NYE Day

Friday, New Years Eve day, was a busy day! First Lily and I had to go to the golf course to take photos of the new and improved redecorated banquet room. There was a wedding Friday night and dad wanted photos to update the website. It was a beautiful winter wonderland theme, but I don't think there is enough color for the pictures to do it justice.

Lily, ready and excited to visit Daddy at work.Helping Daddy work.

Learning to read with her new TAG system on the car ride home.
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We had to hurry home since my Dad was waiting there with tons of people and tons of furniture and stuff from the California house. Yes, my parents sold the house in Downey. Linda wrote a beautiful blog entry about the house, but I don't have the energy to do that right now and I don't want to start crying again. It is very bittersweet and if you know me, you know I hate change and hate to see things go (I am a hoarder at heart), so this is a pretty big deal. BUT, on the plus side, I scored (new to me) furniture and got the Baby Grand piano! Technically, the piano I had that was my Grandma Emily's was left to me, the oldest grandchild and my parents told Linda she could have the baby grand, but we worked out a swap since I have the space for the larger piano.

How many dudes does it take to move a piano? I am counting 10 and I think there are more behind the trucks! Of course, 7 appear to be just spectators. :)

Lily loves it!

and so does Britney!!

Lunch and Playdate

This week after Christmas has been a pretty mellow week. It has been nice to stay at home, rest and play with all our new toys. But Lily was starting to get a little stir crazy, so Thursday afternoon we went to lunch and play with Makayla. It was nice to get out and see friends, I think Lily is missing everyone with no school and no dance!

(Lily is a NERD and insisted on wearing a Hello Kitty backpack clip / zipper pull clipped onto her jeans!)

Christmas Day

Earlier in the week, there was some doubt if Santa would even stop at our house at all. Lily was not on her best behavior. Apparently, Santa wasn't paying attention and Kingy failed at his job, since Santa brought Lily more than one awesome present!

Beauty and The Beast Tea Cart

Princess Castle (which she had asked him for).

Doll Coach/house. It has a bed, vanity and dressing area and folds up to a cute coach when you are done! It is pretty awesome.

Coming downstairs on Christmas morning.

VERY excited to see that we got a photo of Santa in action!

But even more thrilled with all her new toys!!

She got a Hello Kitty umbrella in her stocking. . .

. . . and a Tiana color wonder set. . . .

. . . . and a Hello Kitty brush and mirror set . . .

. . . and Olivia and Strawberry Shortcake.

Still diggin.

It took awhile to get to the actual presents from Chip and me since she just wanted to stop and play with everything.

The Stocking Stuffers

The only things she consistently asked for was a princess castle and Jasmine and Aladdin dolls. So it was totally random when out of all the presents under the tree, the first two she choose to open was Jasmine and then Aladdin! She was so happy!

"Oh, it's Daddy's turn to open a present. . . I'm going to go play then."

Olivia Books
Tiana Watch

More Books!

I got an awesome new comfy camera strap! I had to take a picture before I attached it to my camera.

I also got a new watch which Lily modeled for me today since I forgot to get a photo yesterday.

Chip spent the whole morning taking dolls out of their boxes. Those things are strapped in SO good -- it is not an easy task!

Lily got Minnie Mouse jammies.

Taking a quick break from opening presents since I realized we never got pictures in front of the tree!!

It took nearly 4 hours to open all the presents since every time Lily opened something new, we had to immediately get it out of the packaging so she could play with it. After she played for a few minutes we'd ask if she wanted to open another one and then the whole cycle started again! But it was fun! And I was glad we had tons of time to go at our own pace and let her enjoy each toy as she opened it.

Books for her new TAG reading system.

My new UGGs!

Chip, who didn't have his makeup on or something and didn't want his photo taken, got popcorn, video games, books and slippers!

Opening her last present -- another doll. She got lots of dolls, books, mini Barbie sets, Toy Story 3 & Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs on DVD. She also got a Children's Atlas which I thought was pretty cool, but Chip thought she wouldn't really like it. So it was awesome when she was all done opening her presents and he asked her what was her favorite present and she held up her Atlas and exclaimed, "This!!!". :)

A trail of toys and books.

Playing and watching the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade. She loved it since all her favorite people were there.

Britney was stoaked when all the presents were cleared out!

The rest of the morning we just relaxed and played with our new toys until it was time to get ready to go to celebrate with more great friends. Rhiannon's mom, Elan, who I have come to know very well over the last few months would not accept that we had to plans on Christmas Day and invited us over to celebrate Christmas with their family. Normally, I probably would have politely declined such a generous offer since I wouldn't want to impose on a family Christmas dinner, but we all get along so well and they are such warm and genuinely friendly people, that we gladly accepted the invitation and were all very excited to go spend the day with our friends.

Attempting to get another family photo in front of the tree -- didn't work out so well. :) But Lily looks cute. And, yes, Lily and I are wearing the same outfits as last night, but we hadn't planned on having Christmas plans and by the time these plans solidified I was not about to fight the holiday crowds for a new outfit!

Carys and Lily -- of course it was probably the best Christmas ever for them since they were together!

Setting up food and taking care of their babies.

Learning how to shoot Matthew's new toy gun-thing.

We had a beyond amazing dinner prepared by Rhainnon's dad. It was a really great Christmas and we all felt very welcomed and at home. Being that they are from Wales, we had Christmas Crakers and we all had to wear the paper crowns that came with the toy surprise in our crackers. :)

Me and Abigail -- Carys and Matthew's baby sister who was just born on Monday the 2oth. She is so precious!!