Christmas Chaos

In the weeks and days leading up to Christmas this year I was so sure this would be the best Christmas ever. Finley is at that great age where he gets excited about Christmas (trees, snowmen, baby Jesus) without expecting or demanding presents. The decorations were up, the house was clean! I was also totally on top of my Christmas shopping - I finished a week ahead of time and had all the presents wrapped about the same time too. This was going to be a relaxing stress free holiday for me. I was convinced.

WRONG!

The few days leading up to Christmas should have given me a clue. Finley all of the sudden stopped napping well. He was cranky, tired, and I wasn't getting any breaks. I wasn't panicking though because I was so on top of 'Christmas' that I didn't have things that I needed to get done during his usual nap time.

Well it turns out that the cause of his missed naps and crankiness was the beginning of a stomach bug. A bug that infected 7 people and counting. Starting on Christmas Eve we started dropping like flies. It was hard for me to be excited about Christmas and really enjoy it when we were all feeling so yucky. So in this post about our Christmas, please excuse my lack of enthusiasm. It's not that I don't love Christmas - I do, and am forever grateful for the birth of our Savior. But this year I was so ready for Christmas to be over, and everyone to be better.

On Christmas Eve we traveled to Chapel Hill to celebrate with my family.

Auntie MEsheelll as Finley likes to call her was able to take a few days off from Stomp to come and see everyone.

When we got there we opened what seemed like a million presents!

We are so spoiled it is ridiculous.

Some of the highlights included tickle me Elmo (baby edition), Play dough, Legos, snow boots, and an Elmo sweatshirt.

Un Don (Uncle Donovan) was also enjoying Finley's gifts.

And from here on out I am pretty sure Elmo will make an appearance in every picture.
Thanks Mimi!

There was never any doubt who would be the center of attention this Christmas.

It was really nice to spend time with Family even if it was for just one day.

We ended up having 21 people for Christmas Eve dinner! Huge crowd including the entire Dorrance Family. All of my Uncles and Aunts and their spouses/families. My poor mom, I don't know how she does it.


Onto Christmas morning back at our house. Finley was up early and raring to go. Don't you just love his Christmas PJs? Thanks Grammie and Abuelo!

Seeing all the gifts under the tree makes me realize how overboard we went. We are going to have to do something about that next year!

Finley's big Christmas present was a little table and chairs just his size.

He calls them Fee fees Chairs.

As soon as he saw it he hopped right up and started coloring.

Another fun gift from dad was this mini soccer goal. Finley had so much fun shooting on it as soon as he came down the stairs. Look at that form and ball placement! This kid is going pro. I can feel it.

It was fun to see Finley open his own stocking this year all by himself.

The morning wouldn't be complete without breaking into some of our presents and testing them out.

There were some practical gifts too - like this backpack for when Finley starts Preschool next week. NEXT WEEK!! AHHH! Ok that is another post for another day.

Grammie and Abuelo joined us Christmas day for gifts, brunch, and even came back out in the snow to bring us dinner.

Here is Finley's big gift from Grammie and Abuelo - a tool bench.

He loves pretending to work just like his dada.

(Not that David pretends to work, you know what I mean)

Luckily on the day after Christmas, when David and I were at our lowest point, Finley had plenty of toys to keep him occupied. That and lots of Elmo Dvds from Mimi. I am pretty sure he watched more TV in that one day than in his in entire life to date. Oh well, what can you do?

The Silver lining in our Christmas was that even though we were down and out for a few days one of our friends who has had their daughter in the hospital under going treatment since September was able to go home and spend Christmas at home instead of in the hospital. Even when I think things are horrible, they could always be so much harder.
I am grateful that we are all once again healthy and happy.

Snowed In!

I know.

It doesn't seem right to skip over my usual Christmas post and move on to talk about the snow, but we all had the stomach bug all weekend and I just can't bring myself to write about our Christmas right now...maybe in a few days...so until then I will post about our latest snow adventure!

This is the first time that I can remember NC ever getting snow on Christmas! But we did and we got a lot! I think the totals were around 6 inches. Enough to cancel church and keep us house bound for a few days. We finally started to feel better this morning so we decided to bundle up and get some fresh air. Finley was sporting his new hat and boots that he got for Christmas!

This kid could be in a magazine!

He was so funny stomping around in the snow.
It took him a little while to get use to maneuvering in his new boots.

But at least it kept his feet warm and dry!

This wasn't Finley's first snow, but it was his first time sledding!
Perfect timing too because we just got this new sled from Mimi for Christmas! YAY!

Finley was a little nervous at first, but he seem to have fun after he got the hang of it.

I ended up having to use my feet to prevent us from hitting the house!

Dad even got in on the fun too (one of the perks when you decide to work from home for the day - your break is sledding in the snow!).

Ta Dah!

Finley always looks so scared at the end of the ride, but I promise we weren't torturing him.

It was so nice to get outside today and breath in the fresh cool air after being sick and house bound for two days straight. Thank the Lord we are all starting to feel better!

Trimming the Tree

This past Monday night for FHE we decided it was time to get in the spirit of the season and go out and get a tree. Every year we always buy a real tree to decorate in our home. I just love the smell that it brings!

Well I am pretty sure that we picked the absolute coldest night of the year to go and pick out our tree! So time to bundle up! Luckily it didn't take us very long to pick out a tree. After years of tree shopping with my dad, the master of efficiency, we were in and out in under 20 minutes.

Finley enjoyed running between the rows of trees and pointing to each one saying SheeShee Tree (Christmas Tree).

Finley also enjoyed breaking in his new Timberland coat from Auntie Michelle.
What a little man.

And here are the boys in front of our tree.

And of course our home would not be complete without a matching fresh Christmas Wreath on the door.

After Finley went to bed we put the lights on the tree.

I always look at the tree at this point and say, let's not put any ornaments on, it looks so good with just the lights! Maybe one year I will stick to my guns.

The following evening (yes it takes us several days to trim our tree) we started to put the ornaments up! I think Finley was a little confused by this because during the day he launched a soccer ball into the branches of the tree and then later I caught him trying to decorate the tree with a tea pot. I guess he thought all of his favorite things should go on the tree.

I will admit the tree did look more complete with all the ornaments on it.

So far this season (Fin's second Christmas) has been much more enjoyable than the first one. It is fun to teach Finley about Christmas and baby Jesus being born.

He loves dancing to Christmas music, pointing at the lights and trees, talking about snowmen, reading the scriptures on our advent calendar, and kissing the baby Jesus in our Nativity set.

I hope we can keep our focus on the Savior through all the commercialism out there.

It is nice right now that Finley is at the age where he has no concept of gifts, no expectations of presents or candy, and he hates Santa Claus. Finley just knows that there is a baby Jesus who was born in a manager and that He came to earth because he loves us.

Shout out to Uchtdorf - We are trying to keep it simple.