Christmas Celebrations!

We had a GREAT Christmas this year!  We stayed home and celebrated with just our little family!  It was nice and quiet, but of course we missed seeing family.  The Sunday before Christmas Lily got to wear her new Christmas Dress, which she was very excited about!  After Church, we visited a few friends to share a Christmas treat with.  Lily really enjoyed giving these gifts.

 The whole month of December, Lily and Daddy had a great time changing the number on the countdown to Christmas!  Lily also enjoyed dancing to all the Christmas songs on the radio.  Her favorite being "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!"  She would get so excited when this song came on.  She even started saying she wanted a Hippo for Christmas!

 Christmas Eve started with breakfast at a "Astronaut" as Lily would call the restaurant!   We also had a Special Christmas Eve dinner, in honor of spending Christmas Eve at my Warner Grandparents house, of Hamballs and Hot Chicken Salad.  This is one of the things I remember most about Christmas Eve at the Warner Grandparents house, which is where I spent most of my Christmas Eves as a child!  It is nice to have those special memories and to share them with my own family now!  After dinner we drove around and looked at the Christmas Lights!  Lily LOVED this!  She kept on saying, "another frosty the snowman!"  As we have had no snow this year, this is all Lily knows of snowmen!  Then we came home and read the Scriptures about the birth of our Savior and talked to Lily about why we celebrate Christmas.  Next we opened up Christmas Jammies and read  "The Night Before Christmas" and set out Cookies and milk for Santa!  Lily really enjoyed putting cookies out for Santa! 

 Christmas Morning came at 7 am!  Lily came down into our room and was ready to find out if Santa had eaten his cookies and milk.  We hurried down to find he did!  Lily was so excited to find out that Santa had eaten his treat for leaving her presents.  Then we opened our presents.  We were all very spoiled this year!  Even baby brother had gifts under the tree!  Lily loved each present she got.    These next few pictures are just a few of the highlights from the morning.  I didn't do the best of job taking pictures because I was so excited to just watch her open them!
Daddy gave Lily a very special gift this year.  He bought her a glove and ball to play catch with him.  Ever since he played ball this fall, she has wanted to play catch with him with her own mit! They were able to go outside and try to play.  She caught the ball, but had trouble throwing it back.  She will have to learn to take the ball out and then throw it.  Needles to say, she got a little frustrated with the experience!  I know they will have many good times playing as she gets older.

 Lily brought both chairs into the living room so she and her new doll could have a "hot chocolate" party together!

After presents we had Zac and Chelsea and her parents over for Breakfast.  TJ's family does crepes and omelets for Christmas morning and they invite family and friends, so we decided that we were going to do the same!  It was fun to have actual family over on Christmas!  Thanks for moving to Denver Zac and Chelsea!  Then later that afternoon we went to our Bishops house and visited and TJ played in a ping pong tournament, not the winner though:(  We spent the rest of the evening playing fun new games and eating yummy food!  It was a great day!  Now we look forward to starting a new year!