Christmas at Nana and Papa's

making cookies for Santa

 The best Christmas gift I got this year was my Dad coming home from his work trip early.  My dad is a commercial airline pilot and normally works over the Christmas holiday.  This year was no exception, his only days off while we were up north was Dec 22 and Dec 23.  We lucked out and due to the massive snow storms blanketing the country, his trip was cut short and we picked him up from the airport 2 whole days early.

Another tradition in our family has always been my Dad making Christmas cookies with me and my sister.  This year, Olivia took my place and made cookies for Santa with her Papa.  They loved every minute of it.  My dad was so patient with her despite her desire to just put the cookie cutter in the middle of the circle of dough.   They placed the cookies out for Santa and then off to bed.

Look!! The cookies are all gone!

Olivia and her Nana

 Christmas morning was a blast.  The kids did really well opening all the gifts nicely together and even wanted to help out everyone else.  Since my dad travels all the time, we didn't go anywhere but stayed home and watched the kids play with their new toys.  Olivia's favorite gift actually came in her stocking.  Santa brought her a small maker and paper coloring set of the Disney Princesses.  All she wanted to do was color Bell, Cinderella, Ariel and Jasmine.  Juatin's favorite toy was his new Mega Block tiny fire truck.  No, this one is not big enough to sit on but that doesn't stop him from trying.  He loves to put things in a container and then take them out again.  That's all he did, in and out, in and out.  We enjoyed home cooked meals and each others company for a few days. 

both kids loved ripping the paper off

Merry Christmas

Olivia and her Papa

 I swear I have more pictures of Justin, but he loves to just go go go, so most of them aren't of his face.  He cuddled with everyone but didn't get to go sledding.  He was napping and didn't have any snow boots.  Olivia actually couldn't walk in the snow either, despite having snow boots.    With all the drifts in my parents yard, the snow was up to my knees and it was rather difficult to walk, let alone carry a 28Ibs toddler.  Of course, Olivia loved gliding down the snow and into the trees.  Ok, not into the trees.  Papa, Ryan and I all made the path for Olivia to go down in the snow tube but she's so much lighter than us, she just glided father than any of our paths ever went.

It was so great to relax for as long as we did and didn't have to cook meals or clean the house.  We love going back up north to have our White Christmas but love coming home to our house so we don't have to deal with all the snow, haha.  I love traveling but Olivia did ask when Santa was going to come to our house.  Maybe in the next few years, we'll spend Christmas at home with just our little family and Santa.

Our yearly snow tubing adventure