This Holiday Season

I have been really enjoying this Christmas season.  I've done a little Christmas shopping mostly things I would have bought anyways but since it's close to Christmas I've decided to just wrap them up so Kailah can have some fun. 
I'm really torn with Christmas lately now that I am older and Christmas means something different to me than it did when I was a child...I haven't figured out how we are going to celebrate as our kids get older, are we going to do the whole Santa thing? Should we make a special trip to Utah to see family each year? Should we do service every Christmas and just be thankful for what we already have??  I don't know!!! Thankfully this year Kailah still doesn't quite understand but I'm hoping by next Christmas I can figure this all out and start making our own family traditions.
I always had really BIG Christmases and my parents always made them really special, having divorced parents I also got double the presents..or so it seemed... At my Dad and Step-mom's house presents went half way up the tree and spread all the way out covering more than half of the room.(there was 12 kids they were buying for!) My step-mom Angie would line up everyone's gifts and we would all rip them open and see who could get to the tree first!  I always had at least ten gifts and some were even from the dollar store, and I didn't even care cause I was a kid and it was so magical.
I remember one year, we lived in Logan, UT and my mom couldn't afford to do Christmas and we actually had a Santa Clause come to our house and drop off donated gifts...I remember it being so special, even as a child, It didn't matter where the gifts came from. I was just so happy to have something new.
My mom always had a real Christmas tree, sometimes the tree was small and all the ornaments were home made or childhood crafts we made at school. 
All in all the best part about my child hood Christmases were staying up late with my siblings, being so excited we couldn't even sleep.  We would all sleep in the same room in the basement and listen as our parents would bring in the presents at 12:00.  I don't ever remember believing in Santa Clause and I never remember finding out it He wasn't real...I don't know if that was because I was the youngest of 4 older sisters, but I always new our parents did the Christmas shopping.  Christmas to me is about being with family, and feeling the spirit of giving.  I want my Children to grow up with this same feeling of family and love.

So this year Kailah has started learning about Santa Claus, she sees him (from a distance) every time we go to the mall and she points and says "Santa, HO HO HO!"  last weekend we had our Church Christmas Party and Santa came to visit and hand out stockings.  Kailah was so excited to see Santa and would just say his name and point saying "HO hO Ho" and then it was her turn to sit on his lap and as soon as he picked her up she started screaming! LOL!  It was so funny, she did not love that at all! he quickly gave her a stocking which quieted her for a minute and then she was done and screamed her way off his lap.

I already have wrapped gifts under our tree and Kailah hasn't touched them, I don't think she realizes they are there.  She love the "balls" on our tree and she also love plugging in our christmas tree lights even though only the top 1 strand (out of 4 strands!)lights up!

Just a few more really pretty pictures of Kailah.

 Love this face! CHEEEEEESE!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

I Love these first pictures of Kailah on Thanksgiving Day!  There are very few times when I will pull out the camera and she will look and smile or do something silly.  I cherish the photos I have with her being her silly self.

We spent Thanksgiving this year at our apartment with a few friends and my grandma.  This was the first time I have ever cooked a turkey...It wasn't til I got home that I realized it was only a Turkey breast.  It wasn't even the whole thing...It still grossed me out and thank goodness for my friend Nikki being there, she did all the dirty work, like washing the turkey and pulling the skin up on it, I put the timer in the thigh brushed seasoning on it and stuck it in the bag...I don't think I even touched it the whole time. LOL!

All the food turned out really great!  The only food that was a flop was my Jello.  It never set overnight! apparently if you put pineapple in it it doesn't set?? Well I didn't know that, I was really bummed about that since I never make Jello and was really craving it.

After dinner we watched a movie, took a nap, and played some nintendo.  It was a very relaxing day.

We spent the rest of the weekend with our friends.  We went to the Grove in LA and ate outside and enjoyed the christmasy atmosphere they have there. Mid-way through our dinner it even started to snow...fake snow from soap, but it was still really neat.