Christmas Morning at our House

Christmas morning started off the same way that it did last year; I got up and took a shower and then we had to wake Ava up. Since she is still too little to be super excited about Santa, she doesn't get up at 3 in the morning like I used to do and then have to wait until 5. So Bradley and I went into her room at about 8 and she was just lying in bed. I so wanted a picture of her sleeping, but as soon as I walked in, she popped her eyes open.

The first thing she noticed when we went downstairs was her Dora dance mat. I practically had to pull her away from the maracas and go see what was under the tree. The next thing catching her eye was her luggage that Santa had brought in preparation for our trip to Disney World. Then she noticed her Little People. Since we had to be in KY by noon, we had to speed up the morning by opening our gifts to Ava and then her stocking was last. Her face just lit up when she saw all the Little People in her stocking, not to mention all the candy! Plus while she was opening her stocking, I tried to get my fix of A Christmas Story!

Santa had also eaten his cookies and the Christmas mouse ate its cheese. I hope they were happy when they left our house. Ava wasn't too sure about the food being gone and really kept fiddling with Santa's plate and leftover crumbs.

Zoe on our bed waiting for us to get up.

One sleepy little eye opened...

Ava with her portable DVD player from Mommy and Daddy.

Trying on her princess boots.

December 24th - Christmas Eve at Our House

Christmas Eve was celebrated with a trip to church for a communion service and then dinner and presents here at our house with Nana, Pop, Aunt Bethany, and Uncle Timmy. Ava and Nana

Ava wanted to tear into the presents as soon as Nana and Pop arrived, but she had to wait.

Ava with a beautiful dress from Aunt Bethany.

Ava with her baby stroller from Nana and Pop.

Ava with her Babydoll Highchair from Nana and Pop.

Ava enjoying her new table from Aunt Bethany.

Ava hanging up Santa's magic key so he can come in to leave her presents.

Ava leaving reindeer food and magic glitter for the reindeer to find their way to our house.

We left our cookies and milk for Santa and a piece of cheese for the Christmas mouse.

Our stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

December 23rd - Candy making

December 23rd saw us making corn flake candy and chocolate covered pretzels for all the different Christmas celebrations we would be attending.

Dec. 22 - Gingerbread Houses

We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas. I have been downloading pictures and weeding through all the ones I took, but I still have one more memory card to go. So I am just going to continue with the 22nd and our gingerbread houses.

I had never made a gingerbread house of nay kind until this year. To make it easy we decided to do houses made out of graham crackers and icing. Of course, Stacy does a lot of cake making and decorating, so I should have known better than to do it with her! HA!HA! Let's just say that Stacy and JonThomas had a mansion, and Ava and I had a trailer. After several structural collapses, Stacy rigged mine up so Ava would have something to decorate. But in all fairness, Ava was more interested in eating the decorations that in using them as decorations. She loved the frosting, Hershey's kisses, and M&M's the best. It was a very funny, memorable morning and I hope it is a tradition that we can continue next year.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Rogers' House! We hope Santa brings you all that you want! ;)

December 22nd - Christmas with JonThomas

On the 22nd, our friends Jonathan, Stacy, and JonThomas came over to do gifts and make gingerbread houses. Ava was in heaven to have JonThomas here, but apparently is in tattletell mode, because she kept being whiny and running over to tell when JT was playing with her toys. But like always, she was sad when he left! Girls! Anyway, Ava is crazy about JonThomas and she loves playing with him. After they first got here, they exchanged gifts. JT gave Ava a piano and a Fairies sticker book. Ava gave JT a mini-Clue game (late bday) and a Webkinz cat. Ava was so cute opening her presents and JT was tickled with his. We got them together for a few pictures, but they ended up being mostly crazy little outtakes. You can see that everything JT does, Ava has to do. I will post some of their gingerbread houses at a later time.