Christmas Day

Our Christmas started out pretty dramatically.  Stacy, Grandma and Grandpa Wyland were supposed to fly in from Arizona on Christmas Eve afternoon.  Their plane got delayed twice and then eventually cancelled until the next day.  The major problem was that they were flying out of a small airport with only one airline.  Had they been at the Phoenix airport, they probably would have been able to just jump on another flight.  Unfortunately that wasn't the case and they were a bit stranded out there with not much to do.  Long story short, with about 4 cell phones and 2 computers working on the problem, they were able to get a flight out of Phoenix instead and arrived in Portland around 4:30 on Christmas Day.  Our day ended up being a little longer than usual but it was still a great day and they made it.

On Christmas Eve, Megan was very excited to leave cookies that we made earlier in the day and milk for Santa. In fact the first thing she said when she woke up Christmas Day was, "Santa eat his cookies all?"

As was tradition in our house growing up, Megan picked a spot to lay her stocking and for Santa to leave all of her presents.

"Right here Santa!"

Megan woke up around 5:00 a.m. on Christmas Day but we had her go back to sleep, and then we couldn't go back to sleep.  So we were up and getting things ready.  Around 6:30 or so she woke up again and we let her get up.  She wanted to know if Santa had come yet and was very excited when I told her he had.  Santa ate some of his cookies and milk which Megan thought was pretty cool.  He also left a note.  He said Rudolph was wondering if she went potty on the potty chair yet and she immediately said, "No."

Megan's loot from Santa

Santa left a candy cane trail from her room to all of her presents.

Picking up the candy canes and trying to peek.

At this point she still hadn't seen all of her presents, she was just concerned with all of the candy canes on the floor.

He at the cookie!

Megan picked up the letter and went and put it on the refrigerator before anyone could even read it to her.  I guess she thought it was something to save!

One of the many facial expressions of the day.

This video is a little long but it is good all the way through!  She just makes us laugh all the time with the things she says.

Once she got through all of her Santa presents she got to open ones from under the tree.  She got a Barney doll and video from Grandpa and Grandma T.  She loved it!

She got a bunch of clothes from Mom and Dad, which she ended up being more interested in than I thought she would be.

Daddy and Megan went out to the garage to get something to help open one of Megan's toys which I didn't think anything of.  Then Megan walked in with a very familiar jewelry store bag!  Josh and I made a deal that we wouldn't get each other anything for Christmas this year, we had both bought ourselves some things we wanted so we didn't feel the need.  Well, he didn't hold up to his end of the bargain!  It was a very pretty ring for my right hand that he picked out all by himself.  It's being sized right now!

Once Megan had a nap, we made our way over to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We waited for Stacy and the grandparents to arrive and we sat down for dinner which of course was really, really good.  After cleaning up a bit, we started opening presents.  Megan was a little helper Santa and handed out presents to everyone.

Megan's first gift was from Tami and Devin.  It was a dollhouse and she was VERY excited!

She got a really soft stuffed puppy dog from Grandma and Grandpa Wyland.

Giving hugs for her present.

A jump rope from Gamma and Papa

Putting together her dollhouse with Papa.  Once she opened it, she wasn't very interested in anything else going on.

Cutest present ever!

All of the girls got scarves from Gamma that she knitted herself.

I personally think I had the best Christmas ever.  My first gift was a DVD with pictures from our wedding, and then a framed wedding picture and THEN a scrapbook with all of my wedding pictures!  If you know me, you probably know that I was not very happy with my wedding pictures.  So unhappy that they are still at this time in the proof album, untouched and all unprinted.  I still find it interesting that the photographer has never called to get it back, probably because he knows I wasn't happy.  I won't get into all of the details right now but long story short, it made me more sad than anything else to look at the pictures because they did not reflect the feeling or anything else of our wedding.  I never would have been able to put them in an album myself because I have so much animosity and sadness over the whole thing.  I had no idea how to make them look beautiful. Tami knew this and took it upon herself to create something I never would have been able to.  She has such a talent for it and is so creative.  It turned out beautiful, amazing and something to be proud of.  I started crying big time when I saw the album and told her that because of it, I wouldn't be embarassed anymore to show people our wedding pictures.  It really is wonderful.  So next time you're over, ask to see my wedding pictures!

I had a huge box under the tree that I had no idea what it could have been.  Once I had opened all of Tami's gifts and the big box was brought to me, I had sort of an idea.  My mom had put my wedding dress in a preservation box.  This is something else that I'm not sure if I ever would have gotten around to!  It's been hanging in one of my mom's closets ever since the wedding almost 4 years ago.  It was great to see it again and I am so thankful that it is now taken care of and will be safe for years to come. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that.

Thank you everyone for such a great and thoughtful Christmas.  It meant so much to me and I'll have reminders of it all over my house now.

Visit With Santa

I was a major procrastinator this year.  The past few years, we've gone early in the season and early in the day to see Santa and benefited from short lines.  Well, not this year.  We didn't go until this Monday and even at noon, the line was about 2 hours long.  Megan did quite a good job of waiting, there were moments I didn't think we were going to make it though.  And after all of that waiting, there was still no guarantee that she would actually sit on his lap.  I let her watch the kids ahead of us go in an effort to warm her up. She was excited saying, "My next!"  Well, when we were told to go forward, she was all about waving to him but as soon as I told her to go sit on his lap she starting backing up saying, "No, no, no, no."  Fortunately that's when the seasoned Santa brought out the candy canes and she let me put her on his lap.  She took a great picture and even told him what she wanted for Christmas - "Toys." ~Duh!

They've had the same Santa at Washington Square since Megan was born and he's by far the most realistic Santa I've ever seen.  He's also really nice and good with Megan.  She will wave at him 45 million times walking by him in the mall and he will always wave and blow kisses back to her.

Civil War Game

Due to Holly and Ryan's misfortune that this year's Civil War game was being played on a Thursday night, we got to buy their tickets and go ourselves!  I gave the tickets to Josh for his birthday.  The game was so fun and we are so thankful we were able to go.  It was Josh's first live Duck game and a reminder of my past since I was lucky enough to go to the last Rose Bowl with Holly and her mom.  Now they are headed there again and Devin, Tami, Stacy and Kelly are all going to Pasadena this time.

The seats were amazing (minus the two obnoxious drunk kids sitting next to me) and we were able to see everything.  The bench was right in front of us.  We got to see how the team congratulated LeGarrette Blount after he was able to play AND score a touchdown and of course their celebration when they realized that the game was over and it was theirs! So fun!

This was the view from our seats with no zooming in.

The celebration!

Roller Skating for Lesly

On December 1st we went to a fundraiser for Lesly at Oaks Park.  From the start of planning to the end of the evening, they raised about $7000!  That is such a huge blessing given their current circumstances.  They had to leave for Texas shortly after the fundraiser and I'm sure the money came in very handy for travel expenses.  Thank you to all of my friends that showed up in support.  It was so nice to have you there.  In addition to the fundraising, Megan had her first opportunity to roller skate which she was so excited for days in advance.  And she did amazingly well!  She could skate all by herself and pretty much only fell when she was holding on to us.  She was so proud of herself too.

We were just about to call it a night when we heard them announce the Hokey Pokey.  Aunt Tami taught it to Megan and she loves it.  I completely forgot it was a skating rink thing.  As soon as they started the music she lit up.  She did really well and was turning around on her skates and everything.  She's so coordinated!

Starting to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Megan was very excited when we got the Christmas decorations out.  She helped hang the stockings and decorate the tree. We also found random ornaments hanging from doorknobs.  She is very excited for Santa to come but doesn't want to see him while he does it which I guess is good.

Token smile for mom.

We finally got the dogs to stay and look at the camera (who look completely tortured in this picture) and then Megan looks away.  I guess that's how it goes.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We headed up to the same Christmas Tree farm as we do every year.  Again - he sells his trees for only $10!  Can't beat that.  This may be his last year though so we may need to find a new place next year.  Most if not all of his trees were huge so we were told to cut it wherever we needed which ended up being about halfway up the tree.  These trees would have been perfect for our house growing up but not our little tiny house now.  I also should mention that it was in the teens when we went out for a tree.  We didn't know if or when the freezing weather would end so we did what we had to do.  Wow was it cold.

Here is Megan and Daddy starting the hunt.

After walking around quite a bit we realized we weren't going to find a small tree or a perfect tree so we settled a bit and found this one.  Josh now calls it our Charlie Brown tree.  It's not that bad.....

No kneeling necessary.

Megan found a tree just her size.

On the way back up the hill.