Christmas Day

Maria spent the night so we stayed up watching music videos from the 80's and Elf (our favorite Christmas movie), so come Christmas morning, I was VERY tired. And by VERY tired, I mean I was kind of walking around asleep, with my eyes open, pretending to be awake. Due to this condition, I didn't take too many pictures, and a few of the ones I took were blurry because aparently, I was too tired to hold the camera still.

Anyways, we were going to breakfast at the beach, our family tradition, BUT Gunnar makes amazing pancakes, so we ate those first. Really, it wasn't that smart of a move, but the pancakes were beyond delicious.

We met our friends the Olivas family for breakfast, and then were going to go to the beach to take pictures. Due to the fact that we were late and it was a beautiful day, the beach was packed and we couldn't find parking easily. Due to the fact that we were really tired, we just called it a day and moved on. We did however take a picture of my parents and Maria with the girls as they were taking off after breakfast.

The last picture is the only one in focus from our time with Carol after breakfast. We opened presents and had a great time. We then headed home to relax and take naps!

Christmas Eve...the last one!

Finally, the last of the Christmas Eve pictures! My parents and Maria joined us for the Christmas eve service at church. There were lots of Christmas music, Gunnar spoke and we all sang "Silent Night" in the candle lit sanctuary. Grace was sitting with my dad who let her hold a candle, and she was stoked. She should have been, as there is no way I would have let her do that. But Grandparents get exceptions, of course. Besides, my dad told her if she moved in the least, he was going to blow the candle out. I have NEVER seen he sit so still. I am not sure she even blinked.

When we got home we tried to take a few family pictures. Twenty tries later, here is our family's Christmas picture of the year! :)
My second favorite.
Lastly, one of me and Ellie Belly. Look at that adorable double chin (her, not me, of course). :)

Christmas Eve

Due to my being behind on posting the pictures from Christmas, and due to the fact that my time is limited, I am going to skip Flashback Friday in order to try to get over the Christmas pictures. I am not sure if anyone even wants to see these at this point, but oh well.

I felt compelled to take a lot of pictures this year for a couple reasons. First of all, it is Elizabeth's first Christmas, and I don't want to do the whole jipping the second kid of pictures thing. Also, since I just got a new lens, I am still working on using it, and so it gave me a good opportunity to practice.

Unfortunately, I was way more excited about it being Elizabeth's first Christmas than Elizabeth was.
I know. What a party pooper.

She even felt this way about her gift that I bought her. Grandpa Dick did luck out though, because what is as sweet as a sleeping baby?
Grace, on the other hand, was beyond excited. She opened each of her gifts with the enthusiasm of someone who has just won the lottery. She exclaimed "oh wow, oh wow" for each one proclaiming it was just what she wanted. Gunnar and I got her a suitcase for our travels. She has already used it once to sleep over at Grandma's.
Not only was she excited about her gifts, but she was also very excited about everyones gifts. She helped everyone open their gifts. Like the calendar for my mom.
Grandpa Dick got the girls a stuffed bear. It is super soft and about the same size as Elizabeth.
Maria and Gunnar always exchange gifts and try to find something that the other person would love or would make them laugh. Maria totally scored this year with something that he loves AND makes him laugh. Elvis coffee, who knew such a thing existed.
Grace also had the oh so important job of delivering the gifts. It's fun being a kid on Christmas!
My mom got Grace Playmobil's which are Grace's favorite, and my favorite when I was a kid. They are great toys and Grace kept saying "I LOVE playmobils, I LOVE playmobils."
Elizabeth didn't sleep the entire time, although she did spend most of the day with her grandpa's. Here she is with her other grandpa, Grandpa Pa, just chillin' while he chatted with Grandpa Dick.

Christmas Eve dinner

The guest:
The Menu:




There were also rolls and ham, but everyone knows what those look like and besides, I forgot to take pictures of them. :)

Random Christmas Pictures

The days before Christmas, I ran around cooking and cleaning and all that momish stuff. I had my camera and took a few pictures that didn't belong with any of the others, so I thought I would group them together. I really have to get cracking to get through these pictures, I it is half way through January already, and starting to get embarrassing. At least I don't leave Christmas lights up year round. And I did take down the tree. But, I can only do what I can do.

Here is Grace, Christmas Eve morning, checking out the presents under the tree, which listening to Adventures in Odyssey.
That same morning, Elizabeth laid on the floor next to Grace, making silly faces at her. I love her silly happy face.
Another day, Elizabeth laying on the floor. She enjoys rolling around, and playing with her toys. She is going to be crawling before I know it.
While Grace takes her bath, Elizabeth and I have some down time, so we enjoy making faces at ourselves in the mirror. If you have downtime, you should try making faces at yourself in the mirror. It is fun. Well, at least Elizabeth thinks so.

Here we come a caroling

The day we got home from our Oceanside trip we went Caroling with our church. We went to the senior community and walked around and sang. It was cold, but not too bad, and of course I mean by that, that most of the rest of the country could have worn shorts, but we were glad we could wear our warm clothes for once.

Elizabeth is one of those babies that is super sqeezable. She is cubby and smilley and squishy. Her Grandma Carol bought her a super cute cold weather sweatsuit and just when you thought she couldn't get any squishier, she was softer than soft and had bear paw prints on the bottom of her feet. I could die from the cuteness overload.
Grace, as always wanted to get in a picture too. I love how cute we all looked in our matching hats. :)

Christmas Eve, Part 3

The second annual Valley Baptist Church Christmas Eve service went off beautifully. There had been some concern the day before, as Gunnar had lost his voice (the second time since Thanksgiving, yikes!). I had been joking about naming this Christmas "the year of ever changing plans" as we had changed the plans a half dozen times in trying to figure out what to do. Finally, the day before Christmas eve, Gunnar decided to call in a back up so that he wouldn't have to stress about weather he would have enough voice to proceed or not. In times like these, having another pastor in the family works out really well.

It was actually super nice of my dad to pitch hit for Gunnar, as this meant they didn't get on the road to my grandma's house until after the service, so it made a long night for them. My dad did a great job on the Christmas message. There was a packed house, and it the whole night went off really well. Rick and the worship team get a shout out as well, as they (as always) did a great job. I particularly enjoyed being able to hold a candel, as who doesn't appreciate the chance to play with fire in church? Singing Silent night while holding the candle was an added plus.

To top off the great night, our church surprised us with new patio furniture, which will be great on our new patio!! We had tried to aquire some used patio furniture from my father-in-law, and it hadn't worked out. Now we know God had better plans. He always does, so I don't know why it ever suprises me. :)

Anyways, on to the pictures. Gunnar voice was doing okay to welcome everyone and wish them a merry Christmas.
See, I told you it was a packed house? Seeing as last Christmas there were maybe 20 people, this was huge!! We are so blessed by how well things are going at church.
The amazing worship team.
There's my dad. If you have ever seen him preach, you know he uses his hands a lot when he speaks.
We all held our candles and sang Silent Night
Maria and her candle.
Grace was fascinated by my mom's candle.

She was so excited to blow out our candles. I think she thought it was her birthday or something.
When they called us up to give us the furniture, I didn't realize that Grace was picking her nose in front of the church. Oh well, I have done worse. It's a pastor's kid thing, I think. Thankfully, no one got me on camera. :)
Grace got a little purse with shower gel and lotion in it. She LOVES them.
With the Hilton's before they take off. We missed Daniel, who was spending Christmas in China.
A couple family pictures by the Christmas tree.



As I mentioned, she was really into her little lotion. :)
I hope you had a Merry Christmas! I am so thankful to see how God has been working in my life this year. I am not only thankful that He sent his son on Christmas, but that we have access to God through Jesus every single day of the year. It really is the gift that keeps on giving.

Christmas Eve Part 1

We had so much fun on Christmas Eve and Christmas that I think I will break down and do a series of post. I think it should be easier to follow that way.

Christmas Eve was a busy day that started out with a visit from Grandpa Dick. He brought Grace a present, some sticker books, that are super cool and she loves. Thanks, Grandpa Dick!

For me he brought the Christmas cheer of seeing his stinky dog Linus. I say this sarcastically as Linus and I are not very close. Some would say we have a love-hate relationship. He does most of the loving, and I do most of the hating. Tess, (our dog, who I affectionately call the "cold blooded killer") on the other hand, really enjoyed meeting Linus. Ironically, he made her look rather dainty, and that is hard to do.

Here are the men and their dogs in the back yard. I really like how the rain has brought out our "seasonal grass" (ie weeds), it really makes the back yard very pretty.
Aside from the snowflakes on Grace's shirt, this picture really isn't very Christmasy, but it sure is cute. :)