Celebrating Christmas (so late, I know!)

Okay, so I'm so behind on my blogging that I'm just now getting around to blogging about our Christmas. However, I reference my blog all the time for information so I don't want to just skip blogging about the Holiday (even though I know that no one will really care about reading this . . . if you're like me, you are beyond finished with Christmas!). I'm going to sum up the entire holiday into one {very} long post, so bear with me if you decide to read :-).

Brianna was so cute during Christmas this year. She loved every aspect of it . . . from decorating the tree at home, to baking cookies, to looking at Christmas lights, etc. 

We just enjoyed seeing the magic of the holiday through her eyes more than I can say!

Our little family celebrated Christmas in many phases again this year. We are so blessed to have so much family to celebrate with!

We began by travelling out to Chris's parent's house on Friday, December 23rd. We spent the night there, and on Saturday his grandparents came over to spend time with us as well.

We had a nice lunch, then Brianna opened a few gifts. These were really the first gifts she was allowed to touch and she had a GREAT time!

Brianna loves Chris's grandparents, and loved this doll they got her. It came with a bathtub (which is really the part she loved), so all the babies have gotten plenty of baths lately!

That evening (Saturday, December 24th), we drove home, relaxed a bit, then had our small family Christmas.

Brianna loved giving Chris his gift that she and I picked out for him:

She was also excited for me to open my gift from her. I love that she wanted us to open presents, too!

One gift we got her is the book Zin, Zin, Zin, A Violin. The facility where Brianna takes her music class is decorated with murals from this book, so I thought she would like it. I was right! She wanted to stop opening gifts to read the book right then. Love it!

We also had Brianna get one small gift for Brenson, as well as help us pick out something for his stocking. She enjoyed helping me open Brenson's present.

She was so excited when she saw that she received a new Cabbage Patch Baby! I wish I would have captured her face when she saw the baby, but I was too busy being in the moment :-).

This baby's name is Katrina Josie, and Brianna loves her. She immediately gave her kisses!

And what is the best part of opening Christmas presents? Playing in the paper and bows afterwards, of course! Where is Brianna?

Oh! There she is :-)!

And, here she is with all the gifts she received from us. We try really hard to not go overboard, and even though I thought I did really well, it still seems like she got a lot of stuff. Ack! Pictured here are all of her gifts: a shirt, two pairs of leggings, two new babies, a puzzle, a safari vehicle (that goes with the zoo), two books, and a Little People Zoo with animals.

After opening gifts, we spent about 45 minutes driving around looking at Christmas lights. Brianna loved looking at lights during the holiday season! She would shout, "Look! Pitty lights right dere!" and "Pitty lights . . . I see 'um." After looking at lights for a bit, we went to McDonalds for dinner. Lame for Christmas Eve, I know, but I was too exhausted to cook (did not sleep at all the night before and just no stamina with being so pregnant). It was actually kind of fun . . . Brianna thought it was great!

I know this post is already sooooo long, but I have to tell this story. When we got home from eating, we began Brianna's bedtime routine. She had been a bit stuffed up all day, and right before we began our nightly devotional, she picked a {huge} booger out of her nose. This was a first, and she was pretty fascinated with it. Of course, as a reaction, Chris and I were both like, "Whoa that was quite a booger!" Anyway, so we sang a few songs then asked Brianna what she wanted to thank God for that night. With the most serious little face, she replies, "My booger." I was so worn out at this point, and this was more than I could take! I started giggling and COULD NOT stop. She was just SO serious about it! Of course, the giggles were contagious and before we knew it we were all laughing and giggling uncontrollably. It was one of those moments I hope to never forget . . . love these memories we are creating!

Okay, back to Christmas :-). On Sunday, December 25th, we got up and went to church like we always do on Sunday. I had put lunch in the crockpot, so after the service we came home, ate lunch, then loaded the car and headed to my parents house to see my brother and his family. After a short evening church service, we all ate dinner at my parents' house, then opened gifts there.

For years (like probably 8), I have taken a family photo of my brother and his family on this couch during the holidays. I CANNOT believe how big my niece and nephew are getting!

They gave us a few outfits for Brenson (which are very cute). One thing that I really appreciate is that they purchased older sizes (you get so many little sizes at first, ya know?). One outfit included these shorts that Brianna is wearing in the photo below. She thought they were just for her and couldn't wait to put them on!

Brianna received several cute outfits, a Dora suitcase that she LOVES, two Dora hooded towels that my mom made her, a body pillow that she also loves, and a few other small gifts.

Brianna and her "older" cousins:

My brother and his family had to head home the next day (Monday, December 26th), so we went back home then as well. I wanted to get Christmas all down and put away (I'm one of those people that can't wait to get Christmas down after it's over), and Chris needed to go cut wood for his grandparents (something he does about once a month).

Two days later, on the afternoon of Thursday, December 29th, we drove back to my parents' house to see my sister and her family. The scheduling just didn't work out where we could all be there at the same time :(.

We rang in the new year playing a few games and going to bed before midnight :-). What can I say? I was just too exhausted to stay up!

On Sunday, January 1st, we all went to church together. Of course, I wanted to get a few photos of the girls looking cute in their dresses. This proved to be next to IMPOSSIBLE. I did get this one okay shot:

Mom and I literally tried for like 20 minutes to get a good photo. Brianna was so over it and needed some comfort from her cousin, haha! They have a very love/hate relationship. They like to hug and defend each other, but they also like to fight over toys and push each other. *sigh*

Of course, it doesn't help that Brianna is always in Chloe's space. She just has no boundaries, and Chloe doesn't really appreciate that!

I think this photo is cute even though I'm definitely sporting the "pregnant face" look. Oh well, I was 35 weeks pregnant in this photo!

Whew! It took me a week to recover from all of this. I would not recommend this much travelling to anyone who is this pregnant, but I just couldn't say no to seeing family! I just don't get to see them enough to miss an opportunity.

I know this is way late, but I hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well!