Christmas Break 2018
Christmas has come and gone and if I’m being honest, Christmas break was a blur. I made the mistake of saving a lot of our Christmas festivities like making a gingerbread house and going to look at Christmas lights until Christmas break when I thought we would have much more free time. Well, free time was just not something we had a lot of and I feel like we missed out on some fun Christmas traditions. It’s already got me thinking ahead to next year to make sure we start our festivities ahead of time and enjoy the season longer than a week or two. Even though it was a busy holiday, we had the best time celebrating with Baker Bea. This was the first Christmas that she understood getting presents and she told everyone she saw that Santa was going to bring her presents. Being the OCD child she is, she had to tear every single piece of paper off her presents.
Christmas Eve
After getting back from the mountains on Christmas Eve, we got ready to head to Nanny’s (Cory’s grandmother) house. We do Christmas Eve with Cory’s dad’s side of the family.
Baker got some cool new toys, one being a Trolls microphone. Don’t you just love when family gets you those gifts that sing the same songs over and over? Ha! A little parenting hack for you, if a toy doesn’t have a volume switch, put a piece of tape over the speaker and it instantly brings the toy down to a tolerable noise level!
It’s Baker’s world, y’all. We just live in it.
After we left, we headed to our downtown area to see the lights one more time! They put up lights programmed to music this year and we enjoyed it so much! We drove through a few times a week. Then we headed home to open our family gifts (new pj’s) and decorate cookies for Santa.
Since we didn’t have time to make cookies, we just used sugar cookies from the grocery store but they turned out delicious! My cookie decorating skills are pretty non existent, especially compared to Cory’s. We laughed at how awful mine were but it’s okay because I know I’m good at things like decorating a mantel or making a wreath.
After we finished our cookies, we read a few of our favorite Christmas books and told Baker the story of Jesus’s birth using her nativity set.
We set out some cookies for Santa (mine are mostly the ones with solid white icing and sprinkles on top)…
And snapped a picture before heading to bed to wait on Santa!
Santa came and delivered Baker so many awesome gifts, Minnie wrapping paper and all!
Christmas Day
The first thing Baker said on Christmas morning was “is it for me?” And then she pointed to her presents and said “ooh, I yike dis.” Goodness, her sweet little voice will forever be my favorite thing about this stage.
Once she realized there were shoes and a crown in her new wardrobe she had to put them on and open a few gifts.
Then she had to go full on princess for her remaining gifts. :)
I just love the mess of Christmas morning! It’s just so fun with a toddler.
After Gracie got done opening her gifts, my parents, Gracie, and Jordan came over to watch Baker open the rest of her gifts.
Baker knew Mimi wouldn’t tell her “no” for a Reese’s cup out of my stocking especially with that lip out!
And when my mom launched one like a hot potato tossed one to my dad and it went under our cabinet, Einstein was too worried about it the rest of the morning. I did finally get it out for him!
Cory’s mom also came to watch Baker open her gifts.
Charley needed some Christmas snuggles before we headed to brunch at my parents’ house.
Santa took a gamble because Baker hasn’t shown any interest in dressing up but didn’t have any kind of dress up stuff to show interest in. Well, all my concerns were eliminated when she pitched a teetotal fit when we tried to just change her out of her pj’s. We told her she could put the dress right back on as soon as we got her dressed but she was not having it. We had to change her clothes, with the dress on, while she was screaming crying.
Princess Baker arrived and took claim on her throne. :)
My parents got Baker a Belle costume, complete with earrings and gloves. Y’all, I’m dead and she was in love.
She thinks she is something.
When we got home from brunch, I couldn’t keep my eyes open so we took a family nap, Belle costume and all.
Cory’s dad and family came over after our three hour nap (Merry Christmas to me!) to see Baker open the gifts from them. Baker’s Gigi gets her a commemorative holiday Barbie every year and Baker couldn’t understand why she couldn’t open it but one day, these will be so special to her!
They hung around and played Play-Doh with Baker and we enjoyed a few hours together.
After everyone left, Baker was still rocking the Belle costume and finally let us change her in to some pj’s.
Christmas Celebrations
A few days after Christmas, we had our final few Christmas celebrations with both sides of my dad’s family. On Friday night, we headed to my aunt’s house for Christmas with my Nana. My cousins little boy, Linc, is about 5 weeks younger than Baker and they had so much playing together (and Jordan too! He went to Rwanda with us the past two years).
While they played, I got some baby loving from Finn. Goodness, he’s the sweetest little love bug and was so snuggly.
On Sunday, we had our last Christmas get-together with my Papa and Nana Barbara. It’s so much fun having little kids around. They tore open some presents and then we spent the rest of the time putting toys together and playing. It’s just magical!
Excuse me, where did this two-nager come from with her hands on her hips?
New Year’s Eve
Last but certainly not least, Cory and I brought back our annual New Year’s party. While they aren’t as fancy or large as they used to be, it was perfect to hang out with old friends and ring in the new year!
I posted on Instastories how we laughed entirely too hard at this filter but y’all it cracks me up.
New year, same awesome guy!
You guys, this is the first time we’ve had our New Year’s party since having Baker and by 11:00pm, I was so tired, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I had to drink a cup of coffee and still felt like I needed to hold my eyes open for pictures. I felt like such an old lady.
Thankful to be surrounded by such good friends who will come hang out with us and our crazy child!
As Baker and I head back to school today, I’m so thankful for the time that I got to spend with her and Cory over this Christmas break. Even though it went entirely too fast, it was so much fun with a two year old and I know that each year is only going to get better!
