Christmas Fun!

Maya opening her first present.

Ryan with a few of his christmas presents.

Maya with her first stocking filled with baby food and a rattle.

Me and ryan on christmas eve!

The nativity scene!

Christmas has always been one of the most special times of the year for me. My family has always had so many traditions so it makes it memorable to try to pass some of those things on to our new starting family. Luckily we were able to spend christmas with both families since we are so close. We spent Christmas eve at my family were we did the annual nativity scene. Last year I got to be mary since I was pregnant ( which is a rare occasion since my little sister wendy is what we call a Mary hog-she has to be her EVERY year!) But this year was special because for the first time in forever we got to have a real baby play Jesus-Maya! I wasn't sure how that would go over since one of the lines describing Jesus from the primary book is "No crying he makes..."

Things went well and maya was asleep for half of it, (which is probably why it went so well) but we had a great time. Probably more than Christmas morning for me, christmas eve is the most special for me.

Christmas morning started at 6:45-my siblings couldn't talk my father down any more...Maya had woken up at 6:00 so she was already getting a bit tired since that is way earlier than normal for her. I suppose you could call me a sentimentalist as I had envisioned My daughters first christmas and how she would have so much fun playing with wrapping paper and boxes while I candidly take a thousand pictures. Lets see, I think she opened ( and by opened I mean lightly touched the wrapping paper) one present and then she was crying and ready to go back to sleep. So much for my "perfect envisionment" I am learning more and more to never plan on things going a certain way when you have kids...it just doesn't seem to happen.

Luckily after her nap she was in better spirits. Ryan absolutely spoiled me for christmas so did my family and his. It was very exciting. I got some really good presents for Ryan that he loved, and he is a kind of hard to shop for because he always tells me-I dont want anything. Just get something for yourself....yeah right!

Around noon we made it His family's house where we did presents and spent some good quality time together. It was wonderful to be with them and they cooked us an amazing Christmas dinner! It has been nice because I am learning a lot of cooking tips from his Grandmother. She is an amazing cook. His Aunt Mary flew in the next day and we stayed at Ryans house for almost a week. It was wonderful to spend so much time with family-especially Mary since we rarely get to see her. One of our favorite presents is a Faux fur blanket that looks like bear fur from Ryans mom. It is so soft and cuddly and that combined with our love sac makes watching movies very enjoyable. Thanks to all the family for the wonderful gifts and time spent together. We love you very much!
Now it is past New years and the only two resolutions that I really want accomplished is to scrapbook for maya, Ryans mission pictures, Wendys for her graduation present, and finish Thailand and China. The second is to learn to make wheat bread (which Im doing today) and learn to incorporate things like barley, flax, and more wheat into our diets. I got several vegetarian cookbooks that I am VERY excited about. Wish me luck with entering the new year more healthy.