A Jolly Holiday

Merry Christmas! 

Only slightly belated. We are a little behind on updating our blog for two main reasons:

1) Finley and I were sick on Christmas (this makes 2 out of his 3 Christmases that we have been sick - I blame it on stress and 'over doing it')

2) We started potty training today! (more on that later)

So back to Christmas...

This year David and I gave each other a joint gift (which I loved doing! I have such a hard time shopping for him). We treated ourselves to a new DSLR camera! 

At first I was a little hesitant with the price and all, but I think I am enjoying this gift even more than David! I find myself taking way more pictures than I ever did before. And after almost every picture I take I am amazed at the quality! I find myself saying "wow I am a really good photographer" a lot :). 

Or maybe it is just the camera. 

So with this new present you will find this post over loaded with pictures! High quality pictures! 

Of course we had to take a few glamour shots with the new camera. 

I just love this one! (photo credit: DH). 

And this is David's blue steel face (photo credit: NH). 

A little artistic shot (photo credit: DH). 

Christmas Eve!

For the first time ever my mom let me host Christmas Eve dinner! We normally go to my mom's house, and she is usually hosting all my dad's brothers and sisters, but this year they all went down to SC leaving room to change things up a bit this year. We hosted my whole family, Mishay, and my Uncle Michael for dinner. 

We cooked pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus and bread. 

Everything turned out great and we had left overs too (my biggest concern is always running out of food!). 

It was nice to have such a small intimate crowd. 

And give my mom a bit of a break. Normally she ends up hosting 4 big meals back to back!

We were lucky enough to have Michelle and Mishay down for more than just a day since my sister left STOMP. It was so great visiting with everyone!

Me and my dad

My mom made her famous Pavlova cake (baked meringue with strawberries and whipped cream). 

We ate the entire thing! It was that amazing.

My sister Michelle and Me

The siblings: Donovan, Michelle, and me.

Finley and Mimi (my mom)

Mishay and Michelle

Like I said I took a lot more photos than normal!

I love having some recent family shots. 

We so rarely take pictures with my side of the family. 

After dinner and dessert we watched some of the new bible videos that our church put out on the birth of the Savior. They are so great! If you have checked them out yet please do so here. 

Then we let Finley open a few Christmas Eve presents. 

Including some adorable reindeer jammies from Grammie & Abuelo.

Finley was really excited about putting out food for Santa and the Reindeer. 

Although he was concerned the next morning when the food was gone. 

I don't think he quite understood the concept. 

Beautiful Christmas cookies provide by Carrie Bigger. (We forgot to bake some!)

Christmas Day!

The morning started off with a bang opening our stockings and discovering the partially eaten cookies. 

Finley enjoyed opening his own stocking this year. 

And lining up everything that came out. 

I am sure he got that OCD trait from me. 

We spent the morning at home opening presents. 

Finley's big gift from us was a potty! 

How exciting! Ha ha ha. 

He was showered with board games, book, clothes, Lego's, and more!

After spending the morning at home we traveled to Chapel Hill to attend church with my parents in my old ward. They don't meet until 11 am so it worked perfectly with our laid back morning at home. It was so nice to visit and see familiar faces in my home ward. I hardly ever get to go there anymore!

After church we headed back to Mimi and Pop Pops for our favorite meal - brunch! 

We gorged ourselves on breakfast potatoes, egg burritos, and fruit. So yummy. 

Pretty soon it was time for another round of presents. 

No matter how hard I try, my mom still does stockings for us every year. David got this awesome pig in his stocking that shoots out balls. It was hilarious, but also dangerous. That thing could put your eye out!

Donovan modeling his cow neck scarf?

Finley loving on his grandparents. 

Finley's big gift from Mimi and Pop Pop - a fire station! 

(Basically a doll house for boys). He just loves it though and spends hours playing with it. 

A huge surprise gift from my parents was this hilarious Nemo remote controlled fish. 

Helium keeps it afloat and you have a controller to make it 'swim' all around the room. 

My parents have the perfect ceiling for this toy. 

My dad spent something like 4 hours putting it together and getting it to work. 

That is love right there. Thanks Pop Pop for all your hard work! It was a hit!

And it was at this point in the day that I really started feeling like crap and stopped taking pictures. 

But we did have a delicious dinner consisting of mouth watering beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes, and vegetables. 

David and I also made a trifle for dessert and were able to enjoy a quick bowl before calling it a night. 

We had such a wonderful and quite/tame Christmas compared to normal. It was very nice and relaxing. It was also so much fun spending time with family and friends. If only we hadn't gotten sick at the end of it! But it has been nice to have so many new things to keep us entertained while we have been house bound. 

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well! 

The Sweet Life

Do you have your own little elf helping you get your holiday chores done? 

I do!  

This past week we have been baking and making all sorts of fun sweets!

Our first project was making gingerbread houses with the Nelsons. Little did the Nelsons know that the Harris' use to have intense gingerbread house contests before Finley came along. 

Finley must have inherited his decorating gene from me!

And maybe my sweet tooth too. 

He had a blast putting things on 'our' house and then he began to eat it too. 

I think the icing was what drew him in. 

Here is our joint project. Complete with sidewalk, pool, and shrubs. 

David was left to his own devices as he got to make a house all by himself. 

I think he was a little too intense for the surrounding crowd. 

He used his old famous technique of melting jolly ranchers to make glass windows. 

But there is no denying his talent! 

The finished project was a masterpiece. 

And it is now being proudly displayed as the centerpiece of our dining room table.  

I was also in charge of Finley's Christmas party at preschool this past week. 

We put together goodie bags for his friends and made these reindeer or Rudolph cookies. 

I think they turned out really cute and they were pretty easy to make. 

We have been devouring sweets all week long now! 

Finley expects to get something sweet after every meal. 

He will be in for a rude awaking after the holidays are over. 

Let's just hope that we don't develop any cavities! 

Can You Feel It?

Are you starting to feel the Christmas spirit as much as I am? 

Is it the crisp air? The holiday music? 

Or is it the gift shopping/giving that has already begun that is getting me into the mood? 

I think it is a little bit of everything. 

Here are a few things we have been doing to get into the spirit.

Decorating:

This year we got things started a little bit earlier than normal. 

By November 28th we had purchased our tree and put it up!

I don't usually start decorating until the first week in December, but a friend convinced me that putting up lights and finding a tree in the warmer weather was way better than doing it in the freezing cold!

We also discovered how much easier it is to put up a tree if we leave it wrapped up!

This picture cracks me up. After David had tightened the screws and got the tree in place he proudly announced "It's done". Uh...not quite.

Over the next few days we put lights and ornaments on the tree with Christmas music in the background. 

Finley is really having a blast getting ready for Christmas this year. 

He keeps asking when Christmas is and has a hundred questions about Santa!

It is so much fun to see him get so excited! 

He keeps walking around the house singing "It's almost Christmas". 

The final product. 

Tree Lighting Ceremony: 

We also decided to go to the Greensboro tree lightning ceremony in downtown Greensboro. 

This was the first year we had ever gone. Man was it packed! 

Here is the tree before...

and after! 

Finley's expression after seeing the tree light up was priceless! He was really getting into the music that was played all around downtown. He didn't want to leave!

There was all kinds of fun things to do downtown. 

There was even some fake snow! 

We had to drag poor Finley home kicking and screaming because it was getting a tad too late for him!

Christmas Parade: 

Another first this year was attending the Christmas parade. 

We went with some friends who luckily got there early to snag some great seats (Thanks Nelsons!). 

I don't think we were prepared for the mass of people that would be there. 

Here is one of our friend's Taty who was in the parade (she is the tall blonde). 

Finley was very excited to see lots of fire trucks in the parade. 

And to have some candy while he sat back and relaxed. 

Clara was our little candy snagger. 

She beat all of the other children to the candy that was thrown onto the street. 

Then she quickly reported back to us to share her loot! 

I always loving hearing the marching bands play. 

NC A&T had the best marching band there. 

Check out this balloon! 

I had no idea there would be big balloons in the parade! It was so cool. 

There were about 4 or 5 different ones that came through. 

This was a real parade (unlike the ghetto 4th of July parade). 

Little buddies. 

After 2 hours of sitting through what was a very impressive, but very long parade we got to see Santa. 

And it made some one's day. 

Well worth the wait and all the crowds/traffic. 

Nativities: 

We have also been going over the Nativity story of Jesus' birth with Finley.
We made this cool nativity for FHE one night with the Elledges.

And mama finally caved in and bought this little people version (in the hopes that my ceramic nativity will be left alone). The month of December our FHE lessons and advent lessons (thanks Carrie!) will be devoted to Christ, his birth, life, and ministry.
So can you feel it too?