First Christmas as a family of 4!

My favorite parts about this Christmas:
1. Gianna loves to cook with me (and so does the boy, although he will never admit it...and he'll never know I blew his cover with this picture, mwah ha ha), and we made chocolate covered chocolate pattern cookies with sprinkles. I wanted the moose shaped cookie cutter...you know, for Christmas?? (Now that I write that, I don't really know how moose are Christmasy. ??) But the boy wanted the BAT cookie cutter, and then we ended up with BATS, FROGS and BUTTERFLIES for cookies. Oh well, they tasted amazing though!

2. Lefsa arrived in the mail from Gramma!!! Every year she sends up a stack of homemade lefsa around Christmas time. I remember making it in her kitchen every year when I was a kid, and the taste of fresh hot lefsa with butter and sugar is like no other treat on earth. Everyone knows not to touch my lefsa...but when I'm feeling generous I'll share just a bit with the kids and they say "mmm!!" and roll their eyes in pure pleasure with the taste.

3. Being off work for two weeks. Hubby and I have gotten through another season of "Heroes"...just cuz we can stay up super late. It's like date night every night after kiddo bedtime, it's wonderful. I actually have had time to READ a couple of books too, what a treat! I slept til 10:30 today, and so did the kiddos. Awesome! And a lovely side effect as well: bonding time with Gianna. She is talking more and more, and since we've been spending most of our time together while daddy catches up on sleep and goes to the gym, we are getting closer and she talks to me a lot more. She actually told daddy that she wanted me to help her get ready for bed and not him when he offered to help. She reached out and put her hands on his shoulders and said "i love you, but not you today. I want mommy, maybe you tomorrow". Sorry honey, but that was fabulous!

4. SNOW! We had a rare white Christmas this year! I thought I just had to have memories of our awesome snowy mountain vacation in Colorado, but we actually got some here. I actually like shoveling snow, and Gianna actually likes to sweep snow off the steps, so we had a fabulous time together out in the cold.

5. Bath crayons. Santa really hit it out of the park this year with this stocking stuffer. How many hours of entertainment can a few colored pieces of soap offer? At our house, at least 6 for each kid, so far and still counting. This was only the beginning...we kept this superhero scene going for several days and they kept adding on when it was their turn to take a bath.  Yeah, we have squirt guns in the tub too, to squirt the fish of course.

6. Suspense. Santa came and dropped off a couple of presents and filled the stockings...but we have a rule that we have to all be awake and finish breakfast first before opening presents...and daddy has to read the Christmas story from the bible and we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. THEN we can open presents one at a time. So while I was making breakfast the kids just sat in front of the Santa gifts and stared at them...and touched them gingerly...and looked at each other and giggled...then stared again. For a good 15 minutes, it was priceless.

7. Traditions. We hide the Pickle ornament in the tree, and the first one to find it gets to open the first present. We read a bunch of Christmas books that I keep collecting. We watch A Christmas Story on Christmas Eve, and the Grinch, after we go to church. Then Christmas day we order Chinese and bring it home, eating it while we watch The Nativity. We have several Advent calendars that involve chocolate (yes, I'm breeding chocolate addicts like me). And the rest of the day Christmas day we spend putting Legos together and playing with all the toys together. No chores or school, the best part!

8. Another addition to my obsession with A Christmas Story...Gramma sent cool hats (that are actually really neat, and the kids love them), but Gianna's is strangely similar to the "deranged Easter Bunny" suit from the movie. Cracked me up. Yes, the boy is still smitten with his little sister, as you can see from the side-eye grin.

9. The Sugies (our Sugar Glider pets) discovered Pecans, and can't get enough of them. Strangely, I can't get enough of the sugies, I'm crazy for the little things. I could go on for a while about why they are so cute and how much I love them...but I'm fully aware of the fact that no one else understands this creepy fetish of mine, so I'll just let the picture speak for itself.

10. So thankful for all the Grammas and Grampas that the kids have, they all are such a blessing in our life.  From the stacks of packages they sent, the cookies they baked or lefsa they sent, the cards reminding us how much they care, and everything else they bless us with. Christmas would not be the same without them. Here's a 'squdge' from great gramma on Christmas Eve, the kind that only great grammas can give, along with the pinch on the cheek when they say "oh, you're getting so big!"

Overall Gianna has been so excited and happy about Christmas, and just in awe that she had so many presents from grammas and grampas. She still says she misses her 'old home' and some of her old toys..and after she got a Hello Kitty scrapbook for a gift, we sat and put her old baby pictures in it, so she could have her own personalized life book. It ends with the first family picture we got together on "Gotcha Day". She looks at it every day, with a small tinge of sadness, but also a sense of pride that she has a past she can be proud of and that we are happy to talk with her about. She is also excited about all the new memories we are making as a new family. We are so happy to have her in our family, and we make progress bonding every day!