The Days of our Lives (leading up to Christmas)

I have a lot to cover as I have once again been slacking on getting my blog updated.  John's mom came out for a visit the week before Christmas and along with entertaining O while I worked she got to go to the zoo with O and J.  O loves all animals and had a really fun time.  She especially enjoyed the petting zoo area.  I enjoyed it too because I got to spend some quiet time alone at home which NEVER happens.  So it was a good day all around.

O is a very good helper, sometimes.  In this case she stayed out of my hair while I wrapped some gifts because she was so fascinated by the wrapping paper and the wrapping paper roll.

One semi-tradition I remember while growing up in Colorado was the day that one of our neighbors had a bunch of kids over to decorate Christmas cookies.  I had a lot of fun doing that and would like to start the same sort of tradition with my family.  So the week before Christmas I invited a couple of friends and their kids over to decorate cookies.  There was O, at 2 1/2 and two 1 1/2 year olds so you can imagine how it all went.

The before shot of the decorating table and cookies (I had some issues with the cookies so it is kind of difficult to tell what the shapes are supposed to be - they are supposed to be trees, snowflakes, stars and snowmen).

  A mint chip related accident

 The sort of after - they were more interested in eating the toppings and sticking their hands in the frosting tubs

 After decorating we headed outside to run off some of the sugar

 The following day John, Olivia and I sat down and decorated some of the remaining cookies.

 John's designs

 This is supposed to say "Romo 9".  Lame.

 Once again, more interested in eating the icing and toppings (she LOVED the gumdrops)

Our Christmas was very nice and I hope that all of yours were too.  On Christmas Eve we went to the children's Mass at church and Santa paid a visit which O loved.  After that we went to dinner and decided that it was going to be a long time before we were going to be able to do that again.  O was all over the booth dancing on the seats and all around just misbehaving.  She also told us she had to go to the bathroom at least 3 different times (as she did at church too).  Now with 2 little ones on the way we're going to have to figure out different dinner arrangements for Christmas Eve.  I don't know if I can do it with 3!

Christmas morning John and I were up before Olivia.  She didn't roll out of bed until 9 and that was with us going in there to get her.  It took her close to 2 hours to open all her presents because she'd want to stop and play with everything as she opened them.  Our little girlie girl loved her tutu from Bobcat Busha and Dadu as well as the heels she got from Uncle David and Aunt Shae and the princess mirror from Aunt Erin and Uncle Ryan.  The "Olivia" books from Uncle Danny were a hit too.  We had to read them all right away.

The princess mirror and our stockings

  She has really liked this easel.  There is a dry erase board on the other side and some good storage for her chalk and markers.

 Her "Angelina Ballerina" movie and Minnie panties.  We couldn't get her to put on any clothes so in most of these shots she's almost nude.  Oh well.

 Her purse from Granny that came with a phone, sunglasses, barrettes and lipstick.

 Her tutu, tiara and one pair of her three pairs of heels

 Checking herself out in her mirror

 We've been having problems getting her to sleep at night so we've kind of cut out naps.  Christmas wiped her out though and she fell asleep watching a Muppets movie on our bed.

As for John and I we relaxed as much as we could after opening all our gifts.  We were very lucky this year.  Is it bad that one of my favorite gifts is the pots and pans set that J got me?  I was so excited!