Christmas 2015

I love Christmas. For me there really is some sort of magic about it. I don't know if it is getting things that I don't expect, playing with family, the miracle of Christ's birth, or fantastic food. To be honest it is probably the combination of it all, but I love it. I love Christmas.

This year Gaupo got to spend Christmas Eve at home--the whole day. As we say around here WAHOOO!! We started the day with a workout. Then we had a fancy breakfast of German pancakes, some super amazing hot cacao that Gaupo made, and buttermilk syrup. It was so good. It really almost made it feel like Christmas. After breakfast, the continuation of holiday cooking started. I mixed up rolls. Then to be honest I don't really remember what we did after that. However, I do I made the rolls during nap time. While the rolls were cooking I was able to read some stories out of a Christmas book. I love Christmas stories they just make you feel good. The one I ended with was awesome it was called A Christmas Angel. As the rolls finished we took a few to neighbors and then came home to prepare the rest of our Christmas Eve feast.

I really wish I had pictures of Christmas Eve because it was great. We had the missionaries and a brother from our ward (Bro. Cavalli) come and join us for dinner. We had rolls, ham, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, strawberry pretzel salad, green salad, and holiday potatoes. It was so good. Then we topped it off with ice cream. The dinner conversation centered around how Gaupo and I met and how Bro. Cavalli and his wife met and come to Colorado. It was also cool because during the conversation Bro. Cavalli mentioned a family he baptized on his mission and the sister missionary serving served with one of the daughters in that family. CRAZY SMALL WORLD. For the lesson, the missionaries shared the movie A Savior is Born. It was really good. It caused me to tell Kylee that this year I think I am celebrating Christ's birth more than I ever have before. This is because, because Christ was born I get to see Derek again. I know that a lot of other stuff happended to make that true but all of it started in a 'humble brown stall.' "For unto us a child was born."

After the missionaries and Bro. Cavalli left, we opened our Christmas Eve presents of PJs. This year they are all different, but express each person. I LOVE mine. Anyway, after opening the pajamas we gave the girls a bath and then read Luke 2 together. Then we sent the girls to bed and let the party begin. We brought up all the presents and wrapped quite a few of them while watching the Santa Clause 2. It felt very Christmas-y I totally loved it. After that we were tired so we went to bed.

Christmas morning was so great. I love having little kids. To see their delight and presents and the simple things they receive. It is so awesome. Gaupo swears he was the first awake and waited for a long time. Then Tia got up and was wandering around half awake so he got to hold her until Kylee woke up and then Tia and Kylee came and woke me up. We all went downstairs and what to our delight by Santa had come. We opened the stockings and checked out the "Santa Cereal" we got. The girls got Fruit Loops, Gaupo got Frosted Flakes, and I got Golden Grahams. Santa did great we got candy, socks, tooth brushes and paste. The girls got that, coloring stuff, stickers, headbands (that is the one and only thing Kylee wanted), and jump ropes. It was tons of fun. After stockings we ate our Santa cereal, and had orange juice (that is a treat around here.) Then it was time for presents.

Kylee and Tia with the Santa Stuff.

Kylee with her new headband and seeing what else Santa brought.

Me sporting some of my goodies. Kylee in awe.

Gaupo emptying his stocking.

Tia and her loot.

Our crazy bunch in our PJ's.

Kylee and Tia with their jump ropes before breakfast.

Gaupo LOVES giving and receiving presents. I would have to say I think it is his favorite part. He loves watching you open what he has carefully picked out for you and then loves getting the things for himself. Consequently, Gaupo isn't very good at waiting for present opening. I am totally good with dragging things out all day, but not him he wants presents and so do my girls. It was all those 3 could do to take turns opening presents. Gaupo wasn't in a real hurry to open his, but he was dying for me to open mine. Such a silly kid. Anyway, we all got quite spoiled. The girls got scooters from us. They are getting better at using them, but it will take some work still. They got cute dresses from my mom, and duplos. They got a very fun game from Grandma and Grandpa. Then they got Hungry Hungry Hippos from Klaire. They also got quite the stuff from Grandma Hammond--babies, clothes, books, ball, mega blocks, and more. I got workout videos, resistance bands, hand weights, and games. Gaupo got an iWalk which is like a spare battery for his ipod. He also got the Good Which Movie collection and I Dream of Jeanie. We got a electric pressure cooker from my mom and dad and Gidget and 5 Crowns from Klaire. We are so spoiled. We all got great gifts.

Kylee surrounded by her gifts.

Tia waiting for Guapo to get her toy out of the packaging.

Tia opening presents.

Kylee opening her presents.

Gaupo opening kitchen wares from my parents.

Kylee on her scooter.

This is how Tia likes to ride.

After present opening. We played with our stuff for awhile and read books. Then we had sandwiches for lunch and then nap time. After naps, we video chatted and played games. I love that we can play games as a family. It is really fun to just play together. I loved it was like perfect. After that we had Christmas Eve, dinner leftovers. Then we played until it was time to go to bed. After the girls were down, we watched Polar Express. Then the real fun began because Kylee threw-up just as we were going to bed. So, I had to get her showered and clean up that mess. This of course wakes of Tia, who is completely delighted by the late night entertainment. Anyway, as usual when Kylee throws up it takes awhile for her to stop. Finally, she finishes and I am crawling into bed and I hear that awful  sound AGAIN. This time its Tia. So, she is all shaky  because she is not use to this and tired. I get her all bathed and the mess cleaned up and then take her downstairs for a bit. Finally, after I am sure she is okay I take her back upstairs and we all go to sleep. Merry Christmas!

The day after Christmas Gaupo had to work (hence why we had Christmas Eve). However, we made the best of it. We went sledding, played in the snow, napped, ate and played some more. To be honest it kind of stunk having to have Gaupo go back to work because real life had to hit a lot sooner than I would like. I like the Christmas-ness to last awhile and when you go to work the day after it kind of doesn't. Oh well, we really did have a good time sledding and playing in the snow. That night for dinner we had one of Gaupo's favorites Clam Chowder. If I do say so myself it was really good. I am really glad I can still eat it because its what I had before I had Tia and usually once you throw something up it doesn't taste very good ever again. Luckily this is not the way with clam chowder. That night we played one of my new games and watched a couple of our new episodes (Gidget and I Dream of Jeanie). It was a really fun. I love games. Anyway, that night everything went smooth until about 3:00AM when Tia threw-up again. Oh man, and she had a fever. AUGHHHH! Luckily there wasn't a mess to clean-up and after some cuddling and meds we were able to go to sleep by about 4.

Tia and Kylee at the end of our sledding fun.

Sunday dawned bright and early. We got up and had breakfast. Then took everyone to sacrament, but the Gaupo and Tia went home. We didn't feel we should share whatever it was Tia had with anyone else's kids. Anyway, church was good. Our home teachers came by after church around 3:30. Our home teachers are funny. I hope we get to keep them for awhile.

I wanted to take a picture of Kylee in the apron, but Tia wanted her picture take more.

Kylee mixing up Sunday night dinner--waffles!

Oh Christmas is wonder. I honestly kind of took the week off between Christmas and New Years. I was still a mom, but I slept in didn't work out that much, played a lot, and had hard time doing productive things. Oh well, its a holiday right. I love all the family time this time of year. I miss not being with my family as they are all together for a whole week. I am totally jealous of all the time that they can spend together, but I love spending Christmas with these people who live with me. They are my world. I love trying to figure out what our traditions should be. Even though the cooking is really time consuming, I love that I can do it. I love doing what ever we want. We don't have a schedule or a set way things have to be done, because right now we are building our own Gaupo-Adventure Girl family Christmas. We are young and have some time to figure things out. Merry Christmas!

Our two girls with their two babies playing in a box. Love these two smiley girls.