OUR CHRISTMAS

When I was a kid, all the days leading up to Christmas creeped forward at a snail's pace.  This Christmas just flew by so quickly though.

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner with my side of the family at our house this year.  Hosting is so much work!  Especially with an almost-fourteen-month old running around.  I'm putting that girl to work next year!

Christmas morning, Violet slept in until 10:30, which was heavenly because we were up soo late wrapping presents.  Santa brought Violet a couple life-size stuffed animals, which she immediately gave a hug and kiss upon seeing.  After her little meet and greet with her new dog and orangutan, we moved on to stockings.  We'd been practicing taking blocks and cookie cutters out of her stocking so she'd know what to do on game day and the girl was a pro.  When it came to unwrapping presents though, she had next to zero interest in ripping the wrapping paper unless it was one of our presents.

Violet's big gift was a play kitchen Jon built.  This play kitchen is the real deal.  Short of running water, this thing is nicer than our kitchen.  A couple weeks ago we had new countertops put in (and we're still in the middle of giving our kitchen a facelift) and we were also able to get a scrap piece of granite cut for her little kitchen.

And despite the total awesomeness of her new play kitchen, I'm pretty sure her favorite toy is the 25 cent finger puppets she got in her stocking.

After opening presents, we drove to Mississippi to spend Christmas Day with Jon's side of the family.  We ate, and ate, and ate good country (and Korean) cookin'.

Then, after a long (napless) day of celebrating, we brought our tired girl home.  And when she finally went to bed,  Santa brought us another Christmas present later that evening with Violet sleeping all night without waking once.  That there is a Christmas miracle folks.