We had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas

Shortly after Santa stopped in. Chris was unable to finish Lydia's kitchen in time for Christmas morning. (He's been building her a little kitchen) We had bought this tricycle on sale and were saving it for her birthday in February, but decided to go ahead and switch the gifts to give Chris a chance to finish the kitchen.

Christmas morning. Lydia enjoyed opening her presents from Grandma and Grandpa Stoker.

She loved(s) all of her gifts!

Opening presents with Daddy. She was so funny. Chris would hand her a present and she would automatically back her little hind end up and plop herself onto Mommy's lap! Every time. It was funny.

This has got to be one of Lydia's FAVORITE things! She does not go probably an hour without reading these little books!

It was actually very nice to have Christmas at our own home just us (for part of it) this year. Chris had to work on Christmas day, but he had Christmas Eve off. We started our Christmas Eve cleaning the church. I will admit that I was somewhat of a sour face that we were asked to clean the building on Christmas Eve. Chris had only Christmas Eve with us, and we had to be home at 3:00 p.m. to take over phones for the Mortuary. So if we wanted to anything on Christmas Eve it would have had to have been between around 11:00 and 2:30...not much time. But it turned out to be just fine. We just had to go pick up a few stocking stuffers and things and then just came back home and enjoyed the evening together. We invited Kayla and her boyfriend to have dinner with us and spend the evening with our family (both of them had to work Christmas as well, so they couldn't really go all the way home). It was fun, but as always...not the same as it is when you're with your own family. One of Kayla's friends came as well and she had a very different idea of what Christmas Eve should be like. I don't know what it is about Christmas, but things seem to nudge their way closer into your heart around that time of year and when things did not go as I had hoped that night, I was so sad inside. It certainly made me homesick and each tear reminded me how far I really was from my childhood and Christmas together with my family. Chris and I stayed up playing Santa. We were so excited! Chris had been working on making Lydia a little kitchen for Christmas, but was unable to finish it in time for the big day, but luckily we had red tricycle that we had bought for her birthday in February so we decided we would just swap them out. Chris put the tricycle together while I finished sewing some aprons (one for Chris and one for Lydia and one for her little friend across the street...the girls' were supposed to be to compliment their new little kitchens). We finally got everything put together and went to bed. Christmas morning was a fun. Lydia liked opening presents and she would come and park her little hiney on my lap before opening each gift. It was pretty funny the way she did it too, almost like a tractor beeping as it reversed into position.

Chris gave me a card table with four folding chairs! I had been wanting one of those for a long time. He also gave me an itunes gift card, make up, hair supplies, hooks for our doors! (been wanting those forever too!), Harry Potter 6-disc DVD set, and some books: Return by Robert D. Hales, and The Incredible Soul of a Woman by Deiter F. Uchtdorf. He also got me some scripture markers, sketch pad, and colored pencils. It was wonderful! Lydia got her tricycle, some Princess figurines, a great princess picture (drawn by Daddy), some necklaces, coloring set, ball, books, clothes, and a doll with a wagon. I gave Chris an apron and some cooking utensils he's been craving :), a jigsaw and sander, Iron Man (which we turned into the Bourne Trilogy in combo for his birthday...), and a Guster CD.

Christmas evening. We enjoyed most of the day just us two. We played with all of her new toys and read all of her new books and danced to her new music. Mommy got more of a workout than Lydia did riding her bike around, that's for sure. Momma's gotta do all the pushing for now. We had a fun day together!

This was Christmas Day playing with her new little friends. If you can't tell, she is telling each of them that she loves them and gives them a kiss. So cute.

Chris's parents and sisters came over Christmas evening and we partied into the late hours of the night. We danced like Michael Jackson, played games, talked, laughed, ate yummy snacks, and had a fun night.

Lydia's cute little rag curls.

She looked so beautiful in her new dress from Grandma and Grandpa. She LOVES it. She called it her princess dress. As soon as she saw it she ran over and pointed to the picture of Belle and said it was like Belle's dress. The first thing she did when she got home from church was climb up on her new bike. It's too bad her legs are just a tad short. She will grow into soon hopefully.

We ended up purchasing our family a Wii for our Christmas present as well. We combined monetary gifts from three different sources and decided this would be a fun family purchase. We have had a blast with it so far. We have a dancing game, a few karaoke games, and the Wii Resort and Sports games.

I hope that Christmas is bright in the heart of every soul!