What a fun past couple of days we have had leading up to today. On Monday we checked into a hotel so Rylee could go swimming. What a little fish she is turning into! I was so proud of her for being interested in learning how to kick her feet and float on her back. Wyatt also got to play in the pool for the first time; he did very well. We ordered take-out for supper and watched The Polar Express as we all sat in bed together. Spending much needed quality time together was the perfect way to start Christmas week.
Yesterday we had Christmas with my family. I've always loved the tradition of going to my aunt's house on Christmas Eve. Her house is always decorated with colorful whimsy decorations, smells like yummy food, and Christmas songs play in the background. She always has a large, real tree that is full of bright ornaments....and of course, a mountain of presents underneath. This year, the mountain overflowed!! There were 3 more kids at our gathering this year than there has been in the past, due to the addition of Wyatt and my brother's family being back in Iowa. It was so much fun to watch the kids open presents one by one. Rylee was excited about her presents as soon as she tore the paper off and BEFORE she even knew what the gift was :) I'm not sure that Santa Clause needed to come to our house after she and Wyatt got so many gifts at this Christmas gathering.
However, Santa did come, and we saw his sleigh flying high in the air on our way home Christmas Eve (or was that just an airplane??). I always saw Santa's sleigh in the air on our way home growing up, so I was pretty excited I got to point it out to Rylee this year!!
We put our Christmas jammies on when we got home, watched a couple of Christmas shows and sat by the tree to read "The Night Before Christmas". Right before bed we stopped in the kitchen to pick out a decorated sugar cookie to leave for Santa...only to discover the Mr. of the house ate them all!!! I almost panicked. On Sunday night, I considered telling him not to eat them all, but I figured since there were so many left (8-10) and we would be gone the next couple of days, that it wouldn't be an issue....I was wrong. Luckily, we had some fig newtons in the pantry and Rylee was okay with that. She thought the fig newton's needed sprinkles though, so we did do a little cookie decorating. We also left carrots outside for the reindeer.
Fast forward to 5:55am this morning....
"Mom, wake up! Let's go find Elfie and see if Santa came."
We all got up and went out to the kitchen to see that Elfie had left us some donuts for breakfast, along with a note telling us thanks for letting her stay at our house and that we would see her again next year.
Next, we went to the living room and saw that Santa had been there and left a few presents and filled our stockings!! Rylee wanted to open them right away, but settled with eating our donuts first. (Yes, I decided to wrap my Santa gifts...though mine were always unwrapped as a kid and I enjoyed that).
By 6:30 we had all of the presents opened and by 7:00 they had all been played with. "Now what?", I thought to myself. The Disney parade wouldn't be on for two more hours. We watched a couple more Christmas shows and played some of Rylee's games she got. We also looked out the window once the sun came up and saw that the reindeer had eaten all of the carrots and there were tracks from Santa's sleigh!!
I'm so sad that all of the fun is nearly over. We had 5 Christmas celebrations and it all went too fast. I'm already excited for next Christmas!! The holidays become even more fun than they already were when kids are in the picture. Hopefully next year Wyatt will be able to open his own presents and be a little bit excited about his gifts. Maybe a trip to see Santa will even be possible next year.
Of all the fun things we did this month, my favorites were Disney on Ice and watching Rylee open presents. There's no better feeling than seeing excitement in a child's eyes.
I hope you all are having a very Merry Christmas!!!
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