We had such a nice Christmas with Natalie. I kind of feel like it was her first Christmas, since she was only six weeks old last year! The best part of it was that Eric was off work on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we could enjoy it all as a family.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, I was busy trying to finish up my homemade good of the year- caramel apples. I like to try to make something nice to hand out to everyone, since we can’t really afford to buy gifts for so many people. Plus, we had already decided and tried to spread the word that we didn’t want anything for ourselves- that we wanted to just focus on the kids. So anyway, the apples turned out decent. I made the caramel from a recipe I found online and it turned out really well! The only problem was that I didn’t consider the weight of my chosen toppings- M&Ms, peanuts, marshmallows, and Oreos. The chopped peanuts and marshmallows stuck to the caramel just fine, but the Oreo pieces an the M&Ms slid down the apples as they dried… so that was frustrating. Since I didn’t have a lot of time, I tried to fix them as best I could. I was so irritated about how they had turned out!
Elaine and I decided to get together that afternoon so the cousins could exchange gifts. I made lunch for the four of us while the girls napped and then we had fun watching them open their new things. We picked out a pretty summer dress for Stacie and a doll that teaches how to dress, such as using ties, zippers, snaps, buttons, and so on. Stacie gave Natalie a Little People school bus with a little set of blocks.
Then we were off to Dad and Sally’s to visit for a little while, since the holiday dinner we spent with them the weekend prior was so hectic! It was much quieter with just the babies and we had the chance to chat with Dad and Sally for a while, which was nice. Stacie showed off her new-found army crawl and Natalie walked all around the house, following Joelle around.
That night, we had planned to head over to Patrick and Lucha’s house for their annual dinner and gift exchange, but we heard that Lucha had landed in the hospital! Patrick decided that everyone would meet up anyway, as planned. So we drove over and met up with everyone else. But, after a couple hours of just hanging around and no word from the hospital, we had to take Natalie home. Everyone decided that they’d return Christmas night instead for dinner and the gift exchange. We finally heard the next morning that Lucha had had a kidney stone! She felt terrible for being an absent host, but we were all glad that it wasn’t something more serious.
We woke up Christmas day and actually had to go get Natalie from her room (she slept through the night!). Then we had breakfast, fired up the holiday log (a la television, that is) and spread out the gifts. Sadly, I had neither the time nor the energy to make my Christmas cinnamon rolls!! I didn’t get around to making them last year either… so hopefully I can make them this weekend instead and call them New Years rolls. Anyway, we took turns opening gifts one by one, helping Natalie along. She did really well ripping the paper and tearing tissue out of the bags! We bought Daddy a new pair of slippers, a movie and a CD set that he had wanted while Daddy and Natalie bought me a replacement wedding frame (the original broke a few weeks ago when Natalie pulled it down from our entry table and dropped it), a gift certificate to a reflexology place downtown and some Aveda lotion I had wanted. Natalie received some building blocks, a classic Fisher-Price chatterbox telephone (just like I had when I was young) and an Ariel the little mermaid doll that Daddy picked out for her. It was so nice to take our time and spend the morning with Natalie. It wouldn’t have been the same if Eric were stuck at work!
Then we got ready to go and headed over to the Longaneckers house for their annual exchange. We ate lots of good finger food and then had fun opening gifts. Eric’s cousin and his wife have a baby boy just three weeks younger than Natalie, so it was fun to watch them play together. I think everyone enjoyed seeing Natalie all dressed up in her holiday dress, complete with tights, shoes and little red bow clips on her pigtails. It was a lot of fun to watch the kids open and play with their new things- everyone was so generous! We came home with a few bags full of fun toys, books, clothes and of course some extra money to add to all of our savings accounts, which was so nice!
Natalie did so great where ever we happened to take her- I was so happy that she was happy that day. I knew we were wearing her out, but she seemed to be having fun. After a nice re-scheduled dinner with the Fleming family, we exchanged gifts once more. Natalie had fun playing with Ava and Amelia while the rest of us opened more gifts.
Then finally- we headed back home! It was another crazy year, but it was so enjoyable. After getting over the frustration of my caramel apples, I decided to just enjoy the day with my family and it was great. Hard to believe that next year we’ll have two babies in tow! I’m sure it’ll be all the more fun and exciting.
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