Merry Christmas!

Our tree on Christmas morning....

Riley was so excited when she woke up on Christmas morning and could hardly wait to get downstairs to see if Santa came. 

Lucky for her, she has been a very good girl this year and that did not go unnoticed by Santa.  He brought her the "bike" she has been asking for along with a few other cool things and she was so excited!

We had a really great morning just hanging out and watching Miss R open her presents and play with her new toys.  This year, she was actually interested in what was beneath the bows and paper unlike last year where the wrapping was the main attraction. 

We invited Gigi, Popdaddy, Grandma and Grandpa over to our house for breakfast that morning.  So after presents, we all enjoyed some yummy pancakes.

 

Ready for reindeer shaped pancakes!

That afternoon, we had our Christmas celebration with Gigi and Popdaddy.  My family has a long running tradition of celebrating Christmas at the Brown Palace that started with my Great Grandmother.  We still try to continue this tradition be on Christmas Eve or Christmas day with dinner at the Ship Tavern.  Despite the fact that we very much missed having Ry and Kelly with us, we had a really great time.  The hotel is decorated beautifully during the holidays and Riley loved taking in all the sparkle! 

It was also very lucky for us that Santa made a special appearance during dinner.  Her 2nd time up close and personal with Santa went over much better than the first.  She actually talked to him and even held out her hands for him to pick her up.  He must have redeemed himself with the loot he left earlier that morning.

After dinner, Popdaddy had arranged for a horse drawn carriage ride to see the lights around downtown.  It was a chilly night, so we all bundled up.  Riley was much more excited about the whole than she looks.

We wrapped up our Christmas day with our gift exchange at Gigi and Popdaddy's house.  Riley was a great little elf and loved handing out the presents.  It started to get a little out of control when she was throwing Kris' presents at him and yelling "catch", but it was pretty funny to watch.

Checking out her Matryoshka that Bunky Ry and Autie Kelly sent from Alaska, she loves these new dolls.

We had such an amazing Christmas and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Santa's Coming!

Merry Christmas Eve! 

Our Christmas Eve was filled with fun and family as we waited for Santa.  Thankfully done with our Christmas shopping, we got to spend the day the day hanging out as a family since Kris didn't have to work.  Riley had so much fun helping to wrap our last few presents and kept reminding us that "Santa is coming".  To start off our Christmas celebration, we went to 5:00 mass with Gigi and Popdaddy.  It was a children's mass, so there was an all children's choir with great music and there were lots of little ones, we loved it! 

After church, we headed over to Riley's Grandma and Grandpa's house for the Nelson Christmas.  Riley got to open a very special gift that her Bunky Ry and Auntie Kelly sent straight from the North Pole....

Elf Slippers!!!!

There were also a couple of gifts under the tree that caught her and needed a closer look...

Riley in her new Elmo chair

Checking out her new Dora the Explorer doll while modeling a Dora backpack.

After a really delicious dinner, Roo got comfy in her Christmas jammies for some more presents. 

Hugging on Santa

Kisses from Grandma

Riley roo with her new roo from Uncle Nick, it's almost as big as she is!  After lots of fun and excitement, we took our little one home to get ready for bed before Santa comes.  We can't wait for tomorrow morning!

Ho Ho Ho!

Yesterday we hosted our 2nd annual Santa Party.  We invited our friends and of course the Big Guy himself to our house for some holiday fun.  This year most of the little ones were no longer babies, but adorable toddlers who had mixed feelings about seeing Santa or more to the point, about sitting on Santas lap. 

Riley, who was all smiles last year had a slightly different reaction to Mr. C this year.  She was so excited about her party and made sure to tell everyone that "Santas coming" as they came in, but her excitement slowly faded away when our guest of honor arrived.  She started off okay....

Then retreated up the stairs a bit to get a view of Santa from afar...

Then completely lost it when it was her turn to sit on his lap

While she made it completely clear that she did not want anything to do with sitting on his lap, she could not take her eyes off of him.  She would move as far away from his as she could get, but then would crane her neck to look watch his every move.  So while she was scared of him she was still pretty fascinated by him too.

Getting a little more confident, she actually let her Gigi hold her while she touched his beard.  Baby steps, maybe next year they will be back to being pals.

Her cousin Isabella felt about the same with regard to Santa...

Lucky for Santa, not everyone shared Riley's skeptism and most were pretty happy to see him.  Our friend James and the big guys were good buddies....

Alec was not completely sure about the whole thing either...

Audrina needed a little convincing too, but felt better with her mom there.

 

Taylor and Chloe looking cute!

Holden was also a fan and asked Santa for a dinosaur, but not a real one.

We are so greatful that Santa likes us enough to make a special pre-Christmas appearance at our house and  so lucky to have such great friends to share the holidays with!

Little Bity Baker

On Friday our friends Lacey and Audrina hosted a Christmas cookie playdate and Riley and her little buddies, James, Alec and Audrina got to try out their baking skills.  This was Riley's first experience in holiday baking and I love that she is old enough to be a part of the fun.  It took her a little while to warm up to the whole thing, but once they broke out frosting and sprinkles she dove right in. 

A little frosting dilemma

mmmmmm sprinkles!

We continued our Christmas baking at home this weekend and Riley was such a good helper.  She helped bake our decorate our sugar cookies and build a gingerbread house.  Grandma and Grandpa came over to join in the cookie decorating and Riley loved showing offer her talent with sprinkiles.  I think that it's safe to say that enjoyed more sugar this weekend that she has ever had.  We kept seeing her sneak sprinkles into her mouth as she was dumping them on the cookies and our "candy" house was also fun to steal from.

The Sprinkle Master

Helping Grandma decorate a cookie

Making her Gingerbread house...aka "candy house"