Christmas!

Well, it's December 27th and we're back at home, which means that Christmas is officially over. 

How sad. I always get a little sad right after Christmas is over, because I love it so much, and this year especially. We had such a wonderful time with family and it was so fun to watch Landon experience the holidays, so I'm more than a little bummed that it's all over. But here's a quick recap of all of the excitement!

The night before we left Kyle had me open my birthday gift from him, and it was this BEAUTIFUL hand-stamped necklace!!!

The far left pendant has 2006 and says "Love" to represent the year we got married (glad Kyle decided against having "Kyle" stamped on it, so it doesn't look like he's one of my children. He's a smart one, my man). The middle has Landon's name with 2010, and yes indeed, the far right pendant has 2012 and our baby girl's name stamped on it - I guess that makes it official! Of course it's turned upside down for the picture, and Kyle actually gave me the necklace the day before so that I could take off her pendant and leave it at home to keep it top secret =)  The little jewels are Landon's September birthstone and the March birthstone - so here's hoping our little girl comes in March and not February!!
I'm in love with the necklace! Such a wonderful gift.

So then on the 22nd we drove to my parents' house so we could celebrate my birthday that night with all of my mom's side of the family. We had chicken pot pie for dinner and then I got to open gifts. Here's my sweet boy with me on my birthday:

Then the next day all of my dad's side of the family joined us for dinner and we had ice cream cake to celebrate my birthday along with my cousin David's, who was born on Christmas Eve!

Then the grand celebration of Christmas began on the 24th! All of my mom's family was there, and we've always celebrated on Christmas Eve with lots of unbreakable traditions (aside from the fact that we had to move the celebration to my parents' house instead of my grandparents' house where it's always ALWAYS been. I would be bitter about it except it was for the sake of my son going to bed that we moved locations, so I had to be ok with it). We have all different kinds of soups for dinner and lots of cookies and my grandpa's homemade fudge & candy for dessert, and then we do our big gift opening on Christmas Eve. This year we let Landon & Alycen open all of their gifts first completely separate from the rest of us. A good idea, considering that the entire living room was piled with just their presents! 

I unfortunately am a failure again and somehow didn't take any pictures of Landon opening his presents. My uncle videotaped the entire thing, but obviously not loading that to the blog! He had lots of fun pulling the paper off, even though he maybe didn't understand the concept that they were all presents for him. He didn't seem to understand either why he wasn't allowed to immediately look at the books he opened but instead they were taken away and another wrapped gift put in front of him. He's had a grand time with his new toys and books though!

Then Landon was off to bed and the "adults" did all of our gift opening. I got lots of great gifts, including lots of these:

Perfect gift to feed our coffee addiction! (for the record, I got that picture online, it's not mine)

Then Christmas morning it was off to my grandparents' house for Christmas breakfast - scrambled eggs and biscuits and gravy. We also opened our stockings with just a few extra little presents. The rest of the day was spent at my parents' house eating, relaxing, working on a puzzle, playing games, and just being together! Just love it.

Even though I didn't get any pictures of Landon opening gifts, I did get a few of him playing with his cousin Alycen. She seems to actually like him now and they had lots of fun together!

Landon was also thrilled to get to play with Alycen's doggies!

 They especially had a good time playing duets on the piano.

 For your listening pleasure, the musical stylings of Alycen & Landon:

And here are a couple of failed attempts at our family photo by the Christmas tree:

Landon laughing at Daddy

Landon sticking his finger in Daddy's ear

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. We're so grateful to have a Savior who gives us a reason to celebrate. And we are so blessed with great family who love us and each other. I'm only sad it's over so soon!