The Girl got a pony for Christmas!

This post will include a RIDICULOUS amount of pictures!

We did not get The Girl a whole lot of Christmas presents;
1) I don't have all the money in the world,
2) I don't want to make Christmas about presents and 'getting', and
3) she's still young enough that we can get away with it! :)

She had what we considered 3 'big' gifts (and one of them we didn't even purchase, thanks Aunt D, it is a huge hit!) and then a handful of little items.

I bought a small pony at Sam's Club almost 2 months ago, he has been hiding in our garage in a GIGANTIC contractor's size garbage bag since then. (I was beginning to feel really bad about it too... it was cold out there and a plastic bag could kill him! ;)

ANYWAY.... C went and got the girl up around noon (she is SO THE BEST sleeper! This new guy has big shoes to fill!!!) Here is the picture of her seeing her 'neigh' for the first time... the rest will have to be random and without caption b/c there will seriously be too many photos.



I'm pretty sure she likes it. I've named it Honey.





She had to give it a hug! How adorable is that???



and back on she goes... again, I'm pretty sure she likes it. What do you think? :)



A self inflating whoopie cushion... oh what joy it brings! (The dogs HATE it though! LOL)






Daddy 'beeped'!


This is what I was afraid of... it is her saying and signing for 'more'. In her defense there was a pile of wrapped things in her sight....



Books! YAY! We LOVE books!



I think she's 'getting' the whole present thing now...





We couldn't get it out of the packaging fast enough!






hmmm who is more excited?




Of course we couldn't forget the doggers! They each got their own stuffed elephant thing.





Waiting for Daddy to open one of his things.



This Cookie talks and she was letting him talk to Tigger (who is on her stocking) which was a gift to me from C a million years ago when we were still just dating.



Such concentration:





Who knew this would be SUCH A HIT!







That went on for quite a while, I might add. :D And we have shows nightly! (and daily and anytime she can corner one of us into either joining her or watching her)




The above little gem was just 2 little plastic sesame street figures. They don't do ANYTHING, I just thought she would think it was cool to have a 'Nernie'. Guess who has to go to Target now? ME! Because some genius packaged 'Nernie' with Big Bird and NOT Bert!!! The first thing she said after identifying the two characters... Where's Bert? Who can blame her!?!? So, I'll be heading out to Target this week in search of Bert. (I have to, she gets the OCD from SOMEONE!!!!!!) :)

WHEW! That was fun!

Got tons to say and even more pictures, I'm just gonna throw it all out there and let you guys figure out what goes with what. OK? Good.

Christmas eve C got to stay home, so that was a small gift right there; I had made sauce earlier in the week for tonight b/c I had seen a recipe about adding good things to your diet without sacrificing taste... this one was substituting pasta with spaghetti squash. Now, if you know us, you know that we are not good about eating fruits and veggies AT ALL, and I'm starting to feel badly about that because of The Girl, so I bought a spaghetti squash. I cut it in half lengthwise and scooped the seeds out. At this point it is just like working with a pumpkin, it even smells like one. Then I sprinkled it with some extra virgin olive oil and S&P, turned them cut side down on a roasting pan and shoved those bad boys in the oven at 400* for 45min- an hour. They even smelled good when they came out of the oven, they smelled kinda like roasted chicken actually, ANYWAY... then I scraped my fork inside of it to make the spaghetti noodle things and put some parm cheese on it then sauce and then b/c I think it looks pretty, more parm cheese on top! I really enjoyed mine, and I really enjoyed knowing that I was eating something that was good for me. The Girl really liked it too. C says he had trouble with 'the texture', but that the taste was really good. I'm pretty sure he was just having a mind over matter moment. He never knew of texture aversion until he met me! So here's some pix of Christmas eve dinner...

Right out of the oven, the one on the left is all scraped up already, to give you an idea...


mmmmm, ready? dig in!



I decided to start our own little CE traditions, and made sugar cookies. This year, I didn't have an assistant, but I'm pretty sure next year I will. I did have plenty of helpers to EAT the cookies though!


At one point, she even managed to help herself to some cooling on the rack on the counter. Note to self: push items you do not want on the floor or in the garbage or broken or missing or in someones mouth... further away from the edge! You will do good to remember this! ;)

There was much playing and fun and love in our house this night!

yes, that is a dog bed, but what can I say? It's comfy!



awww kisses! I mentioned there was love, right? ;)

She had sauce on her face, he was only trying to help! :)

We were SO BLESSED on The Girl's 1st birthday that she had so many presents that I put away a few for her to open later, when I thought about getting them out for her I decided that it was too close to Christmas. So I wrapped them up Christmas style and let her have them again! Some of you may have seen these gifts before. :) Thank you, she REALLY loves them! :D

Christmas eve we let The Girl open one gift, I would start the tear, let her continue it, but as soon as a piece came off in her hand she thought she was done, so mostly she enjoyed me ripping the paper and of course I made a big show of it so it looked REALLY fun. :D That night's gift was a puzzle with animals on it, we spent A LOT of time that night making animal sounds. :D I'll try to post some video another day for you. :D I'm not sure when The Girl went to bed, probably sometime after midnight, I put the rest of the gifts out and took some pictures (for you guys of course), b/c we all know that I don't scrapbook! (grrr!!!)



Here it all is... except for the stockings, they are 'hung by the chimney with care'. ;)




ok, I'll post Christmas day later, got lots to do!

~Til next time!