Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve at home, just us. I cooked a turkey with most of the fixings, and Naomi's green beans (they're my new favorite!) It was a perfect relaxing evening, we set out cookies for Santa, opened up new pajamas and Ellie went to bed so excited to open her gifts in the morning. 

I think I woke up before Ellie did. As a mom A LOT of planning goes into Christmas. I had been searching Amazon for months looking for the perfect toys, making sure they were going to be played with, choosing things that kept us in our price range, etc. I was so excited to see Ellie's reaction to everything we got for her. She was a lot easier to shop for this year, no surprise this years theme was DINOSAURS. 

Christmas morning was great! Lucy slept in while Ellie, Jared and I opened gifts. We ate a late breakfast, played with toys and watched movies the rest of the day. We decided we better check out the lights in downtown before it was too late so we bundled up and went to the Christmas Village. 

I loved that Christmas was so relaxing this year. Jared has a 4 day weekend for both Christmas and New Years. One of my favorite part about Christmas this year was all the Christmas card we got. I set them up on our mantle and couldn't help but think about how blessed we are to have so many wonderful people in our lives. I have vowed to send out cards next year!

I had noses like this as a kid and loved them. Ellie sure looks funny with them on!

A view master from Grandma and Papa..with a dinosaur reel of course.

A complete dinosaur encyclopedia

Cash register from Grandma and Papa...."lets play BUY" Every time the cash drawer popped out she would say "oh thats started me" (startled)  

Ellie playing with one of her most expensive gift ...this stupid dinosaur egg. She saw one of these in a magazine and has asked for one ever since. I told her to ask Santa for one, which she did. I found one on Amazon and from the picture and for $13 I figured we get a couple of eggs. NOPE. One little egg with a lame dinosaur inside. 

Jared and Ellie...I mean Ellie and Dr. Grant dug out the dinosaur and Jared broke one of the legs off. Hope you liked it Ellie

turkey leftovers, I made stuffing waffles, they were awesome!

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Lucy sleeping under her new toy.

We moved the guest bed and transformed the room into a play room. We are loving it!