Christmas Day 2013

This post has a lot of pictures. I just couldn't choose which ones I wanted to share from the huge amount I took, so I'm just throwing a whole lot of them together.

On Christmas Eve, Ten got home a little earlier than usual, so we spent the afternoon getting ready for Christmas. I think Ten and Mia watched "The Grinch" and "Frosty" while I got dinner ready. We also went to the park and quickly realized it was just way too cold and almost came straight home. Seriously, our coats weren't helping...and Ten was only wearing sandals and a hoodie...no idea why he thought that that would be a good idea.

Anyway, after our failed park attempt we came home and started getting our Santa cookies ready. We decided to go with the pre-made gingerbread men, so we could just enjoy getting to decorate them.

First cookie out of the bag...he didn't last very long.

Ten icing a cookie for Mia so that she could add her candy.

Going much better than the gingerbread house!

Our finished products...Mia's is on the top and by far the best. Ten's has two green gloves, and I'm not sure what is going on with mine. Sorry this picture didn't rotate properly.

After Mia went to bed, we tore down the train track and reorganized the apartment a little bit so that we could fit everything under the tree and still have space to move in the morning.

Like I mentioned before, everything was wrapped and ready to put under the tree. Saved us a bunch of time.

Ten did have to stay up pretty late putting together Mia's table and chairs along with this kitchen though. I don't think he got to bed until 2:00 a.m.

Mia's Minnie table and chairs.

Mia ran in first thing in the morning and went straight to Totoro. We knew this would be a big hit with her.

Followed by a rush over to her new kitchen. This things keeps her so busy, and she is picking up so many words from it. We all love this toy. Once again....sorry this didn't flip when I added it to Blogger.

Treats in her stocking from a good friend in Japan. Thank you so, so, so much.

The beginning of the unwrapping marathon.

Deciding to have a tea party with Totoro in her new socks....midway through unwrapping.

After we unwrapped a good amount of presents, we took a break for breakfast. We had this really good casserole, and you can find the recipe here. I decided to make something sweet because I thought we may have a better chance for Mia to eat some.

Of course, Mia wanted us to all eat at her new Minnie table.

Mia in her first outfit of the day. She seriously had to put on every article of new clothing that she opened.

It just isn't Christmas without a toy drum.

....Mia enjoying her afternoon tea with her new tea set.

After all of the unwrapping and cleaning, naps were much needed. We then got up and ate a really late Christmas lunch. I honestly didn't have the time to make everything that I wanted too, but it all turned out pretty good.

Tossed spinach salad, deviled eggs, rolls, spiral ham, green bean casserole, and an apple pie. Notice that we actually had serving dishes this year. Thanks Ten for the Christmas presents...and thanks mom for the matching dish set!!

My plate...so full we had to skip the pie. We also had baked potatoes, and I love putting salsa on mine. Not very traditional for Christmas, but very good.

So, that is a glimpse of our Christmas morning. I was so exhausted once the 26th rolled around. Anyway, now just to get the New Year's post up!

Lead Up to Christmas

I started this blog post on Christmas Eve, and I'm just now getting the time to sit down to finish it. We had a great Christmas and week or so leading up to Christmas. I got to watch my all time favorite Christmas movie (A Smoky Mountain Christmas), the presents were wrapped well in advance, and we decided to keep Christmas dinner simple. There really wasn't a whole lot to worry about leading up to the big day. Now, from the 25th on....things have been crazy...trying to reassemble the apartment and figure out how we will survive with the limited space that we have. As I tell Ten, we will make it work because we have to.

Anyway, here is what we have been doing leading up to Christmas.

Mia got a couple of new pairs of pajamas. She has refused to sleep in them in the past, but now she loves PJs. Here she is in her Christmas PJs, my shoes, and a butterfly wand. Outfit coordinated by her. 

Also, Mia hasn't really been interested in food recently unless we connect it to something that she loves. For example, she loves broccoli because it is a Totoro tree. So, I decided to try my hand at my first bento for her. This took me seriously like all of 5 minutes, so it obviously could have been a little bit better. However, I knew she wouldn't care if it wasn't perfect.

Mikan, grapes, steamed broccoli, popcorn chicken, and Anpanman made from nori, carrots, cheese, and ketchup.

In more Christmasy related news, on the 22nd we took Mia to see Yo Gabba Gabba! It was a holiday themed version, and we had a great time. I think Mia was slightly confused because Muno was there on stage...dancing...in person. The adults especially loved when Biz Markie came out and sang pieces from "Just a Friend." Biz Markie definitely looks pretty old in real life, but it was really fun. 

DJ Lance Rock and the Yo Gabba Gabba cast.

Christmas background while singing a lot of their typical songs from the show.

Mia and Ten dancing along to the songs.

Group picture...okay here Mia is definitely looking like she is having a good time. I'm glad we got the chance to take her.

Mia snacking on a sucker during intermission. I'm not going to lie....we brought in snacks and some juice boxes for Mia...and I'm glad we did because $12 for popcorn was a ridiculous amount of money to pay.

After the show, we went straight home and started to cook some spaghetti. It was only 7:00, but we were so tired. Yo Gabba Gabba was kind of like being in a crazy toddler rave where the DJ is constantly telling you to dance, wiggle, stop, etc....lots of work....haha

In other news, Ten came home one night after work with two little cakes for me and Mia. Very cute and thoughtful of him...even though I am trying super hard to watch my weight...sigh....never ending battle right there.

Me and Mia actually split one of these and the other she has been eating a little bit after lunch each day...and I mean a very little bit. We don't want her to have too many sweets.

Finally, Mia had been feeling a little bit under the weather a few days before Christmas, so we we had to cancel all play dates. We didn't want to get any other kids sick over the holidays...and we didn't want her to get any worse before Christmas. We were getting a little stir crazy, so one day we went out and got things to make a gingerbread house. Wow, it was a lot of work....and I'm surprised any candy actually remained on the house. Mia was eating the icing off of it faster than I was replacing it....haha. However, here are some of the photos of the event.

Getting ready to decorate.

Looking at the icing and deciding if she should taste test it.

After the taste testing...I'm guessing it was heavenly.

Looking proud of the house and mess that we made.

Finally, pictures of our house in all of its glory. I hope to have our Christmas Day pictures up sometime this week. I'm not going to worry about rushing to get all done before New Year's. 

Thanksgiving/Christmas Mash Up

I know that this post is almost a month too late, but I still wanted to get some of our pictures up from Thanksgiving. Things here have been going at a slow pace, but my seriously tired out computer needs to be replaced...so little blogging gets to happen.

Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving. We just spent a quiet day at home. First thing in the morning, we all woke up and wanted something quick to eat. I wasn't wanting to make anything too big for breakfast, so I had grabbed a box of donuts the night before. I think Mia decided on a chocolate, Ten had the kind with the cinnamon and powdered sugar, and I had a frosted doughnut. Yummm....Very high calorie, but hey...these are the holidays after all. 

Thanksgiving Breakfast: This is the first time we have eaten donuts all year...so it was a nice little morning treat.

Ten and Mia decided that they would head to the park for a little while after breakfast so that I could work on dinner/lunch in peace. They actually ended up going to the playroom in our building because it was just way too cold outside. As soon as they came inside, they were both wanting to eat. I kind of expected this, so I had laid out a nice little snack platter. Most of this was prepared the night before, so all I had to do was unwrap it and put it on the table. Nice and easy.

Thanksgiving snacks to hold everyone over until lunchtime. We had lots of veggies, pickles, olives, cheese, crackers, homemade dill dip, pumpernickel bread, feta hummus, and crackers. Of course all of the leftovers were thrown into salads and things throughout the week, so though it look like a lot...nothing went to waste.

For the rest of the morning, we sat around and played with toys while the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade played in the background. I was seriously having the best day. It has been like 6 years since I was able to watch the parade, so I was super excited to see all of the floats and performers. Mia was pretty happy to see the Sesame Street float, and it was Ten's first time really watching the parade. 

Later in the afternoon, maybe around 2:00, we decided to have Thanksgiving dinner. Mia had just woken up from her nap, and we don't like to eat that much food....quantity wise...at night...so we decided it was time. Here is a pic of the food....btw...Mia was done eating after about 15 minutes....so hours of cooking....for 15 minutes...hahaha. It was good though.

Our dinner. Let's see we had oven toasted Hawaiian rolls, cranberry sauce, homemade green bean casserole, homemade sweet potatoes, the turkey of course, homemade mashed potatoes, corn, homemade stuffing, turkey gravy, and homemade pumpkin pie. The pie turned out really good this year, and Mia helped make it...which was a lot of fun...and definitely a lot more work. 

My plate....Ten really loaded it up...haha. Needless to say I was beyond done after this.

Needless to say, we had lots of leftovers. No problem though because we had lots of sandwiches, a turkey quiche one day, potato pancakes for breakfast, stuffed mushrooms, and more. We basically used every last bit of the food. We did have to throw out a little bit of turkey, but we sure did try to use up as much as we could.

That night, Ten and I stayed up for hours and got out all of the Christmas decorations. We first cleaned the apartment really well and then put together the tree, tested the lights, put on the decorations, set up our Christmas train, and got the Advent calendar ready to go....seriously it took us like 4 hours to do everything. We wanted it to look special for Mia when she woke up though, so it was all worth it.

Our Christmas tree with the Advent books underneath.

A close up of the basket and books.

Also, in case you are curious, here are the books that we chose to use for the Advent Calendar. We tried to get a good mix of fun, Christmas spirit, books that Mia will grow into, and things that she is interested in right now. So, far it has been a big success. She calls these her Ho Ho books and looks forward to opening one each morning.

Sorry that it didn't rotate properly...I don't know why that happens sometimes.

...and again. Dream Snow by Eric Carle has turned out to be our favorite book so far. It is such a cute and simple story.

Here are also a few glimpses of things that we put up in our apartment. It is hard to decorate when you use every inch of living space that you have, but we did our best that is for sure.

Santa, Yankee Candle that smells like a Christmas tree, and some pine cones and cinnamon sticks.

Santa #2 with our little nativity scene....and our bread in the background.

Mia's stocking and our Santa picture....a little plain...but will do for this year.

Our ginormous train going around the Christmas tree.

Mia opening her first book.

Finally, I leave you with a family picture. We are all wearing red by accident...fyi...haha.