Christmas 2011

I'm planning a double post here in the next hour but we'll see if that actually happens...Adam should be home from hunting soon and with him, Morgan, who is an attention whore and likes to spend time with me. Please don't be alarmed - I've read that description of toddlers before and it cracks me up every time so obviously I don't mean that to sound bad...which means I should likely delete it and start over but I'm going to leave it b/c that would take precious time to think of something else to say instead of just getting to it. :)

So...Christmas this year...it was quiet. It was anticlimactic. It was wonderful. So here's what we did...

My brother, Ross, and my SIL Kristen, came to visit from the 23rd-25th. They actually came in late late late on the 22nd and then we had extra time with them on the 23rd which was nice. That was Friday (clearly thinking while writing) and Hadley had yet another weight check before I had my "sanity" check with my midwife at 11am. I'm so thankful I had this appointment with Kim this time and while I feel 1000x better this time than I did postpartum with Morgan (I really should have had that appointment after Morgan...), I was still glad I went even if it was just to see and chat with Kim again. Oddly enough, I already miss seeing her weekly and am considering getting pregnant again so I can see her on a regular basis. ;-) Totally kidding.

We hung out much of the rest of the day and while I can't remember exactly what we did (dang, waited too long to do this post), I know we had a good time WAIT. Kristen and I left Hadley and Morgan with Adam and Ross and went to get super pedicures at ProHair complete with paraffin wax dips. Sigh. It was glorious and the new gray/purple color I have surely beats the half red toes I had prior. :)  That night we watched a movie after the girls went to bed (Bridesmaids! Hilarity at its best!) (actually, Morgan went to bed, Adam hung out with Miss Fussypants Hadley for some of the movie) and cashed in.

Christmas Eve day was filled with more fun as we made spritzer cookies (note - wheat flour is NOT meant for these cookies, gross) that afternoon and Ross learned how to play Angry Birds with Morgan. They had a great time. :) That night we watched another movie that Adam was the closest to being able to follow while I did laundry and the like. We then got everything just perfect for Santa's arrival and went to bed with visions of a very excited toddler dancing in our my heads.

Morgan woke up around 7am on Christmas Day and we worked on getting her all hyped up for opening stockings and presents...and she bombed it. :-/ She almost immediately didn't want to open her stocking gifts and needed help. She wanted her normal morning routine of coming downstairs, waking up to the day and checking out what's on the Disney Channel. No! No! Santa came, you silly girl!! Let's go see! Ripping paper, crazy gifts, fun times, looking "splendid" in pictures with jammies and crazy hair...but alas, it took us 30 hours to open all of Morgan's gifts. Keep in mind many of these gifts were from family back home too, and not just Santa even though he went a little overboard on her this year. (oops, I almost feel bad)

Some of the things Morgan received included a fishing game (the one that turns around and you have to catch them with a pole) which she LOVES, books, clothes, and a ton of other things I can't remember off the top of my head. Santa brought Adam and I a MacBook Pro computer that I am using to publish this post at the moment (PS. I LOVE it and can't wait to learn all it can do when my bff Steph comes down to visit in a few weeks as she is a Mac Pro herself. I'm hilarious.

The rest of the day included a big send off ham dinner for the family and then Ross and Kristen headed back to WI. The rest of us Iowans stayed in our PJs all day, worked on opening more presents, napped, and generally took it easy. It was great. And I was even able to relax despite the tornado that had hit the house with extreme force. That was saved for the next day and day after.

All in all we had a nice Christmas with our little family (and R&K!! They were great) in Iowa this year. We were both sad that we missed so much family time back home and it broke my heart to see Morgan (and us) Skyping with family back home and the first thing out of her mouth was "Grandma Grandpa I miss you sooooo really really much!!" and become sad into Adam's chest. I've always wondered what it would be like to have Christmas here instead of WI and I've always thought having our own family time might be something I'd like to consider in the future...but it wasn't the same. It wasn't quite right. I'm glad we stayed this year for a million reasons...but our hearts are in WI at Christmas time and that's where we belong. Next year, bring it on!

Now we prepare for the new year and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for what's to come. Morgan's at an incredible age right now and the thought of watching Hadley grow into her first year excites and saddens me at the same time (I don't like my babies growing into big girls). It's hard to believe she's already 3 weeks old tomorrow. We have infant pictures for her late next week and I'm excited to have these done - Morgan was WAYYY too fussy for infant pictures and with Hadley being significantly more mild-tempered (although her fuss has been somewhat increased the past few days), I'm eager to see beautiful baby pictures of her. (biased mother statement coming) She's just such a pretty baby that I can't imagine they won't be great if she's even a little cooperative.

Ok, off to the next post. Diego is keeping one busy, a nap (finally) is keeping another one busy, and Adam's doing something for work on his computer. Bring on the weekend!