Christmas Round 3: New Traditions

I am still trying to catch up on all our Christmas activity. And there was a lot. In fact, this Christmas is going in the record books as one of the most fun, enjoyable, fantastic Christmas season ever!

This year we embarked on the new Christmas tradition in our household. With Mia old enough to experience the magic of Christmas, we will spend each Christmas at home so that Mia can wake up at on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. And this year, Santa was very good to us.

We were very happy to host my Dad, Step-mom, and Mom-in-law for Christmas this year. It is the first time we have hosted Christmas. We hope the first of many.

With the crazy weather threatening our plans, we were so very thankful that all arrived safe and sound before the weather hit.

Christmas Eve was jam packed. My Step-mom Linda and I got the wild idea to start painting the basement that day. While Wal-Mart had all the crowds, she and I were the only ones at the home improvement store. That evening we headed over to the neighbor's house to see Santa and drove around town looking at the Christmas lights. Then, of course, there was also The Great Ham Incident but we enjoyed our annual Christmas Eve Appetizer Delight anyway.















Christmas Day was so exciting! It was a day just as we had imagined. Mia's first true experience was priceless.

This is her first look at what Santa brought. It was so early, I didn't plan ahead with the camera to get a good shot of her face...so this is it. Sorry.















This shot doesn't show her face which had the look of "Wow!"















And then the opening started...oh boy!


"BUZZ!"

















Everything was a hit. She loved her kid size table that Santa brought as well as all the other toys she got.





















It actually took Mia two days to open all her gifts since each of them kept her attention for quite a while.

I enjoyed cooking Christmas breakfast and our inaugural Christmas feast of Sauerbraten, Spatzle, and red cabbage. With full bellies we reveled in the day's blessings, enjoying each others company.

It all was over in the blink of an eye. This year was so fun, we can't imagine what next year will bring!