to the Live Nativity. Amy and Parker kept playing that they were Mary and Joseph. Amy wanted me to dress them all up like Mary and Joseph. We had baby Jesus in swaddling clothes for several days. He went with Amy and stayed in her room. For those who don't know Amy does not play with dolls. She has one doll ("baby Jesus"). She has rarely played with it. She kept quoting word for word the scriptures they said at the Nativity. She has a great memory. We did go through it three times, but so did I and I can't quote the scriptures that well.

Love "Joseph's pink binky"? Parker is such a great sport and for the most part plays well with his sister. She tends to be pretty bossy.

Live Nativity

I am almost a month behind my posts. I need to spend some time catching up. The weekend before we had the opportunity to go to a live Nativity. We have gone to this one for the last several years. It is really done well. Amy has gone as long as she can remember. She loves it! It starts with a hay ride and then you get off at the "City gates", shepards walk you to different areas. They have a camel, sheep and a donkey. At the very end they have a fire and hot chocolate. This year we had to go through it 3 times. We were part of the last group or we may have gone again. My camera lens must be dirty because my pictures did not turn out at all outside.

Amy and Parker both kept wanting to put wood on the fire.

On the way home Parker didn't even make to the main road before he fell asleep.

My happy girl. She loved every minute.