Christmas Cookies

 The Thursday after Christmas we packed up the car and headed south to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. We drove to Jon and Amanda's, picked them up, stopped for road snacks at Jim and Patty's (an awesome little coffee place/bakery in NE Portland) and kept on driving to my Dad's house. We visited with Dad and Holli for the day and then headed back to Jon and Amanda's. Mom took Leila for the night and the big kids went to see a concert in Portland. Petunia and the Vipers play Portland pretty frequently and J and A love them. This year they invited us and what made it even more special was that Daniel's family was in town so we ended up going to a concert with all these friends from high school. What a night!!!

The next morning, we met at Jon's house again for cookie decorating! Daniel and Jojo joined us and the girls had a blast decorating...and licking the frosting off their fingers. Good thing neither of them was sick!

Auntie Amanda joined in too!

And of course, I had to get in on the cookie decorating action too!

That night we went to Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom's for dinner. We watched White Christmas again! Love that movie!

Grammy and Leila

"Sisters, sisters! There were never such devoted sisters."

Christmas Afternoon

 Christmas afternoon, after Leila's nap, we headed over to Gramma and Papa's house. We opened presents, ate dinner and watched White Christmas. 

When we got home that night, Leila wanted to try out her new sleeping bag! She is so excited to use it this summer in the tent...yeah, right. We'll see if that really happens! 

Christmas 2012

 We got home from ice skating, put Leila in the bath and then got ready for Santa's visit! Leila picked out the cookies she thought he would most enjoy. A few sugar cookies and a couple Ritz crackers with peanut butter and chocolate.

I think the skating did its trick, because she wasn't up too late that night!! Christmas morning finally arrived! We had told Leila to call to us when she woke up so we could all come out front at the same time, but that didn't happen...of course not! She tip-toed into our room, woke us up and told us all about the presents Santa left for her. She had already been awake for who knows how long playing by the tree with her new toys. Aww, Christmas magic!!

She took a little break from presents to finish off Santa's crumbs. 

She couldn't wait to put on her new green Chris Kratt (Wild Kratts - an animal show on PBS Kids) shirt!

Christmas babies: Adam and Adora

Santa brought her a pink Barbie car, a toy pool for Barbie and Belle the talking Christmas dog. The biggest hit of the holiday was Daddy's present...He-Man toys. He went to the Toy Stable, a shop that sells vintage 80s toys, and bought her a set of her very own He-Man figures. I don't know if the giver or receiver of that gift was more excited!

Christmas Eve Skating

 We started a new tradition this year! I guess it can't be a tradition though until we do it more than once, huh? Well, we plan on making it a Tavern Family Tradition on Christmas Eve...as long as the skate rink is open! We decided to go ice skating on Christmas Eve! We ate dinner at home and then put on some festive gear and hit the ice. What a great idea! Lots of other folks were wearing red, green and white. We think it helped tire Leila out, which helped her sleep instead of laying there with anticipation all night waiting for Christmas Eve.

Leila loves when the zamboni cleans the ice because it marks snack time!

Every time we take a rest, Leila cleans her skate blades. What a weirdo!

 Hopefully we can do this again next Christmas Eve! We are all looking forward to it!

Christmas Eve Day

 Last year we started a new tradition of going to GG and GP's (Great Gramma and Great Papa) house for brunch, presents and family time on Christmas Eve rather than having them venture out on Christmas Day. We did the same thing this year and it was such a nice time.

 Leila opened a new set of sheets from GG and GP.

GP always finds the greatest gifts for Leila! This year, in addition to the sheets Leila was hoping for, he found a pillow shaped like a cat. Little did we know that GP was foreshadowing what our newest addition to the family would look like (more on that to come).

Elf

Chris and I saw Elf, The Musical in early December and we decided that we wanted to bring Leila back to see it. It was such a heart-warming story and the actor that played Buddy was terrific!! We looked at ticket prices in mid-December and then double guessed ourselves. We weren't 100 percent sure that we wanted to spend over 100 dollars per ticket. Then Chris decided on the 21st that we were doing it! We looked on line and were able to find seats on the orchestra level for 49 dollars a piece!! Wow! We were thrilled. Chris printed a picture of the program and wrapped it up. We let Leila open in on Saturday night and she was so excited when she realized that it meant we were taking her to see Elf the next afternoon!! 

 We got to Seattle a little early and walked over to the Westlake tree and then around the shopping center.

We went on a search for frozen yogurt, but couldn't find any. 

Almost showtime! Outside the 5th Avenue Theatre

 The lobby was all decorated for Christmas.

The camera phone wasn't the best for the lighting in the lobby, but it will have to do. 

 At intermission, we met up with some friends who were also there. Leila and Elliott:

 After the show, which Leila LOVED, we headed around the back to the ally and waited for Buddy (aka Matt) to come out. He was the kindest person ever! He took the time to ask Leila about her favorite parts, sign her program and even take a picture with her. What a wonderful guy!! He is definitely on Santa's NICE LIST!