Christmas 2009

We travel almost every holiday. What can I say? We love being around our families. As our kids get older, Ben and I are trying to determine when to start our own traditions and how to continue to celebrate holidays and birthdays with our families too. It's usually tough to have your cake and eat it too in life. We always get a Christmas tree and take it down before leaving for PA. While that may seem a little depressing to take the Christmas tree down before Christmas, I have to say that it is really nice to come home w/ our suitcases and packages and not have to deal w/ pine needles and putting ornaments away. In fact, I've grown to kinda like it. It's almost like the best of both worlds (except for the quick dismantling of the tree and vacuuming the night before the departure day) w/ getting our tree in our house and having the excitement leading up to Christmas, then getting to see our families and having a very enjoyable Christmas, and then coming home to a clean house.

At any rate, since Rachel is now 3 (and we really don't like to take Christmas presents to PA only to have to bring them back home again), we celebrated our little family Christmas morning this past Saturday. And, we got a white Christmas too! What a really nice weekend! We finished up a few errands on Friday, and then Ben and I got things ready for the next morning. We opened gifts (well, everyone did but Ben - I forgot his gifts (the ones that he didn't know about) in PA when I went Black Friday shopping - woops!) and just enjoyed playing w/ our new things and spending time together. Then, Ben and Rachel went out in the snow a couple of times. While we didn't get to go to church on Sunday morning due to the weather, we (and by we, I mean Ben and Rachel) got to enjoy the snow, have some hot chocolate, and then head into church for the evening service. Icing on the cake is that although Ben started back to work full time today, the federal government is closed due to weather, so he got to work from home!

We've loved our time together this weekend, but we're definitely looking forward to seeing our families.......if only we could fast forward past the part of dismantling the tree.

Sorry for the number of pictures (I hate to admit that I narrowed it down)....but when I look back at this post next year, I didn't want to miss some memories:-)

Both girls were so sweet and happy Saturday morning. Ben and I really enjoyed our morning together as a family.
Stocking stuffers! All of Rachel's stocking stuffers came from Ben's conference swag.....he loves to pick up stocking stuffers at the conferences he attends. Sigh.

Naomi loved her.....wrapping paper! Yup. The 10 month old really only needed some wrapping paper to play with!

This is one of Ben's conference swag.....a dancing robot. Nothing promotes a brand and makes you want to do business w/ them in the future than a dancing robot. Unfortunately, it's now one of Rachel's favorite toys.....which only encourages Ben to pick up these "finds" again:-) I'm not sure what's worse: Happy Meal toys or conference swag.

Smiling as she reads her Fancy Nancy book that she got from Naomi.

And Rachel got Naomi a book too.....as you can see, Naomi loved it:-)

I found these at this great store in Danville, PA. Rachel has continually been mixing up Cinderella and Snow White when she sees them on her pull-ups. She was intentionally not listening to my princess corrections, so I figured we'd read the books together and maybe that would set the record straight. So far, it seems to be working. AND, I learned some new princess trivia, like Cinderella's name is actually Ella. But the stepsisters and stepmother made fun of her for having the cinders from the fire on her dress, so they called her Cinderella to make fun of her. I did not know that.

We got the girls a baskeball hoop to share. So far, I think Ben and I have played w/ it the most. I may have even told Rachel that she can play w/ it after Mommy and Daddy are done....but I can't remember.

Future b-ball star.....of course, she usually does the granny shot, which will have to change if she really wants to play the game or if she just wants to stop driving her Daddy crazy.

Naomi gets a turn!

And we got the girls a kitchen to share. I wanted it to be for both of them so that a certain 3 year old doesn't get territorial when Naomi is better equipped for playing w/ the kitchen set too. So, we thought that by making sure it's a gift for both girls in the first place, it might help lay the groundwork for later on.....we'll see if it works.

Rachel really loved it! Thankfully, Ben put everything together the night before.....stickers and all (he didn't let me do it since he wanted things lined up properly!). So far, she's baked her loveys in the oven a few times, put all the spices in the sink to be washed, put her flashing light baseball (conference swag) in the cabinet, and put the pepper grinder in the fridge. I have to walk away so I don't get upset for things not being played w/ like I think they should:-)

Naomi started to check out the kitchen too.....

But I think Rachel may have boxed her out......thankfully, Naomi is pretty easy going on most things, so she settled for a piece of wrapping paper.

And then, Naomi headed over to her old toys.....guess she's not a fan of change.

We did help her check things out a little though. She's not quite pulling up to a standing position yet, but she is trying a lot lately.