Christmas, Part Two (with pictures this time!)

Note: If you haven't read the post below, 'part one', start there:)

Good Morning, Sunshine:)!

Some of my favourite decorations

Our big, cheesy gold star:) I love it!

Alright, so continuing on from Christmas Eve...I promise I won't give you another minute-by-minute playback, just more of a broad overview this time:)

The tree,all lit up!

Our mantle decorations

All lit up, so warm and cozy!

We really and truly had an INCREDIBLE Christmas this year! Lyndon and I both had almost two weeks off from work, and it was wonderful. We had a great time on Christmas Eve with Lyndon's parents, opening gifts, visiting, and having a yummy Christmas dinner. I am a total geek and let the battery on my camera die, so we don't even have any pictures of the evening! It was really special, and we got wonderful gifts from 'Oma and Opa':) Kallie got THREE wooden food/cooking sets (among other things...forget only-children being spoiled, it's only-grandchildren!;) from them, and she absolutely loves the toys! Lyndon and I were also very spoiled by his parents:) We had an awesome Christmas morning just the three of us, and a blast celebrating with Lyndon's family later in the day. Kallie was so happy to spend time with her cousins, who totally doted on her:)

Christmas Morning: Fun dress up shoes and necklace from Grandma and Grandpa

I just love her little feet:)

Once she got ahold of this toy, I could NOT get a decent picture! She wouldn't put it down!

Having LOTS of fun with the family:)!!

On boxing day we headed to Winnipeg to spend the week with my family. It was a bit of an adventure getting there (freezing rain, broken windshield wiper, truck won't start...) but we got there in one piece! We had a delicious Christmas dinner with my parents and sister, and then did our gift opening with them. We were ridiculously spoiled, and one of the best gifts we received was bedroom furniture for Kallie! She has not had a dresser EVER, and my parents got her a beautiful dresser and bedside table! So, with those, Kallie's room is totally finished, and I promise I will get pictures up soon so that people actually know what ONE bedroom in our house looks like:)!

So happy to see Grandma and Grandpa again!

It was so amazing to just all be together, relaxing and enjoying each other's company:) Kallie got extremely attached to Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Dana pretty quickly, and is still asking on a daily basis where they are:) Our week in Winnipeg was one of the best times ever!!! We started the weekend by going to one of my good friend's weddings, which was very special to witness. My parents were incredible and gracious, and took care of Kallie pretty much the whole time (I think I maybe changed 2 diapers while I was there!), and every night! We truly got a break, and spent every night out visiting with our friends! It was like being in college again! And we also got lots of quality time with my family (although I'm pretty sure as long as Kallie was there they weren't TOO concerned about our whereabouts;)~ Lyndon and I also got some time together, just the two of us, which we enjoyed:) When we came home, we were completely refreshed and ready (somewhat) to face reality. Thank you mom and dad SO SO SO much for giving us such an incredible vacation, it meant more to us than you could know!!!

Fun times with Grandpa!

Now that we're home, life is pretty much back to normal, we've had some really fun get-togethers with our friends (I'm apparently not coming out of 'party mode' anytime soon!), and our Christmas tree is still up! As I mentioned in the other post, it's a REAL tree, so we're stretching it a bit, but I just haven't had the time or energy to take it down! This weekend, it's DEFINITELY happening though:) Good-bye Christmas:(

This is how she says 'cheese':) I love how chubby her little face still is!
Her hair is ready for a 'real' ponytail, I love it!

Kallie turned 20 months old this week...only 4 short months until I have a two-year-old, I don't know how that happened!! She's changing SO much, I'll do a post about her (as the title of the blog IS her after all:) in the future...at this point, I'm just thankful to have our Christmas post done before the end of January!!! Hope this month is treating you all well!!!

Christmas, Part One

OK, so I wrote this big, long Christmas post BEFORE Christmas, and for some reason, didn't post it! So, I'm going to post it now (imagine reading this on the 24th of December), and then I will do 'Christmas, Part Two' after, with how the rest of our Christmas went, and pictures! I do apologize for the long-winded-ness, and preachy-ness of this post, I almost wasn't going to post it b/c I've simmered down a bit since then, but I still do feel passionately about it...so I'm putting it out there and letting the chips fall where they may:) Enjoy:)

I love this time of year! I love Christmas! I love so many things about it, the family and friends, the gatherings, the celebrations, the warmth and beauty of the decorations, the music, and most of all celebrating the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Since having Kallie, Christmas really has become much more meaningful to me, as both years now, I have been so deep in thought about what Christmas really means (beyond the obvious mentioned above:), how we show/experience that, and how it's impacting our child. And will our future children. It's so exciting and special to start our own family traditions, and get a glimpse into the future as our family grows and this time is special to each of us. As each year passes, and our children (we still only have Kallie and none on the way...just to clarify...but at some point, there will be more than one:) get older, I'm sure the traditions will increase, but these are just a few we've started now:
Reading the Christmas Story out of the Bible on Christmas morning.
Buying at least one gift (hopefully this will increase) out of the World Vision catalog for a child, family or community in need. My hope in the future would actually be to cut way back on our gift giving here (not that we've gone overboard), so that we're able to give more money in that way.
Having the 'wife-saver's' breakfast on Christmas morning. It's what my mom has made every year for as long as I can remember, and I'm carrying on the tradition. It's delicious and the taste and smell are a big part of Christmas for me:)!
Donating food to a local food bank.

I think that's all we have so far:) Lyndon and I have been talking a lot about Christmas and what we want it to mean to our family. We've been sitting back, watching people kinda go crazy...buying a zillion gifts, being totally stressed out, being exhausted from making meals/ entertaining/ shopping/etc., going into debt to buy things no one really needs...it's really been hard to see what Christmas has become in our society. And so we've decided to make a conscious effort to have Christmas be a special, peaceful, meaningful, relaxing, enjoyable holiday in our family. One truly about giving. I don't want my children growing up thinking Christmas is just a time to rake in the loot. Of course they're going to be excited for and enjoy opening gifts, but I also want them to feel that way about other aspects of Christmas. It's a choice we're making, and I refuse to get caught up in the tide of craziness that the holiday time seems to bring. It really makes me sad when I hear people complaining about this time of year, it's not suppsed to be something dreaded, but anticipated and enjoyed! Everything we do is a choice and we create our own situations. My prayer is that people are able to sit back and remember why we celebrate Christmas, and enjoy it from that perspective. This is a miraculous time of year!

Ok, ok, enough on the soapbox...I just really needed to get that out!!! Christmas this year has been wonderful for us! We have a beautiful, real tree that Lyndon's parent's chopped down for us, and believe it or not, out of five Christmases as a married couple, this is only our second tree! We've moved so much that we've never really decorated. So I had an absolute blast decorating this year and have just loved the warmth it brings to our house:)

So far, we've had one family gathering, with the Wagenaar side, and we hosted it at our house! I was talking with Lyndon's mom about it, and it's funny, b/c she couldn't believe it was HER SON (how could he be that grown up) hosting the family dinner, and I said, 'having a child doesn't make you feel totally grown up, but hosting the family dinner...that's HUGE! We really are adults now:)!' It was a great evening, we did a potluck, and the food was amazing! Lyndon made an incredible lasagna, a Jamie Oliver recipe of course, and if you're looking for an awesome recipe, you can find it HERE. Everyone was raving about it:)

Today is our first day OFF FROM WORK! Hooray! And Lyndon's mom gave us an incredible gift, she took Kallie for a sleepover yesterday! So we got to sleep in together, and are lounging this morning! This evening we'll celebrate with just Lyndon's parents, having dinner and opening gifts there, and then going to the Christmas Eve service at their church (the church Lyndon grew up in). Tomorrow we're having Christmas morning together, just the three of us, and I'm so excited for it. It will be such a relaxing time, special time. And fun to see Kallie open her gifts! So far, any she's had to open, she doesn't even try, she just gives it to us and says 'open, open please' over and over until she can see what's inside:) My mom sent down some of our gifts from my family, so we'll have some gift-opening to do:) And then we spend the rest of the day with Lyndon's mom's side of the family, at his Oma and Opa's house, which will be great, b/c there are lots of kids, and just lots of people in general!! Having never lived in the same city as my extended family, this is a pretty amazing experience for me, having so much family to celebrate with! And then of course, we get to celebrate Christmas with my family as well, and see lots of my friends soon, which I'm SO EXCITED for!!!

Well, I'm pretty sure this is one of the longest posts I've ever done, apparently I'm very passionate (and detial oriented) about Christmas!!! I won't be posting until sometime in January when all the holidays are over, so may you all have an incredibly blessed Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!! God Bless!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I know both of those greetings are a little late, but better late than never:)! I have lots of pictures to post from Christmas, and lots to write about, but we just got home Friday night, and I start daycare tomorrow, so my priority right now is getting unpacked and my house in order to start work! We had an absolutely amazing Christmas and New Year's though, we spent time with Lyndon's family, my family, and lots of our friends. It was truly an incredible time for us, and we're so thankful for it! I hope your holidays were as wonderful, and once life settles down, I will get some pictures (and videos) up!