Someone gets a little excited about Christmas over here...

And that someone is miss Teya Rigg.
You will witness it, at the end of this post, but first a quick Christmas recap:

This year Christmas was extra awesome because my sister Naomi and her family came out from Chicago to spend it with us.

The girls loved having their cousins around for a week and it was cute to see them all in their matching pajamas on Christmas morning.

Matching sisters Teya and Brinley!

Matching sisters Becca and Naomi!

The girls showing off their new shawls that Grandma Karen knitted for them.

Taber and Cam on his very first Christmas!

He loved crawling through the wrapping paper and playing with everyone else's presents : )

Uncle Kevin made Taber this sweet frame for his Hartford marathon medal and bib.

Taber made all my Christmas wishes come true and got me the DSLR camera that I've been drooling over for years.  (do you like how this picture was taken with our old camera and is all blurry? it was definitely time for an upgrade!) I took over 300 pictures the first day I had it : ) I still have a lot to learn to unleash the camera's real potential, but I'm excited to start taking better pictures.

I made Taber 2 blog books to cover all of 2010. Each book covers 6 months and is just under 200 pages long. It was a labor of love that took me many many hours to finish, but it's always worth it to see Taber and the kids pouring over the books and smiling over the memories.

Happy Taber with a little piece of our family history.

So now I've made blog books from 2007-2010. I just need to make 2 more to catch up on 2011 and I'll finally be up to date : )


The highlight of Christmas though was seeing the kids get so excited about everything.

I don't think I've ever seen a kid more excited about Christmas than little miss Teya.

She was so pumped up that she literally screamed/shouted every word she spoke for the first 20 minutes of opening presents.  Brinley was still a little sick from the night before but Teya managed to stir up plenty of excitement on her sister's behalf over her presents. You have to watch this video to witness the intensity of it. And prepare yourself for the 1:16 minute mark when the excitement reaches fever pitch. This is Christmas magic at it's best!

Gettin' Christmasy

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat...

We busted out the Christmas decorations shortly after Thanksgiving and the girls have been SO EXCITED ever since. (I had to use all caps to try and capture the intensity of their excitement.)

We put the nativity up and hung the stockings with care. Then it was time to pick out a tree. The girls couldn't wait to go with Daddy, but the morning they were supposed to go...

poor Brinley got the pukes. 

She couldn't keep anything down, not even a sip of water. But she was devastated at the thought of missing the tree chopping, and after the most heartbreaking tears and pathetic begging I finally caved and let her go. I know that probably makes me a bad parent but if you had seen her eyes, oh my goodness! The heartbreak!

So Teya and little sickie pants accompanied Daddy to the tree farm and found this lovely pine. They chopped it down and brought it home, along with a car seat full of puke. I guess Brinley was doing all right until Taber put her back in the car and she didn't want her barf bowl on her lap so she kicked it off and then hurled all over her lap. Poor little thing.

We got her all bathed and cleaned up and she passed out on the couch.

Meanwhile the rest of us got to work decorating.

The tree they picked was tall! To get the star on, Taber stacked the stool he's standing on in this picture on top of a kitchen chair and I spotted him while he wobbled around trying to reach the top branch. Teya couldn't even watch it was so nerve wracking! Luckily he got it on without falling, but one of these days we should probably invest in a ladder. ; )

Cam thought it was all very entertaining.

And eventually Brinley woke up, feeling TONS better and joined the fun.

The girls did a great job keeping the ornaments spread out and out of Cam's reach.

Tada!!! We're ready for Christmas!

When it was finished we all oooed and aaaahed over it's awesomeness : )

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Other Christmasy activities...

Our church does an outdoor live nativity every year so we took the kiddos to see it.

They wanted to sit in the very front so they bypassed the chairs and planted themselves right on the ground. I took this picture when it was over and got a good chuckle from Cam and Brinley's faces.  Cam is like, "Can't. Move. Too. Puffy." and Brinley is like, "hehehehe! I'm a pink marshmallow!"

After the show they got to go inside and meet the cast. The nativity was a great way to get the girls focused on the more meaningful parts of Christmas and remind them why we celebrate and give gifts.

Another thing we are doing this year to teach them about giving is the 12 days of Christmas. We picked a family who has been through a difficult trial recently and the girls were very excited to help cheer them up. 

Taber got really excited too. He wanted to dress the girls all in black with ninja masks for ultimate stealth. I told him that this "operation" didn't require quite that level of intensity, but he still had them draw out a map and discuss silent communication tactics so they could stay under the radar and not get caught. 

So far their deliveries have been a huge success. They've mastered the stealth tactics and have taken great joy in this nightly ritual. The best part is that this simple act of secret giving has suddenly switched their brains from thinking about all the things they want and wondering what they are gonna get, to thinking about others, wondering if they will like their surprise and brainstorming what we should bring them next. They always come rushing back, full of adrenaline and excitement. My mommy heart is full when I see them finding joy in giving. I guess that what getting Christmasy is really all about : )

Christmas Magic

Christmas is absolutely magical when you have children who believe in Santa. When the girls woke up on Christmas morning they were giddy with excitement. When they saw that Santa had come every word that came out of their mouths was followed by an exclamation point! It was so fun to watch them discover the magic of Christmas morning.

The first big surprise was a pop up tent with a tunnel. They didn't waste any time crawling in to explore.

Then they dumped out their stockings and it's a good thing Santa put some apples in there because that was all we could get them to eat before they jumped into present opening.

Teya was thrilled with everything she got. Brinley was too but I think she liked Teya's stuff a little more. Good thing Teya is good at sharing.

My sister Naomi made this awesome plaque to hold our running medals. And I made Taber a running collage by scanning in all his bibs and putting them together with race pictures to make this cool running frame. Definitely made me excited about the prospect of getting back into running after baby gets here.

I also put together another Blog book for our family. It was interesting to see how my blogging habits have evolved. The first book I made covered 8 months and was 82 pages long. This book only covered 6 months but was 184 pages long! I'm glad I've preserved our memories and have a fun way to look back on our family history. Now I just need to make books to cover 2010!

After all the presents had been opened our living room looked like a bomb had exploded in there. It was pretty awesome. Here's a before and after shot.

The girls spent the morning playing with their presents.

They also spent plenty of time playing in the boxes, which makes me think next year we should buy less toys and just wrap a bunch of boxes!

I also got to use one of my new presents to make us waffles for breakfast! I LOVE my new waffle maker and seriously want to make waffles every morning now. : )

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas, even though it was our first ever without any extended family. I thought it would feel lonely but the girls made it special with all their excitement.

I'll leave you with a cute video of Teya's first reaction to Christmas morning. I just love how she is so excited about everything and literally follows every sentence with an exclamation!

Christmas Eve 2010

This year we were planning on spending Christmas eve with several other families at one of our friends' homes. Unfortunately our hosts came down with the flu the night before and had to cancel. We were a little lost since those were our only plans so we decided very last minute to host everyone at our house instead. I think Taber was excited because it gave him a chance to grill up a turkey, a tradition we started last year in Minnesota.

Their were a few technical difficulties with our grill but Taber was able to figure it all out and the turkey came out beautifully. Perfectly tender and juicy. We also had ham, potatoes, salad, beans, rolls and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was quite the yummy feast!

After dinner the kids got dressed for a live presentation of the Nativity. This year Teya got to be an angel.

And Brinley reprised her role as a sheep. She was quite adorable. : )

Some of the shepherds with a little lamb and angel.

We also had the missionaries join us and they were able to fill in as the wisemen.

The kids did a really great job and it was nice singing Christmas hymns throughout the presentation. Here's the cast posing together at the end.

After our friends left we started getting ready for Santa. The girls sprinkled reindeer food on the porch so the reindeer would have a snack while Santa was inside.

Then we put out cookies for Santa and the girls opened their first presents,which were the gifts they made for each other.

We finally got them to bed around 9. They were soooo excited! Then it was time for "Santa's Helpers" to get to work. It was so much fun getting everything ready. By the end of the night we were tired but excited for the girls to wake up and see what Santa had brought.

One last picture of the room all ready for a magical morning : )

And here's a sweet video of the girls opening their presents for each other. Their reactions are so loving and sincere. It's moments like these that make being a parent so rewarding.