So this post will be a little picture heavy. I apologize. It's taken me a while to get to this post so I thought I would at least make it detailed and fun. This year for Christmas we decided to go down to California. Jacob's dad was back in town and we wanted to see him and so we packed up the car and off we went. We stayed with Auntie M, Uncle Bill and Maggie in Newport Beach and we were happy to see them. (We of course stopped at Miguel's Jr. for dinner)
On Saturday we got to sleep in and hang out a bit. Our first stop was to go see Uncle Henry. Henry is Kira's Godfather and man was he full of fun gifts. I won't go through the whole list but it consisted of a Leapster 2, lots of Tinkerbell stuff, a scooter and more! Kira was sure to give him a hug after opening all her gifts.
Then it was off to Uncle Bill and Aunt Cheryl's house. We were happy to see everyone and got there just in time for dinner! Gramjan did a great job of picking up the honey baked ham and made her diabetic coma yams. Yummy! There was also some great corn stuff that Cheryl made that was good. After dinner we got to open gifts.
This is my mom, opening her gift from my brother. He has sent it down early with STRICT instructions on when to open it. My dad (to her left) and I knew what it was. She was a tortured soul for a couple of days wondering what it could be.... would it be a joke from Uncle Butt (as Kira calls him) or would it be what she hoped it would be?
Turns out it's what she hoped it would be. A onesie for my soon to be born niece or nephew. Mom cried and we realized that my dad was a good secret keeper (he had known since before Thanksgiving) She, as I am, is every excited for this new addition. He/she will be grand-kid number 6! Can't wait to find out what they will be having as so far the boys out number the girls 3-2.
Kira got some great dress up stuff from Gram-Jan and Papa Mike and had to put her sparkly stuff on right away.
Here she is hugging my Papa to say thanks for the dress and doggie she got. Needless to say she was the most busy on Christmas Eve but she loved every minute of it.
This was part of the last gift of the night. Uncle Bruce had it all planned out. She had to open this in the order he set up for her.... first a BIG roll of paper. She opened this and then said, "Paper? - that's boring!"
Then a pack of fun stuff, crayons, markers, chalk, water paint and an eraser. hhhhhhmmmm it's more interesting now......
And then the BIG gift... an easel. It has a chalk board on one side, a white board on the other and the paper roll comes up through the middle and she get's to put all kinds of fun things on the paper. So far, the paper has served as her canvas for her sticker dolls that she got from Santa this year. She has really enjoyed making outfits for them all and they are all displayed on her wall in her room
On Christmas morning, Santa left gifts for Kira at Auntie M's place. he didn't leave much as Uncle Henry, and our families had pretty much covered everything a gal could want. BUT Santa did leave a stocking full of fun things, princess headband, hair clips and pony-tail holders. A new necklace and bracelet..... AND... the sucker Kira had been asking for for weeks! That Santa really knows his stuff!!
Santa gave Kira some fun dress up stickers, and a BRAND NEW RADIO. Kira listens to the radio every night as she is going to sleep and had hi-jacked Jacob's. Jacob felt it time for Kira to have her own so Santa made two people very happy that day! Kira LOVES it !
She also got a new bathrobe from her mommy and daddy and has used it after every bath. She says it's SUPER WARM & COZY! After a yummy breakfast we got ready for church. The Anderson clan all went to church together in Placentia and the cousins had a fun time sitting together and were all very well behaved! I even got a great cuddle from Corinne! After church, we all went to Grandma Jetta's for food, fun and gifts!
Here is Kira in front of Auntie Val's trees. I love it and plan on stealing it from her soon!!
Here are most of the Anderson cousins. We surely miss Elizabeth and Tommy and hope they can come visit us soon!
Kira got some great gifts from everyone. Her La La Lopsy doll being one of the top gifts. Kira has named her Flower and Flower's mouse is Zoe. After gifts the kids played, the adults talked and joked, and in the process of adults talking the great mystery of "What is behind the wood paneling" was revealed. Jetta and Valerie have been painting the house and putting up curtains and Jesse installed some new laminate wood floors. In the process, the floor boards were not put back and so Jacob spied some pretty crazy patterns near the floor and decided to see what the pattern was........ it was this!
Proof that wood paneling can be better than somethings...
After that we went to hang with some good friends for a while, Mike and Krista and then back to Auntie M's. Monday we packed, had lunch with Papa, my mom and dad, and uncle and aunt. Stopped by the Anderson house again for yummy left overs and home we went. The traffic was worse than we thought it would be and we got home at midnight (left at 6 or so) But Jacob and I had a fun talk and Kira slept most of the way.
We hope to make it down again soon. We want to be able to see everyone instead of just family. We miss you all so much but we know we are in the right place. I'll try to keep up on the blog more this year......
'til next time
