First Phoenix Christmas

 This year for Christmas, we hosted both sides of our family in our new house.  I had visions of being very organized and getting lots of food made and frozen in advance.  Then our oven broke and I was without an oven or stove for two and half weeks.  Until two days before our first guests arrived.  So that was out the window.

Organization aside, we had a fun, relaxing family Christmas.  The weather was nice but cool enough for sweaters and pants, so we even used our fireplace quite a bit.  For just about the entire time that we've lived here, I wondered why in the world we had a fireplace since in the summer, I didn't even want to look at it in case that somehow made me even more hot.  In December and January, we are getting lots of use out of it which is nice.

We went to church the day before Christmas Eve in an effort to keep things on the calm and relaxing side.  I didn't want to pack too much into any one day, so we spread our activities out.

We tried to snap a few photos outside of our church since it is really pretty, but the kids were not interested.  At all.

On Christmas Eve we made a turkey and got out our wedding china for the very first time which was fun.

Cate and Timmy were so excited about everything.  We took them outside on Christmas Eve to see if they could hear Santa's sleigh.  They did hear a very loud bell ringing (almost like someone was ringing it right behind them...) and both of them started crying.  So much for Christmas Eve magic.  

We played lots of games at night and Cate participated for the first time.  She absolutely loved playing charades.  She took several turns and did a great job.  Timmy was not so interested.  He picked up one of Cate's purses and went to work collecting scraps of paper from everyone to put in it.

On Christmas morning Cate and Timmy found their big present, a clubhouse/swing set in front of the tree. We can't wait to get it set up outside.

Cate and Timmy both got such fun presents.  Cate was very excited to get her new cupcake set from Bee Bee and Mr. B. This is her second set.  She loved the one she got from Auntie Jenn so much last year that she wore out the markers and has been waiting for an occasion to get a fresh cupcake set.

Timmy got lots of "Cars" related gifts, but he was very excited about getting "Sally" and "Mac."  He loves his cars.

We spent the rest of the day lounging around and playing with new toys.  It was so much fun to have a full house for a few days and we were definitely sad to see everyone go.