Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day

It was a tale of three Christmases for us this year and we had a great time with family and friends. We arrived in Des Moines late Tuesday night and got to relax for a few days before all of the festivities began. We had lunch with Nana at work, visited Great-Grandma Zee in Pella and hung out with Uncle Rusty.

While in Pella, Tim, Cate and Diane picked up a gingerbread house at their favorite bakery. This was definitely the cutest, best tasting gingerbread house that I have ever seen and Cate loved it because there was candy hidden inside the house.

Here they are peering inside to see the candy.

Cate loved choosing which parts of the house to eat...

...but she mostly favored the green dollops of frosting that served as bushes in front of the house...

We broke into the gingerbread house after presents, church and Christmas eve dinner but after that, the night was not so relaxing. We ended up in the emergency room with Timmy until 2am. He had been sick for a few days and, of course, got worse at night, right before Christmas. Thankfully, we did not wait at all at the hospital and were home and in bed with an antibiotic in less than two hours.

The next morning, we got up late and headed to Pella for Christmas dinner at Great-Grandma Zee's house. Although she was initially shy, Cate had a great time playing with her second cousins, Claire and Nicole. They did a lot of dancing and jumping on the bed which Cate thoroughly enjoyed.

We left Pella around 5 to head back to Chicago for "Boxing Day" with my family and the Beneshes. When we got into the car, Cate saw that we had installed a dual screen DVD player (Merry Christmas to us!) and looked at her brother and said, "Look, T! We're gonna watch a show in this!!!" Timmy was still not feeling well and both were very, very tired, but the DVD player helped and we made it home quickly.

We made it to Mimi and Pop's house the next morning and exchanged gifts with them. They loved all of their fun, new gifts.

Cate is obsessed with the eyes on a doll. It makes her very uncomfortable when they open and close. This baby's eyes stay open. Nana got her an adorable Bitty Baby (and tons of accessories), which Cate loves, but she had to get used to the fact that her eyes do open and close.

TT on the motorcycle with his Mimi.

The tent and tunnel...a big hit.

Cate and Auntie Jenn...not sure what kind of face she is making...

Taking care of her Bitty Baby. She loves to "change the baby" and pack and unpack her diaper bag.

Bee Bee and Lia Bee

The four of us.

We have a few cute videos from the past few days that I should upload but here is just one of my favorites from Nana's house:

(The first three words are her favorite Christmas song (that she made up and sings in bed), "Jesus is boooorn".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4-vVEjGves

A Big Girl Bed

Cate has spent the last two nights and two naps in her pink big girl bed. She is loving it. She has done really well with the transition and loves to just go in her room and look at books on her own bed now instead of on ours.

Cate's big girl room is still a work in progress, but the theme is pink pink and more pink. I ordered this for her walls to replace her green and yellow animals and I need to look for a new lamp at some point too. Timmy loves to roll around and play on this new "toy" which he can already climb up on by himself.

We are very much looking forward to spending Christmas with our families and have been busy wrapping gifts (Cate chose the gift tags and held the tape) and baking cookies, pretzel chocolate treats and banana bread. The spirit of Christmas is alive in Cate's room every night when she fully recounts the events of the day, "Timmy had milk, I had juice. T's a baby. Mama said no no no! I read books, I played, I fed my baby.... and finally at least a few minutes of, "Jesus is born, Jesus is born!" Merry Christmas!

Another Failed Attempt

If anyone is waiting to see a Christmas card with a cute photo of Cate and Timmy dressed in their Christmas clothes, don't hold your breath. For some reason, it has been more difficult this year than the last two. I guess we have two now who have their own "plans" for themselves. Anytime they are both dressed, I think that maybe I will capture a cute shot, even if it is in everyday clothes and that will just have to do. Timmy and I were playing a game of ball on the kitchen floor after dinner and he looked so cute sitting there throwing all of the balls he could find. When I ran to grab the camera, he took off, leaving me with this:

I don't think I'll be paying to send this one out.

O Christmas Tree

Last year we didn't put our tree up. Cate was essentially Timmy's age, so she was into everything but didn't yet understand when to be careful, gentle, etc. Plus we had a three month old, so I just didn't really care. This year, although Timmy is into everything, I was determined to put the tree up. I'm glad that we did and Cate and Timmy love to look at the lights, but "trimming the tree" was not much fun. Timmy was freaking out because he thought that all of the ornaments were balls and he could not understand why he couldn't have them. He was just pointing at all of the ornaments on the tree and looking pitifully at us as he yelled, "Ball, ball, a ball!"

I thought that maybe we could get a cute picture of Cate and Timmy in their matching reindeer pajamas but Timmy was too mad and for some reason, Cate insisted on lifting up her foot in all of the shots. The one below is one of the few where her foot doesn't obstruct her face.

I just wanted them to sit next to each other, but Timmy kept sitting on her lap and then slipping, so Cate would grab him in a strangle hold to try to hang on...

We gave this "ball" to Timmy to appease him. It is kind of an unusual ornament that is not (easily) breakable but this did not hold his interest for long. Doesn't he look like such a big boy here?