Christmas Time and Party Central

I was very grateful I decided to do all my Christmas/Birthday shopping in August because Christmas arrived before we knew it. The one thing I was genuinely unprepared for was any type of Christmas Eve dinner. It hadn't even crossed my mind. We still had some good freezer meals, but I decided I really should put for the effort to make our Christmas meal. And as usual, it was worth it.

The traditional menu items: Twice baked potatoes, turkey, veggies, and rainbow jello. Yum yum. 

Here is Pierscen posing in his new Christmas pjs. And lounging in Devry's bouncer.

Christmas morning arrived early, as it usually does with young kiddos. That candy cane, or "Candy can" as Pierscen calls them, was one of his favorite gifts. And whenever anyone afterward asked what Santa brought him, his answer was always "A candy can!" The truth is, we really haven't talked much about the whole Santa thing. He knows who he is, but we haven't talked about him coming, or writing a letter, or anything like that. This year, 95% of his gifts were from my mom. The only thing we gave Santa credit for was his stocking - thus the candy cane.

P received a ton of awesome gifts - most of which came from Ikea. All the stuff we (my mom and I) got him were things we hoped would help keep him busy while I was "grounded" during recovery.

Strangely, Pierscen had present "burnout" about half way through and decided he needed a break. So we went to make breakfast. Our traditional Christmas breakfast is Aebleskivers. Delicious!

Part way through breakfast, P started falling asleep. Early morning and lots of excitement meant an early nap.

These pictures make me laugh. With the one on the left, I told Pierscen to look at Devry, and it totally ended up looking like he was showing off his bum. The one of the right and the one below look like they are both laughing. Devry has a super awesome brother!

I attempted the whole baby in the stocking thing, but she didn't quite fit. Oh well.

We didn't finish unwrapping gifts until that afternoon. Pierscen received train tracks, lots of art supplies, and bow and arrow, cars, books, an easel, and more. He was one happy boy. We had a great Christmas!

Not pictured - but totally worth mentioning... Ryan's gift to me was a total surprise and very awesome. He bought me a Wusthof knife. It is terrifying and incredible. It can cut anything! I love it!

Two days later, this amazing little boy turned three! I asked and asked him what he wanted for his birthday, and his only request was a donut. So early that morning, Ryan took him to pick out his own donut. He posed for the first round of pictures, then decided it was so fun, we had to repeat it. :)

Round two:

And round three with his desert later that day:

As if he needed anything else, he got even more fun stuff for his birthday. I can honestly say that even though everything he got was wonderful and mostly useful, it was way more than he needed. Or cared about. I just stressed about his birthday being so close to Christmas and I have vowed to make each day feel special and separate. I think I did that well, but it was still just too much stuff.

Here are some more fun pictures of this sweet girl. It is so much fun having a girl to dress up. :)

And then there's Dodger who just waits for the opportunity to take over the Boppy pillow as soon as the spot is vacated. Silly pup.

And you simply cannot have a baby in Wyoming without said baby wearing an adorable cowgirl outfit. I love it!

Ryan spent New Years at a youth dance. I rang in the new year with a sweet tiny baby that didn't want to sleep. Here's to another wonderful year of fun adventures!