All the craziness of Christmas started about 1:45 on Christmas Eve as we ritualistically loaded up the car and was about 5 minutes behind schedule for leaving for church. E was a good sport about not napping and ended up sleeping through 2/3 of vespers for the Nativity.
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| Obligatory fam pic! |
After vespers we shared the last Advent fasting meal at church. You would be pleasantly surprised by all the really tasty meatless dishes one can make - though I am not about to go veggie or vegan. My favorite is always the Chopino soup! I think E ate more bread than anything- shocker! Then it was off to the races with the other kids at church! E is one of the younger ones so I am sure she is learning lots of good tricks from the big kids. Like chasing the 3 ft exercise ball down the hallway! : )
We made it to Grammy and Grandpa Joe's at a reasonable hour. After the intense playing with the kids at church - not to mention 2.5 seconds with Uncle Kev - we had to let E wind down before bed. She was excited to see the presents under the tree and was not horribly upset that she had to wait until after her night nights to open them.
Side note, I am pretty much obsessed with her Christmas pajamas : ) Thank you Hanna Andersson for the amazing cuteness.
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| Helping open and pass out presents on Christmas |
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| So much easier to just dump the bag! |
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| Getting some much needed assistance from Grammy! |
E definitely enjoyed opening presents this year. More so than last. Though this year she was more interesting in getting all the wrapping paper off the presents then the actually presents. Last year she just liked the boxes : ) By the end of the day she could get some form of presents out - which was super super cute!
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| Checking out some of Uncle Kev's presents |
After present opening it was on to my mom/ Grammy's famous coffeecake and breakfast bake. So good let me tell you. Also, general consensus among the group was the coffee cake was possibly the best if not one of best yet- I think it is because it was cut about 10 minutes after being out of the oven. Breakfast bake = amazing Guyere cheese + ham = excellence! Then it was off to church that morning.
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| Another obligatory fam pic. |
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| I could not resist. |
1. I think I look pretty dang good for being 33.5 weeks prego!
2. Lee always does something weird with his hand and it makes me smile
3. Could not resist the toddler in front of the tree pic and I think there is a similar one of me. Though I am super disappointed I cut off her left foot - but really this is the only one that she does not have a horribly fake cheese smile : )
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| BGE Chiminea courtesy of Uncle Kev... love my little bro |
After church, E unwillingly crashed out for a for hours. The guys got Dad's Big Green Egg Chiminea fired up. Mom got dinner going... Uncle Kev requested lamb - which is the typical Easter dinner but Mom decided we could have it for Christmas too and it was so so so tasty! No pics of dinner prep but trust me. My aunt and uncle and cousins came for dessert and among other things we had our first cookie of Christmas available. They were super good - I will have to do a separate post about them. Then it was time to pack up and head back to the Mount. I think E stayed awake the whole time and talked about her 'books', 'presents' and 'cookies' : )
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