Pecha Christmas

My side's family Christmas this year was a little different. With us wanting to start our own traditions and I'm sure Rachel and Tyson will want to in the next year or so as well, we are left trying to decide when the best time to celebrate is. Plus throw in the weird work schedules of several of us and we ended up with no real set time on our celebration, but rather a "lets all get together and wait for Tyson to get off work party." It worked.

We woke up Christmas Eve morning and Darren wasn't feeling well, I couldn't decide if he had the stomach flu or if it was food poisoning. I didn't want to take my chances, so I quarantined him to another room while Ava and I got ready and then Ava and I headed over to the Burton's as fast as possible.

My mom was already over there and had started preparing our meal. It was just us girls until around 2 or so, when Josh and my dad arrived (aka Santa) with all the gifts. Seriously, the gifts. We decided to let Ava open a few right away because clearly her pile would take anyone several hours to open, and lets face it, we didn't want to be still opening her gifts at midnight. She was much more into the presents this time around, and I was so excited for that! She had so much enthusiasm, like "WOW" or "That's mine!" My favorite part of the whole day though, was probably when my parents opened the gift Ava had made for them and in her proud little voice says, "I made it!" So cute.

Tyson arrived and we continued to open more gifts. Took a break at 5 for church, came back home, more gifts, ate dinner, and more gifts. Good grief... did I mention the gifts?

Unfortunately, with Darren being sick we didn't get a single family Christmas picture this year. Bummer. And I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked either.

Malcolm Christmas

We spent the Sunday before Christmas with the Malcolm's to celebrate Christmas this year. I have to say I am thankful for a mother-in-law that is flexible on the date as opposed to always wanting it right on Christmas Day. It allows us to have a more relaxed holiday celebration and more time with each family, rather than being rushed from one place to the next. It is also important to us to start our own traditions with Ava and I really want her to continue to wake up in her own home Christmas morning. I remember that being so magical as a kid and I want that same experience for her.

We arrived and Ava was excited, as usual, to play with the toys at Grammy's house. She was able to play for a little while before dinner was ready to be served. After dinner, we opened presents. I will admit, I was slightly disappointed in Ava's reaction. She was more interested in playing with the toys at Grammy's than the opening of any gifts so I had to open hers for her. However, once she opened the princess castle, she was hooked on that. She kept saying "a castle!" in such an excited tone.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games and visiting (and eating too many snacks). It was a great day. Ava was disappointed to leave. I always look forward to this time of year and am always sad to see it pass by so quickly as well.

Girls Weekend

We spent the weekend in Des Moines, just us girls! It was Ava, my mom, Rachel, and myself! We left on Friday morning. Ava loved the doughnut we stopped for before heading out of town! We got to Des Moines in time for lunch and a some major shopping before checking into our hotel. Ava was exhausted and didn't even make it across the parking lot before falling asleep. Normally, she has been hard to get down for a nap lately so I've been skipping it. Shopping must have worn her out! We spent the evening ordering in food, playing play-doh, and watching tv.

Saturday we got up and had a delicious breakfast and eventually headed out for more shopping. We only made a couple of stops before Ava crashed again. She ended up sleeping in the booth through lunch and then we just decided to head home.

It was a great weekend and my tree is full with presents underneath it now! I just have a few more things to pick up and we'll be ready for Christmas!