The day after Christmas everyone was gone from Mark’s parent’s house except us and Don and Patsy.  It was a fairly relaxing morning even though we were getting ready to leave after lunch. 

Lillian had a great time reading with Grandpa and rediscovering a lot of her new things.  I think it’s safe to say that this was one of our favorite Christmases. 

As always, Christmas Day was at Mark’s parent’s house.  Since we were already in Illinois on Christmas Eve we just stayed at their house overnight.  Luckily Santa knows everything and knew to find Lillian at Grandpa and Grandma’s house instead of at our house.  Isn’t Santa amazing?!?

Lillian got a lot of new things to play with including a tag junior and books to read with it, play fruits and veggies, puzzles, and plenty of other things.  She also got a pair of slippers that Grandma knitted for her and a few outfits made by Grandma as well.

Here the two puzzles were taped together and she was trying her hardest to get them apart.  Hank just took everything in and watched Lillian’s every move.

Around eleven every one else started to arrive and we were able to eat the appetizers before the main meal was done.  Lillian actually loved the meatballs (she rarely will eat beef). 

While having appetizers we tend to to just sit around and chat with everyone.

After our meal we all gathered downstairs again to open gifts.  Lillian once again liked handing out the presents to other people, but when we played the grab bag game she didn’t fully understand why she couldn’t open some.

Even Hank got something from Grandma.

It’s hard to tell in this picture, but Lillian got a penguin hat and gloves.  The ear muffs of the penguin are even stuffed to help keep her ears warmer.  Since she is so small though, we can’t pull the hat down all the way or her eyes are covered.  She will be able to use this hat for awhile!

After all of the gift opening, we once again get to relax and sit around and chat and/or play with our new stuff.  Here Caitlyn and Lillian are playing with Lillian’s new game Zingo, which is a lot like Bingo.

There are more pictures here.

Christmas Eve started out at Mark’s Uncle Jeff and Aunt Dorene’s house.  We had a tasty lunch of soup and Italian Beef sammies and then it was time to open presents.  Lillian actually wanted the reindeer antlers on and kept having us push the button on the top so that it would play the music.

The weather for Christmas and well, December, was unusually warm.  It was in the 40’s and sunny around Christmas.  Some may complain that we didn’t have snow, but we’re ok with that.  It makes traveling much easier.

This year we decided to draw names instead of buying for everyone. 

Dorene had Sue and got her a fleece that was embroidered with the lake’s name and a picture of a cabin.

Poor Reese didn’t know what to think of all of the commotion.  But she was so great with Lillian and even let her pet her back for awhile. 

Lillian was spoiled but I guess that is what you get when you are the first grandchild/grandniece.  The picture above is of her limbo game that she got from Jeff, Dorene, Elizabeth, and Rebecca.  She also got some clothes, puzzles, books and probably things I am forgetting.

Mark’s Grandma (his mom’s mom) always got him a box of school supplies each year and it’s probably one of his most memorable gifts.  So to keep the tradition going, Sue decided to do the same thing for Lillian.  She got a ton of stuff and she loves it!  She does something each night from the box.  Coloring and gluing are her favorites.

The kids are on the left and the adults are on the right.  Not that the description is really accurate anymore.

Late afternoon, we headed over to Karen and Julie’s house for Christmas Eve with the rest of Mark’s mom’s side of the family.  Here Lillian and Rebecca seem to be having a lot of fun.

Elizabeth, Rebecca, Michael, and Bryan just hanging out.

Here you can see the crayons and sketch pad that Lillian got in her supply box.  You can also see why we think that she is going to be a lefty like her uncles (both Mark’s brother and my brother are lefties). 

This time Elizabeth and Lillian are being silly.  Or rather, Lillian might be tackling Elizabeth for some reason, but who knows.

Joanne got Lillian this “radio” with headphones.  It plays a ton of kid’s songs and without the headphones plugged in will play through the speaker.  Lillian had a lot of fun listening to the songs and singing along.

I don’t have any pictures of the game that Dorene had those of us 30 and under play in order to win a Target gift card, because, well, we were playing.  Anyway, she wrapped the gift card, and then put it in a box, and wrapped that, then repeated a few times (probably at least 4), and eventually it ended up in a gift bag. 

So to play, you need two dice and everyone gets in a circle on the floor.  We had the oldest roll first (which happened to be Mark the first time and me the second…sad, sad day) and if you got doubles then you were able to start to attempt to unwrap the gift.  Each person rolled but when they rolled doubles they got to steal the gift and try to unwrap it.  The person that got the gift card fully unwrapped before the next person rolled doubles got to keep the gift card.  It just so happened that we got both gift cards! 

There are a few more pictures here. 

When coming home from my mom’s we stopped at Mark’s parent’s house. His aunt Patsy and Uncle Don were there from Alaska so it was great to be able to see them more than just on Christmas.

We decided to bake Christmas cookies while there because it used to be a tradition for Mark’s parents and us until we moved up here.  Patsy and Lillian started out by unwrapping the kisses and peanut butter cups.  Lillian did a great job and didn’t eat any unless she was told that it was ok.  Think that will happen next year or any other year after this?

Lillian also got to help with the sugar cookies, that we actually ended up not getting decorated.

She had to have her hand in everything, which was fine because that is another reason we decided to bake the cookies, so that she could experience the fun of it.

She even helped Patsy coat the Peanut Butter Blossoms in sugar.  She wanted to help roll the cookies into balls but just smashed them so coating in sugar had to do.

We had a great time and maybe sometime we will actually get to finish the sugar cookies.

Lillian now likes to smile for the camera.  Here she is playing with her new kitchen that she got from Grandma (my mom) for Christmas.  She kept saying “one more” after every picture that we took.  She would also say “I smile.”  It amazes us how quickly her vocabulary is growing and how many full sentences she is using.

We drove down to my mom’s apartment the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with my family.

Lillian of course loved opening her gifts, but I think she had as much fun handing out other people’s gifts.

She would ask me who the gift was for and then take it to that person.  Most of the time she wanted to help open the gift.

Here are my mom and Mark opening gifts.

Lillian enjoying something to eat and playing with her new kitchen and play food.  I’m not sure if she is really eating or “eating” her play food.  

We are normally able to stay with Mark’s grandma when we head down there to visit but she wasn’t available so we stayed in a hotel instead.  It was Lillian’s first night in a hotel and she did excellent.  My sister also stayed in the same hotel so the whole family came over so that Lillian could still get to bed at a decent time and not have to be moved. 

We did a little swimming but the pool wasn’t heated enough so we quickly got cold.  We brought the leftover ham and made sandwiches and had chips, a cheese ball, and cookies for dinner.  We showed my mom how to use her Kindle and just hung out. 

I think Lillian thought it was neat that we were in a different place.  And she really loved that Aunt Ashley was right across the hallway for her to go visit.  I think she spent more time with Aunt Ashley in the hotel than she did with us.  She wanted to explore the hotel, so Ashley and I took her downstairs and found some yogurt and milk. 

It was a nice Christmas celebration, and to add to that, the food was fantastic as well as the weather for driving. 

One night Lillian was super tired but for some reason we were eating late that night so we tried to quickly finish so we could get her to bed.  While we finished eating we had her lay down on the couch and watch Thomas.  I don’t think it was even five minutes before she was out like a light.  I love how peaceful she looks when sleeping. 

Lillian is learning how to use the iPad and loves playing games and coloring on it.  It amazes me how quickly she catches on.  She knows which apps are for her and how to avoid the ads and get into the parts that she can actually play with.  One app even has where you have to swipe and she knows how to get past that as well.

There are many different activities that can be downloaded but some of her favorite are ones with songs, puzzles, and coloring.

A few weekends ago we had Mark’s company holiday party.  It was semi-formal attire so I had out my dress shoes.  Lillian found them and decided to wear them around the house.  The lighting was fantastic so Mark was able to play with the camera and get some pretty awesome shots.  I love those little feet!

Sunday after Thanksgiving we decided to decorate for Christmas.  We talked about doing it while my family was still here but didn’t get around to it before most of them left.  But Ashley was still here to help.

Lillian had such a fun time putting up the tree.  She was in charge of taking the branches out of the box and handing them to Aunt Ashley or to Mommy. 

You are supposed to decorate while still in jammies, right?  Since we are all short we had to bring a chair over to help get the top lights on the tree.  Mark was nice enough to put the star on the top because even with a chair I can barely reach!

Lillian liked helping and even put a lot of ornaments on the tree.  She actually did a really nice job and didn’t put all of them in one spot.

There are more pictures here. 

We hosted Thanksgiving this year for both sides of our family.  We ended up with 13 people total which was a nice amount.  Not too many people where you couldn’t move in the house.  The food was delicious and included two turkeys, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, sweet potatoes, taffy apple salad, noodles, and pumpkin crunch cake. 

My family and Mark’s brother, Jeff, stayed until Sunday, so we had plenty of time to hang out.  As you can see, Lillian really enjoyed playing with Aunt Ashley (Miss Ashee according to Lillian). 

We mainly hung out around the house, but did find our way to a few stores over the weekend.

Jeff’s girlfriend, Jessie, even came to visit for part of the weekend. 

Lillian (and us too) loved having everyone here and was such a good girl!

It’s after weekends like this that we really miss having family so close, but it also makes us realize that Lillian is still able to know everyone in the family even though they don’t live in town.  Which gives me more reason to keep posting so that our family can still know what is going on in our life.

There are a few more pictures here. 

Our neighbor, Jimmy, came over to play for a little while a few nights.  If you remember, Lillian loves Jimmy and always asks where he is if we are outside and he isn’t. 

Lately, Lillian has been in a hitting stage so it was really nice to watch her play with Jimmy so well. 

She watches his every move and shares with him, and just in general looks up to him.  Each time after he has been over to play she gets upset when it’s time for him to go home.