The Holdren's: All Things Christmas

Here's a post lumping everything Christmas-related together since Christmas has already passed. By the way, Belated Merry Christmas!!!

Earlier in the month Michael, Sweet Pea and I went over to Meema's house for a visit. While we were there Meema brought out her train set that she bought some years ago so we could make sure it worked before actually setting it up around the Christmas tree. Here's a video of Sweet Pea and Michael and the choo-choo train:

Michael had to go to Saratoga Springs, NY to do a press check for work on 12/16. On the day that Michael was flying back in (technically the day after since he got stranded there), I decided it was finally time to properly decorate the tree. I got it all set up minus the star since that's Michael's job, so he can say he helped decorate the tree too, and attempted to take a picture of Sweet Pea in front of it. Of course she wasn't really in a picture-taking kind of mood so no cheesy grins here, but at least I got one of her in front of the tree!

But then away from the tree, our silly Sweet Pea was all smiles!

For Christmas last year I got this caroling dog/cat/cow thingy (I have no idea what you call them) and Sweet Pea loved it last year. When I had all the Christmas stuff out, she was immediately drawn to it because she remembered it from last year. Here's our Sweet Pea listening/dancing to the dog/cat/cow carolers:

And just like last year, we went to visit the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park and just like last year we happened to go on an uncommonly cold evening. Of course it didn't faze Michael because he had just gotten back from snow storms and subzero temperatures! Brrrrrrrr! Here are pictures from the Trail of Lights:

the big tree at Zilker Park

Sweet Pea all snug as a bug in a rug

Sweet Pea and I with the Christmas tree in the background

it's tradition to stand under the tree and spin around - we didn't this year because the ground was a tad muddy but we stood under it and looked up (if that counts)

the entrance to the Trail of Lights

going through a tunnel of lights - isn't it beautiful?

Sweet Pea is waving at Dora in the Nickelodeon exhibit. She was so excited to see Dora. And yes, I'm wearing glasses. I had some type of eye allergy and needed to use prescription eye drops and wear glasses for a few days. Ugh!

Michael and Sweet Pea in front of the true Christmas exhibit - Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus

another tunnel of lights at the end of the trail. I love the blue stars!

So then fast forward to Christmas day. Sweet Pea woke up Christmas morning and walked into the back living room to see a shiny new wagon and Dora bouncy ball in addition to all the presents wrapped under the tree. In typical Lorelei fashion I didn't have any presents wrapped until Christmas eve after Sweet Pea had already gone to bed, so the presents under the tree were a surprise to her.

Gotta love the look of surprise/joy on her face!

Sweet Pea with the wagon and her Dora bouncy ball

Sweet Pea opening up her presents

the baby stroller was a big hit - in spite of not being Dora-related

Michael opening up his one present. We both each got one present because technically the flat screen tv, stand and shelves that we got on Black Friday were our Christmas presents to each other.

a slightly perturbed Sweet Pea because she wanted something "Dora" and not snow boots. The snow boots are for our trip to CO in January,

Seriously, about 98% of her presents were Dora-related, so the stuff that didn't have Dora on them were kinda ignored - unless of course it was something that she really wanted/liked! Here are some videos of her opening up her presents:

Sorry, these are dark because the only lights we had on were the lights from the Christmas tree but you get the gist of it from her talking.

After we opened up our presents here, we piled up in my van (while still in our pj's) and headed over to Meema's. Uncle Brandon, Aunt Renée and Cousin Caleb were in town visiting for the holidays, so we got to spend Christmas with them. We had breakfast over there and opened up more presents and stockings then came home for Cassidy's nap and to shower and get ready to head back over for a late lunch. Here are some pictures from the day:

I wanted to get a good picture of Sweet Pea and Cousin Caleb together in their Christmas pj's but little missy wasn't cooperating.

here she is making a mad dash for it

Uncle Brandon with Baby Caleb perched up not missing a thing!

this wasn't taken on Christmas day, but with Michael typically behind the camera instead of in front of it, I wanted to post a picture of Michael, Baby Caleb and Sweet Pea.

By the way, there will likely be a role reversal now with more and more pics of Michael than of me posted because I got a new camera for Christmas, so I'm no longer bogged down by having to sort through Michael's pictures on the server. I can now just use my own pictures! (not that I couldn't before, but I like this camera much better than I liked the other one and besides, if Michael happens to take a good shot then I'll hunt it down on the server to post but for the most part, the pictures here will be taken by moi!)