To begin, we already had the big family Thanksgiving / Christmas celebration with Stacy's mom's family, so we now move onto last Tuesday evening, December 23rd...
We went over to Stacy's mom and step dad's house, and had a small get-together that was just for the five of us.
We had a good meal, and then it was time for presents.
It didn't take Sophie long to figure out the whole presents thing. She had previous experience both on her birthday, and at thanksgiving, but that was just a warm up for the next few days...
Sophie got a lot of nice gifts from Deb and Duane, and was especially thrilled with the last present, a sled!
Duane and I pulled her across the carpet several times (until we got tired) - she loved it.
It didn't take long for her to figure out just how much stuff she could get into her sled, so that she could drag it around herself...
We had a nice evening, and then went home so I could get sleep before work the next morning...
On Wednesday (December 24th - Christmas Eve) - I had to work a half day, and then we hopped in the van with my sister Allison, and I drove us all up to Aitkin (so close to the edge of the Earth you can see the dragons lurking) to see my mom and step-dad.
Again, we had a good meal, and then it was off to the presents! But first, Stacy and Allison took Sophie upstairs so that we could pretend the Santa had come with presents (the tree was pretty bare when we first got there.)
One of Sophie's first gifts was some dress-up stuff - a crown and earrings...
Now would be a good time to mention Sophie's unwrapping style. She tears a small piece off, then must give it to someone or set it carefully on the floor before tearing again. We had to keep egging her on to get her to get the paper off in any reasonable length of time - it was pretty funny.
Sophie got a nice porcelain doll with a music box, a "Moses basket" with stand, and a whole bunch of play kitchen stuff (to go with our big gift for her - the Rose Petal Cottage - see more on that below)
We left around 8PM, and headed home so that we could try and get Sophie's gifts from us all ready before Christmas morning.
Well, it took a lot longer than we thought it would to wrap all of Sophie's gifts and set up her play room withe the cottage and fort. We got to bed about 1:00 AM, and had to get up at a decent time so that we'd have time for our Christmas, as well as for me to make the meatballs for the Ziegler family celebration on Christmas afternoon.
We finally got out of bed around 8:45, and went downstairs to see what Santa brought Sophie this time!
By now, Sophie knew what presents were, and knew they were for her. She wasted very little time in digging in...
From us Sophie got an easel, a guitar, a Geo-Trax train set, a couple of kids games that we can play with her, and a mini mixer for her kitchen - which she had yet to see...
Which we set up down in her playroom...
The cottage is taller than she is, so it fits perfectly. She love playing house with us with all of her new stuff...
We also got her this modular fort from the people who make the Cranium games. It's kinda like the old putting blankets over living room furniture style, but modernized. She loves playing peek-a-boo in here.
All of this fun took us until after 11 AM, which put me wayyyyy behind on the meatball making.
Stacy gave Sophie a bath, and I cooked like mad. We were able to arrive at my step-sister's house only 30 minutes late.
We ate, and then came the presents, which were heavily focused on Sophie and her cousins Maddie and Jake...
Sophie got a set of twins, with a stroller and rocking seat, as well as some more play food and some bigger girl Legos (Duplo now, not the super big mega-blox).
Needless to say, she was very happy to get even more babies...
Here's Madison, Becky, Sophie, Steve, and Jake, posing together
Sophie also got some CDs, and the "Horton Hears a Who" DVD - so now we have a new movie to put into the van and listen too 500 times :)
Sophie has been working on playing catch with me and Stacy, and she needed to try some more playing with Grandpa...
We got home late in the afternoon, and crashed for basically the rest of the weekend...
Now we are a little more than a day away from the new year. 200i8 went by really fast!
I'm still working on the China DVD, but it will take some more time - there's a lot to do to make it coherent.
That's all for now - see you next year!
Larry
