Christmas Celebration

Christmas has always been a great holiday for my family and me so naturally it has been hard the past few years to be away from my mom and sister.  This year we were still unable to go and be with them since I am at the end of my pregnancy with Gabe but we managed to make it a wonderful celebration for Makenzi.  The biggest part of her Christmas was that she got a full new room completely done in Disney princess style plus new toys that are also all Disney Princess as well.  We were also able to get her some new clothing thanks to Walmart having a ton of 24 month and 2T clothing on sale for a buck.  This year was all about getting the most for the least especially since we are also getting ready for Gabe to arrive and needed to get little boy stuff.  It is amazing how much I was able to reuse from Makenzi for him but yet still didn't have nearly close to everything we needed.  But now we are in a better position to have him and after we get the house cleaned up from Christmas and get the rooms set up for "easy" on mom care of the kids, we will be just about ready for him. 

So this year we celebrated Christmas with Ty's family here in North Carolina. It was pleasant overall to be surrounded by family and watch Kenzi and Kinley, her cousin, play together as well as watch them both interact with their new cousins, Sarah and Dakota who are just 11 weeks old. Kenzi was very gentle with the twins and surprised us by being helpful or at least trying to be helpful.  She was mimicking me when they would be crying or making noise I would go and talk to them or comfort them and after seeing me do that once she tried to as well. Then one time she was baby talking to them sweetly and acted like she was gonna pick them up which we had to explain to her that she wasn't big enough to hold them yet but she could give them a kiss which she did.  She is just a big sweet heart and I can't wait to see her become a big sister, I know she is going to be a big helper and love bug. Anyway, we were able to celebrate with family which is how it should be and that made the celebration special.  I know that as time goes on that we will find we can't always have the big family gathering so the ones we can do are special.  The one tradition we are starting with Kenzi is a tradition passed along from my family where we open one gift on Christmas Eve, that being our Christmas Pjs, however we modified it to include her also opening her Christmas outfit to make Christmas morning a little easier with getting her changed.  That part may or may not last as she gets older.  We may drop having her open her out fit for Christmas and let her open that Christmas day but that is in the future and we don't know how things will be at that point.  Anyway, so she had fun opening those on Christmas eve.  Christmas day we got up and had breakfast with the family and then Kenzi opened all her gifts from Santa.  She had fun playing with them throughout the day and then after dinner was over with all the family we all opened the gifts from eachother and Kenzi also got to open the gifts from us in front of everyone however she got bored about 1/2 way through and just wanted to take her new toys and go play not open anymore so Ty and I had to open some of them for her.  We all decided that we needed to start opening presents much earlier than we did since both Kenzi and Kinley were getting grumpy towards the middle and into the end of opening the gifts. 

So that was Christmas.  One things I have decided to start doing for both out children is to start buying them next year's Christmas gifts in January this way I can get one or 2 Christmas gifts a month for each kid and they will have tons of Christmas gifts come Christmas and we wont be broke. I have also decided to start the month after their birthdays with buying their next years birthday gifts, I think just one per month on that so we can get them everything everything we want them to have, or that they want.  It just makes sense for us to do that and stash it away, granted I will have a running list of everything they get each month for those special days so that I don't buy it 2x and so I know what I still need to get.  Like this coming year for Makenzi I think we are going to get her dress up clothing from Disney princess dress up to Minnie Mouse since those are her favorites. And for Gabe we will start buying Winnie the Pooh stuff for starters and possibly some Cars stuff or Mickey Mouse stuff, we will see. 

Well, to wrap this post up and finish my little family update.  Kenzi is doing good.  We are about to start potty training her plus switch her over to a toddler bed which she seems to be interested in doing so I am excited to get that all going.  The sooner she is potty trained the easier it will be since her diapers are running us about $50 a month and Gabe's aren't going to be any cheaper.  She is also getting into her picky eater phase where she doesn't want to try new things and goes through fades where she only wants chicken or only wants shrimp.  Then some times she just wants buttered pasta or lightly sauced pasta, where some days she just wants snack foods like puffs or cheerioes.  It never fails to amazing me how I can take time and get her a bunch of food she liked yesterday ready today and then she doesn't want it.  I think she is starting to really pick up words now as well but not fast enough to keep her from getting frustrated with us when we don't understand what she wants.

Ty and I are also doing well.  We are stressing about the coming arrival of Gabe since we wont have a lot of help when we need it but everything will work out.  Just have to modify sleeping arrangements and get everything ready and brought down so I can have everything within reach.  I think he is more nervous than I am but he will never admit that but we are both ready for Mr. Gabe to be here already.  Well, I hope that 2012 will be an amazing year for all of us.  I am ready to say good bye to 2011, a very hard year, and am looking to the future in a positive light.  I wish you all a very happy new year and will post on how we celebrated ringing in 2012 once we have done so.  I hope you all had a wonderfully merry Christmas and happy holiday to all my friends who don't celebrate Christmas.