A few Christmas traditions

Mostly so I don't forget next year in case Daddy isn't around to remind me… I'm making a little list.

This being our first year together as a family for Christmas, the Giant and I made our goal to establish our traditions this year with Cheyanne. Some things we did were great, some things not so much for this year, but we had fun trying to make the most of the season together.

Besides the typical gingerbread house/sugar cookie decorating/ watching Christmas movies traditions, we started other fun traditions too.

Examples:

Reading Twas the Night Before Christmas before Christmas Eve bedtime

Sprinkling oats and glitter on the front lawn for the reindeer because they like oats and the glitter is to help them find our house

Checking the fireplace before bed to make sure Santa isn't stuck up there yet. Nope, not yet.

Not sure this one worked out like I'd hoped. An overnight french toast recipe I found on pinterest. It was not as good as I'd hoped it would be.

We left Santa cookies and milk. He loved his homemade gingerbread cookies.

Homemade advent calendar. We had two each day. One was Daddy's, a chocolate advent calendar similar to this one and one homemade by me. I sewed each baggy and stuffed it with a related bible verse, thing to do for the day, and 2 M&Ms. Daddy's was more popular...

Santa left Cheyanne a message in the mirror before he left. 

It was pretty busy around here Christmas Eve… so Santa told us later.

Christmas Catch Up

This Christmas has proved me two main things this year. One, I love having my husband home for holidays. Holidays just aren't half the fun without him around- even with a toddler that has limited attention span on an abundance of new toys. I think I had forgotten that after the last few years without him. Two, I'm the worst blogger and photographer ever. All photos stopped after 9:30am, after we'd opened all of probably 3 presents since it took Cheyanne days to get through opening her presents. And, I have ZERO pictures of our family. None. Nada one. Seriously.

Here's Cheyanne with Daddy.

Here's Cheyanne with Mommy.

See, we were all there, just not in one picture together. Fail on my part.

We had a nice Christmas together though. Knowing Cheyanne, I tried not to go overboard on presents because I knew she wouldn't be interested in quantity. We went for two big presents and lots of littler ones for fun. Santa brought her the Mercedes, yes my daughter now has a nicer car than we do. Mommy and Daddy got her an art easel. The Mercedes turned out to be a little big for her. She likes it but has a hard time reaching the pedal and steering at the same time. Mostly, she just hasn't tried to steer it much yet. She has a little growing to do. 

But, the art easel was a hit! Magnetic on one side, chalk board on the other. She spent hours designing both sides. 

Look at what Santa left for her! Pretty good I'd say.

She loved opening her stocking. She mostly got coloring books and crafts in there, which are always a hit with my little artist. Of course, the mounds of chocolate that a certain daddy through in there were a hit too...

All that chocolate may have very well been what led to her first bad behavior time out of her life (on Christmas of all days). After a little temper tantrum that involved pushing over the trash can filled with uncooked turkey junk while Mommy was prepping our Christmas dinner, Little Miss earned herself her first 2 minute timeout in her room. After that, she actually became our little angel again. I guess she just needed to get her crazy Christmasness out of her system. I felt bad that of all days, she got punished, but it seemed to do the trick and we were able to enjoy the rest of our day.

We did presents on and off. We took a Christmas nap. And then we got Christmas dinner ready just in time for Grandma and Grandpa (or Papa now as Cheyanne has renamed him) to arrive and spend a few days with us. Of course I have zero pictures of any of this… 

sigh.

Christmas pimp ridin'.

We hope you had a wonderfully merry Christmas like we did!! Oh and happy new year too!

Our adventures with Ralphie

I mentioned a while ago that we've adopted our first elf and his name is Ralphie. He arrived at our house the day after Thanksgiving and has kept us on our toes ever since. Cheyanne loves to find Ralphie every morning and see what kind of mischief he was into the night before after his long trip back from the North Pole. 

Want to see a few things Ralphie has been doing? I'll post more later.

Apparently Ralphie was tired one day because we found him napping in Cheyanne's dollhouse after a little popcorn snack.

We found him overseeing the nativity after laying out our advent baggies (obviously we were a day behind in that). Oops. Thanks Ralphie for the reminder.

 He loves a good tea party gabfest with the gals. I'm not sure in which way, but I assume the best because he seems to have a thing for the orange haired fairy doll. Chey enjoyed finding this in the morning as she loves tea parties.

Like I said, he seems to have a thing for the orange haired ladies. They rode the stocking choo-choos.

 Messy Ralphie.

Apparently toilet paper can be used as Christmas decorations… who knew?!

Its a bird! Its a plane! No, its Ralphie flying around on the fan!!

We love our Ralphie! I can't wait to see what he comes up with next. Speaking of which… its late… gotta go! :)

Uh oh Ralphie, you're in trouble now

As one of our advent tree activities, we made Christmas cookies last week while Daddy was home on a quick work break. I think they lasted for all of 24 hours in our house.

Cheyanne's favorite part of decorating cookies is eating the sprinkles of course. She really couldn't care less about the cookie, but don't mess with her sprinkles.

Well, during nap time, Ralphie apparently got into her cookies and had a little snack.

She is pissed. Not just a little bit. I mean, she gave him the stare down and pointedly said "No Ralphie" when she discovered what he had done. She insisted on eating his cookie that he didn't finish.

She sat like this staring at him the entire time eating her sprinkled cookie. Ralphie, I think you crossed the line this time. You don't mess with Chey's sprinkles.

Gingerbread Tradition

With this being the Giant's first chance at making holiday traditions with Cheyanne, we are covering our bases this year. He really wanted to make sure he helped make Cheyanne's first Gingerbread house.  She loved it- decorating the house, eating the candy out of the bowls, picking the candy off the roof and eating it… she loved it.

Busted Chey Chey.

She was so proud.

And then she held this pose eating the candy until I got a few pictures. 

Look at that house!

Now if I can just keep little hands off of it long enough to dry and last a while.

Same ol' Santa

While lots has changed this year with Cheyanne, one thing hasn't… her feelings for Santa Claus.

As you can see Santa's hand/leg in the picture below, this is as close as Chey Chey would let me get this year. Not even a Nemo book from Santa would entice her to get closer. 

If you remember, this is the scene from last year. Not much has changed in a year.

2011.

Poor Santa.

The Giant does not handle his little girl being so upset well so he was already hesitant about taking Chey to see Santa at the Children's Christmas Party on base knowing how she did last year. I had higher hopes for this year since we had been really talking up Santa Claus since our Ralphie elf made his appearance here after Thanksgiving.

I was wrong. She's still not a fan. Sigh. At least she had fun at the rest of the party- away from the big guy.

This girl loves a good bouncy house.

And playing with her daddy.

Our favorite part is the mini Daddy plane that they always have at children's events on base.

Family picture. Can you see us all?

 She did get a jingle bell band that helped make the traumatic visit worth it. Eh, maybe next year.

Not long now

Update on 3/3/12: As I am now learning in the military, things change. We will be waiting a little longer after all for the Giant to get home. I wish I could tell more but I'm not able to at this time. I'll be sure to announce it once I've got him home though.

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This is a good sign! The lights are on and the presents are under the Christmas tree.

Giant, don't look too close under the tree, especially not the next picture… not that you probably will get a chance to see this in the next few days :)

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In case you are new to This Wood House… No I'm not a Griswald keeping my Christmas lights up all year. And no, I'm not a tacky Christmas holly loving crazy person celebrating Christmas every day of the year. I am the proud wife of an United States Airman that has been deployed for far too long and has missed way too much of our life. We have been waiting for him and Christmas waited for him as well. 

And now, it won't have to wait much longer. Not long now at all!!

Christmas Eve and the build up

Without the Giant here and feeling a little down, I cannot tell you how happy I was when my sister pulled into the driveway a few days before Christmas!! What a much needed pick me up. Two years in a row, she's been here to save the Giantless day. 

Now that that's out in the open, lets continue on with the holidays.

Normally, all of our holiday meals are done at either my parents' or my grandparents', but this year we changed it up. With Cheyanne at a fun age to take in the beauty of Christmas, we decided to head to Bedford where we could eat and see some Christmas lights. Christmas Eve Eve (yes I meant to repeat myself) we ate at the Liberty Station which is an old train station depot turned pretty awesome restaurant. 

After a delicious meal, we headed over to the Elks Lodge for a drive-thru lights show. As I predicted, Cheyanne l.o.v.e.d. it. She "ooooh"'ed and "ahhh"'ed right along with us.

Granted, as this is an Elks retirement home and most of the Christmas displays are probably  definitely older than I am, its not anything that would win awards. But, its a tradition here in the mountains and continues to bring in car lines full every night during the holidays. Chey didn't seem to mind one bit that the hand painted cardboard angel looked more like an overweight Julie Andrews than perhaps an arch angel. Its tradition.

Then Christmas Eve came and we spent most of the day at my brother's house helping him move. I took two pictures of Chey during the whole day. Neither are exactly…winners…

Look closely. Yep, this will be a keeper when she's 16. Well played, Daughter.

Well, at least she looked cute in her Christmas outfit ready for the Christmas Eve service.