Christmas Morning Pictures

Jay doesn't have too many battles he's willing to wage, so it always surprises me when he chooses seemingly random things to have a strong opinion.

I discovered one of these disagreements on Christmas morning when I preferred the Gollaher family option of having the children dressed and hair done (Lauren's too young to make her bed too) before opening presents so that the photos are cute. I "won" this year because Lauren didn't really know what was going on anyway.

I can see from my sisters' blogs of Christmas morning photos with scattered hair and jammies, that I am the only sibling partial to this tradition. Jay says its part of the memories to have photos in pjs and knotted hair and sleep-deprived eyes.

Help us solve this before next year. Your thoughts?

Christmas Day 2009

We have enjoyed our time in Chicago with plenty of Chloe-Lauren play time and stuffing our faces with Ann-Marie's exceptional cooking. Christmas was no exception. Lauren has enjoyed playing with Chloe's toys, especially the blocks and dollies. We had Lauren open a necklace and a Tigger and Pooh coloring book Christmas morning (light, easy-to-pack presents). She also received a dinosaur movie from Santa. She will enjoy her dollie and stroller from Fof and Grandpa and her picnic table from Barnums when we get home. Mom and Dad also got her a tent with play tunnel.

I made eggs benedict for Christmas morning to carry on the Gollaher tradition and we have enjoyed Hansen traditions of chocolate fondue and Grinch (split pea) soup.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Racing

Chicago Snow

Knowing there would be snow in Chicago (in fact, it really hasn't stopped snowing for a week), we brought snow stuff for Lauren. She enjoyed going out with Ian and Max. At first, she wasn't sure about walking in it (and her boot kept falling off), but once she got the hang of walking in the snow, she was running around having a great time. Here's some shots:

Early Christmas

With the family heading to Chicago for Christmas, we were able to get some early holiday activities in.

Lauren opening Fofa and Grandpa's gift at the family Christmas dinner. The dinner was beautiful and delicious. It was fun to see Lauren open the gift so carefully, small piece, by small piece. Finally we tore off a big chunk so she could speed up the process for the anxiously awaiting older cousins who had to wait for her to finish before they could have their turn. We are excited to play with her new dolly set when we get home. She has been enjoying playing with the same one that Chloe got.


Nuie, Claire and Fof hanging out waiting for everyone to arrive for dinner.
The next day, we went to Breakfast with Santa at Thanksgiving Point. The crafts were for kids a little older than Lauren, but she LOVED playing in this sled. She wouldn't go near Santa or Mrs. Claus, so maybe next year we'll do a picture.

We couldn't leave Thanksgiving Point without going to Farm Country and having a pony ride. It wasn't as cold as it looks here. She wanted to ride "again, again."
We didn't bother with a tree or anything this year, so any presents were opened as they arrived. Lauren loved the blanket from Annette. Again, she had to unwrap it small piece by small piece. We haven't set up her picnic table yet from the Barnums, but are sure she will love it too.

More Smarty-Pants Moments

So I have no reference, but we think Lauren is brilliant.

Yesterday in the car we were listening to her primary songs CD (if I haven't mentioned it before, Lauren MUST have her songs on in the car at all times) and the piano intro came on for one and she said "piano." We've never pointed out instruments in songs before, but she plays piano with mommy and Grandpa.

Also, in the last couple of days she has started forming verbs and nouns together into almost sentences. And to make you other mothers even more jealous of our genius child, she is an angel at bedtime too. When we say "let's get your jammies on," she runs to her room and says "rock" and "sleep" and then "bed" after we've sung some songs and said prayers and lays right down with her animals and blanket without a peep. This is at 7:30 by the way.

She has her moments, but we are so blessed to have such a smart cutie.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had the privilege of spending Thanksgiving this year in Reno with Becca and Phil and fam. Lauren was mostly good on the drive there and back and the scenery was breathtaking - NOT!

Bec and I cooked and it was truly the best turkey I've ever done. The trick I learned on the Food Network is to not use the pop-up timer that comes with the turkey, but a meat thermometer to know when to take it out. Otherwise, it gets overdone because the turkey manufacturers don't want the liability of the pop-up coming up before it's done. So try that next year if your turkey is always dry.

Other menu items included mashed potatoes, yams (which I got Bec to eat with me), stuffing (in the turkey), cranberry slush, gravy, cranberry-apple relish, Grandma Long's rolls and plenty of apple and pumpkin pie.

It was so fun to hang out, play Wii, do after Thanksgiving shopping, watch Lauren play with cousins Kaylin and Zach-Zach and all their fun toys and also interact with new baby Jared. Bec even watched Lauren so we could go to the temple. I'd never been to a small temple and it was very efficient:). Thank you Bec and Phil! You are welcome at our house any time.

Becca posted more photos and info on her blog, http://phillipandrebecca.blogspot.com/

Becca had crafts for the kids to do. Lauren loved her hat.

The spread

Eating, I mean, carving the turkey.

We wore our new aprons hand sewn by Fof.