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!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to Everyone out there reading this blog. I hope this posts finds you all healthy and happy.

This year is a little strange for us here, we have NO snow. You will hear me complain a lot over the course of the winter that I hate snow, that I don't like the cold. But even I have to admit that Christmas is just not Christmas without snow. Last year at this time we had like 17" of snow already. You couldn't see over the snow banks at the end of the driveways and we ran out of places to put the snow. This year all you see when you look around is brown and ugly grass. We have had a few snow flurries here and there, but because we don't have the big snow pack the weather has been up into the 40's. We are expected to hit 40 the day after Christmas this year. How crazy is that!

December 2011

December 2010

It also just doesn't feel like Christmas in our household because we don't have any decorations up. Those that know me know that Christmas is my favorite time of year. I have about 4 or 5 boxes full of decorations (Thanks Mom, Aunt Claire & Cousin Kim for all that stuff) and a tree. I like to add lights outside, with two reindeer, but not this year. Since we are under construction at the moment, all the places we normally put the decorations is filled up. Either it's filled up with boxes of other stuff, is under construction or is in a place where it would be dust filled in a matter of no time. So we just didn't put it up.

Although it doesn't feel like Christmas Mike and I are very grateful for another great year in our life. Our house was filled with Gabby's laughter this morning and that's the best gift that I could ask for. A Happy and healthy family and a roof over our heads.

A Merry Christmas to all!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas this year was a whirlwind of events, it was fun, but we are glad it's over. Between all the celebrations and our Christmas Flu we had a busy time. Here is a run down and a few pictures
Thursday December 23rd:
We had some friends over for our Monthly Couples dinner - we just did appetizers to make it light since we would be eating TONS for the next few days. It was a really good time! We had a rough night sleeping, but we made it through.

Friday December 24th: We hosted Christmas Eve at our place for the Flipp side of my family. We had an awesome time. My parents came over, as well as Claire & Don and Kim & Craig. Mike made his awesome Ham (City Ham on Food Network), it was truly wonderful. Everyone spoiled Gabby, way more than they should have. My Cousin Kim gave Gabby an old rocking chair that her and I used to use at my Grandmothers house. She even made a seat pad and back pad for it. Such a great gift! Thanks Kim!!

And the most exciting part is that Gabby rolled over for the first time!! (see previous post for the video). I was so excited! I yelled for Mike, who thought something was wrong..and she did it about 4 or so more times before getting frustrated with me.

Saturday December 25th - Christmas Day!
Mike and I have a tradition on Christmas Day, it's just for us (our immediate family) and we make Pancakes and open presents. This year was no different except that we had our little peanut pie to open presents with. Mike and I didn't have any gifts to open because we had bought our Dishwasher and a microwave, so those were our Christmas presents to each other.

We had another rough night of sleeping, so Gabby and I took a nap around 11 and then after we got up we drove to Mike's parents place for the Christmas evening celebration. We had another great celebration and Gabby got a lot of good stuff. Mike helped Barrett and Grandpa Dick put together the Trampoline that Alyssa got, she had a great time jumping on it!

Sunday, December 26th:

We had one last get together this weekend...With the Meyer side of the family. We have gotten so large that we had to have it at a Restaurant this year. It was a super good time. It was good to see all the family and Gabby did pretty well. By Sunday she was a little tired out and was refusing a bottle from Mike and I and only wanted to breastfeed. In fact the only time that she will take a bottle now is if I am not around. Which is fine with me.



 
Sunday night started our fun Christmas Flu however.Mike got super sick that night. We thought it was food poisoning. But when I got it on Tuesday we knew it wasn't food poisoning and that it was the Flu. I am better a day later, thank goodness and we are hoping and praying that Gabriella doesn't get it. She had a slight fever this morning (Wednesday Dec 29th), but it might be from teething at least that's what I am hoping it's from.

Turning 30

Well we had a great Christmas! It was a bit different this year because of the storm. Normally we Christmas Eve with my Dad's side of the family. But with the storm we postponed the Flipp Christmas until Sunday. So Mike and I took the pup for a walk and then made a lovely dinner of Fettuccine Alfredo and Beans :) We opened gifts Christmas morning with the three of us (Mike, myself and Mac). and then got ready to head up to his parents. The roads were pretty crappy heading up there, really slushy and stuff. We had a great day at his parents, took the dog for a walk, played a fun game of risk. Watched Alyssa open her presents which was a lot of fun. She helped me open a few of them as well.

Saturday Mike and I decided to trade in all of our games from our PlayStation 2 and the game system and we got about 80.00 off of the Wii. We were super excited. So we spent all day on Saturday playing the Wii and just hanging out the two of us. Yesterday we went to my Cousin's & her Fiance's in Forest Lake to have the Flipp Family Christmas. It was a ton of fun! Wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to head to the Meyer Family Christmas for the afternoon. Also had a ton of fun there too. We were pretty tired when we got home around 7 last night. Overall it was a wonderful holiday.

I celebrated my 30th Birthday on Sunday. My family as always made it a wonderful birthday! I walked into the Meyer family Christmas and they sang Happy Birthday to me. Very embarrassing. Mike was a sweetheart and got Peanut and I a $100.00 to Aveda Sanctuary Spa so later on when I am wanting to be done being pregnant and just treat myself I can get a prenatal massage :) What a sweet husband.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Snow Storm

This is not baby related - but I wanted to write about it. We are expected to have our biggest snow storm of the year, and probably the decade starting tonight. Actually it's starting right now, it's now snowing and blowing like crazy.
We are supposed to get 15 to 20 inches of snow and I am getting a little upset, while I love the snow, it's coming at such a bad time. We are supposed to go to my Cousin's house for Christmas Eve tomorrow and I am not sure if that's going to happen. So we will just have to play it by ear and if it does happen, my parents might not be able to come, so it just wouldn't be the same.....First year ever we might not have Christmas with the Flipp side. :(

Update: 12/24 - We are canceling the Flipp Family Christmas - moving it to Sunday, so at least we will still get to see the family. Mike and I are rescheduling our brunch at Hell's Kitchen to next Sunday (1/3) so that we can go to Christmas...Things aren't exactly turning out the way we had planned, but at least we still get to see the family. The above picture is what we woke up to this morning. I will take another one tonight and tomorrow morning to see how much snow we really get. It's hard to see but you can barely make out the wall at the back of the yard.