Christmas in an instant

Those that know me know that Christmas is my favorite holiday. It's really the ONLY holiday I decorate the house for. I have like 5 or 6 boxes of decorations and a TON of ornaments for our tree, plus lights for outside (that Mike was kind enough to put up for me).

This year it seemed like I had been waiting for it forever. We got everything up the weekend after Thanksgiving - even with a week old baby girl. and now it's all over! I have been waiting and waiting and it has come and gone already.

Even though it was over fast we had a great time and survived our first Christmas with 2 kids. We are lucky that we don't have to go to holiday celebrations on the same day with our family. We have it spread out.

We made our annual Christmas trip to the MN Zoo. We started it 2 years ago and it's so much fun. There is usually no one there and this year was no exception. Saturday we got there at 9 when it opened and there were 2 cars in the parking lot we normally park in. Usually there are at least 20 to 30 already at opening.

Gabby had a blast as usual and loved the penguins, wolverines, and puma's. We were a  little bummed that the monkey's in the Tropic's Trail weren't there because they were cleaning out the enclosure, but I did get to see my favorite animal - the 2 toed sloth. They moved her to a different area since it's winter and she is much much easier seen now. so exciting.

Liv in the Stroller on her first trip to the Zoo

Gabby checking out the penguins.

This year we had the Meyer family Christmas on Sunday and Gabby had a blast! There are a lot of us Meyer's. We have to have it at a restaurant because we have too many people for a house celebration. So this year the kids had a great time, there was room to play next to our tables. Gabby threw a fit when it was time to go home and she didn't want to go to bed when we got home.

Great Grandpa Ed and Liv

My cousin Ali, Lilianna and Gabby playing with their new toys and stuffed animals

Mike ended up having to work on Christmas Eve, so Liv and I got the house all finalized for the Flipp

family Christmas. We had another great celebration and Gabby had a great time playing with her cousin Cali. Cali is getting so big - she just turned a year a few weeks ago - and it was great seeing the girls play together. I really can't wait until next year when Liv is a year and they can all play together.

Gabby got a table and chairs from my parents and totally was in love with it. She got super excited when she saw it. She also got baby dolls from both of my Aunts and has not stopped playing with them since. We don't have a crib, so I made one out of a diaper box. I plan on wrapping it in contact paper to make it look a little prettier.

Christmas eve night we put out cookies for Santa. My parents gave me a plate and cup set that I had when I was little for cookies and we used that. I plan on getting the girls each a plate they can leave cookies out for Santa for next year so when they have kids they can do the same thing. It's a great tradition.

Christmas morning was just the four of us (five with Mac) and Gabby was excited to see if Santa ate the cookies and sure enough he did. She was all excited too to open the presents from Santa and didn't even want to open the ones from us because Santa got her play-doh. Our living room is still a disaster, that's on my list to do today is to clean it up and put everything away.

At nap time we loaded up the car and headed to the In Laws for the Epp family Christmas. Another great celebration. Gabby had a wonderful time playing with her cousin Alyssa and loved opening the presents. She got a tricycle from Mike's parents and wants to open it now and ride it. It will be tough to get her to wait until Spring to actually use it. 

Mike was super sweet and took me out for my birthday with the girls to our favorite restuarant Kona Grill. We got some appetizers, sushi and a dessert. It was great!

Now just waiting until next Christmas!