Christmas 2009

Ahh, another Christmas has come, wrecked havoc upon my house, and gone. We are left with an entire toy store of new toys to find places for in the house and lots of leftover Christmas candy. This year we celebrated Christmas at our house with my side of the family. We had 10 people total, which made for a very loud, fun, crazy holiday!

On Christmas Eve, the first event was cookie decorating. Ethan had a great time decorating (only with the blue frosting as that is his favorite color) and then promptly eating the end result. The sugar high started early in the day for him!

Olivia decorating her cookies. Aunt Rachel made her pink and purple frosting as those are Olivia's favorite colors. I'll explain her outfit later!

Mmmm, frosting!

Merry Christmas from the Baimas! Yep, this is the best family picture we were able to take this year. Not too eager to frame this one. And, yep, that is a mountain of presents in the background. Not all are for the kids, though. Remember we had 10 people!

Cheese!

OK, the outfit. After our traditional candle light and champagne Christmas Eve dinner, Olivia and Ethan put on a play that they had worked on through the afternoon. It is titled "Sacagawea (Olivia) Fights Captain Hook (Ethan) to Save the Christmas Animal Friends". This is Olivia lining up her animal friends now, and narrating the story. Ethan was more eager to participate during practice, and seemed to lose interest once it was show time. Olivia's imagination impresses me everyday.

We allowed each kid to open one present on Christmas Eve. Here is Olivia's reaction to her Three Muskateers Barbie. She loves that the Barbie has a mask/crown and a sword.

Preparing the milk and pop tart for Santa. I guess he is tired of cookies this year. Ethan was in charge of the carrot for Rudolph.

Christmas morning. The kids must have been good this year as Santa made a stop at our house. Here are the gifts this year - a very elaborate Disney castle for Olivia (found during our Disney vacation in October and shipped back home) and a Woody and Buzz doll set for Ethan.

Ethan with his new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse from Santa.

Did I mention that there were a lot of presents to open on Christmas Day? This year, however, Olivia did not become overwhelmed. Two years ago Olivia completely shut down halfway through opening presents, said "Santa brought me too many presents" and refused to open any more until later in the day. That was certainly not an issue for her now!

Each kid went to the Mini O'Bierne Crisis Nursery Holiday Store this year to select presents for various people. Ethan was SO proud that not only did he select presents for us by himself, but he was able to keep Joe's present a secret (he told me my gift in less than a minute). However, as you can see, he gave Joe a CUBS coffee mug. As we all laughed at the humor of it, Ethan became very upset and told us to all stop laughing since it was not funny. So, Joe is now the "proud" owner of a Cubs coffee mug, as Ethan knows that Joe likes to drink coffee in the mornings.

Joe with his gifts from Olivia - a basketball figurine (since he collects figures and bobbleheads) and a transparent flashlight since she thought he needed one.

My picture with the kiddos. Ethan gave me CUBS sunglasses (on my head) since I always wear sunglasses in the car. I had to wear them all day and he was so proud of them. He kept pointing to them and telling me that he bought them just for me. Olivia gave me a "beautiful purple feathery" Princess plaque which is hanging in the kitchen.

My parents' dog, Marigold, had to come for Christmas this year as she just had surgery and was confined to her crate. She is such a nice dog and allowed Olivia to dress her up like a princess with a crown and cape and take pictures of her all day.

Olivia and her castle.

It was a long two days, OK? Mmmm, homemade peppermint trifle with white chocolate mousse!

Ethan loves this guitar, even if Santa did bring it for Olivia. He claims he "rocks out" on it.