Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas 2010 was a huge success!!!  Since we decided to stay home this year I really wanted to create some of our own Christmas traditions.  We began Christmas Eve by making cookies.  Since the gingerbread houses were such a success I thought cookies would be as well.  It was a lot of fun, but Noah ate so much icing he went on a complete sugar high and decided to take a  nose dive off of the couch and scraped up his entire nose.  

 He had the most fun stacking all the ingredients in a tower and then knocking them all down

 All done mommy!

 After the Christmas cookies it started to snow and it was soooo beautiful!  It snowed pretty much all morning but unfortunately melted by the next morning. 

 We went to church at 5:00 and Noah was absolutely awful!  We usually put him in the nursery but decided to keep him with us since it was Christmas.  Terrible idea, he was trying to run down the aisle, throwing the candle, and shouting for more candy cane.  Dan's mom eventually took him into the foyer but then he screamed and cried cause he saw me when I needed to make a bathroom run, so that was the end of church for me as well.  After church we went to an amazing restaurant called Strouds (featured on the food network).  We had some yummy fried chicken and again Noah was awful (I'm thinking public outings without toys are no longer in our future).  We got home just in time to read Noah some Christmas stories and then the adults proceeded to watch Elf after he went to bed!  Here he is getting ready to go to bed for the night.

 We decided to stretch Christmas Day out for little Noah.  Due to the generosity of family and friends we had a TON of presents for Noah.  We let him open 2 presents after breakfast, then Barbara made the stuffing and put in the turkey and Noah opened another 2 presents.  After nap he opened the majority of his presents and he still had a few more to open after dinner.  He was so excited he just kept going from toy to toy!

 Grammy got him a set of musical toys, he already figured out the trumpet!!

 This is the animal farm that Aunt Christy and cousins Sofia and Isabella sent him

 His favorite gift is a toy car that my dad got him.  It has tons of buttons and after only one day I am a bit tired of Lightning McQueens voice!!

We have so many blessings this Christmas, the first of which is the birth of Baby Jesus.  Dan and I are so thankful for the relationship we have developed with our Savior and how much He blesses our lives daily.  We truly have everything we could ever want/need.  Although we were unable to purchase presents for family/friends this year due to our financial situation, we were blessed abundantly and received more than we could ever ask for.  It was hard to have my first Christmas away from my family but I loved having Dan's family here.  They were so helpful and I am incredibly thankful for the love and support they offer to us.  I can hardly believe Christmas is over and next year I will be celebrating with a 2 1/2 year old and a 10 month old!!!