A Merry Christmas to All!

I know that this post is sooo late! But Christmas time just sucks you in and doesn't let ya go until well after the New Year! I'm truly impressed with everyone who actually got posts done while they had family around or doing all the crazy things that the holiday season entails.

When we got to my parents for the holidays, they had everything decorated beautifully. Holly especially loved the full sized nutcracker that was holding a little nutcracker in his hand. She wasn't totally loving when the large nutcracker opened his mouth for her, but she liked opening the little one's mouth and sticking her finger in it. A very fascinating concept for a little bugger like her!

In case you haven't been watching the news, its been snowing in the northwest! A LOT!!! Every time the news said it was going to snow, my parents would get another foot at their house. They are definitely in a snow belt where they live. My dad has been using the neighbor's tractor to plow the neighborhood after he (the neighbor) fell off his roof when he was shoveling the snow off and fractured his hip. :( We hope he has a speedy recovery and is up and around soon.

Holly loved to watch Pop Pop plow with the tractor or use the snow blower. She would stand on the bench at the window and watch as he went by.

I can't remember if I put a picture in of Holly from Christmas Eve when we were on our way to church, so if I didn't, here it is! She looks so adorable in her pretty dress and "fur" coat. Her favorite part of the outfit is her sparkly shoes, though! They are a smidge too big and fall off occasionally. When they do, she says "Uh-Oh" and wants them back on immediately.

Holly must have been a good girl this year, because Clause (Santa Clause, that is) showed up at Nana & Pop Pop's house and delivered big time! Holly got a dollhouse with both a Caucasian family and an Asian family. I think I'm going to ask a couple friends if I can use their addresses and get a Hispanic and African American family sent to me, too. Might as well have a well rounded, large family! It was interesting to watch Holly play with her dollhouse. If you asked her which doll was Mama, she picked up the blond adult lady. If you asked who Holly was, she picked up the Asian baby. If you asked who Van was, she picked up the Asian adult lady. Smart girl!

My brother and his wife got Holly her first tricycle! Its super cute, but WAY too big yet. They lowered the seat as far as possible and put blocks on the pedals, and Holly still can't make it go by herself. She loved to be pushed around the house by anyone who she could sucker into that. She also liked to sit on the top step and use the seat as a table. She's a little daredevil on it and is going to scare the crap out of me when she actually can make her tricycle go!

All those presents in the picture are hers, too, btw! She made out like a bandit. It took Holly two days to actually open all her presents. We thought we would get up early and open some, then open more when the rest of the family got there. Unfortunately, it snowed Christmas Eve and Pops had to snow blow in the morning so that everyone would be able to get to the house! Then, it was lunch & nap time, so Holly didn't even get started until well into the 2 o'clock pm hour! Here she is opening a Dora dish set. (Mark, if you are reading, your REALLY need to get Nick to start producing Kai Lan toys...)

One of the biggest hits that Santa brought was the shopping cart. Holly has spent hours playing with it and trucking around Nana's house with all her loot in it. Its really funny to watch her. She's in her "hoarding" phase and puts the strangest things in the cart to push around!
My mom spent the last couple of months making Van a quilt for Christmas. Since green is Van's favorite color, Nana made the quilt mostly green, with different colored leaves on it. It turned out beautifully and Van absolutely loves it! She thinks its so amazing that we can make a quilt out of a bunch of different fabrics like that. Here she is cuddled up in the chair with her quilt.

Last year, my mom and I took pictures of Holly in a little sleigh at Christmas time. It was her first Christmas and she was absolutely so precious standing there in the sleigh. We vowed that every year we would take pictures of Holly in the sleigh, at least until she gets too big to be in it. Then, maybe she'll have to be next to it or something. Here is last year's picture.

And here is the best of this year's pictures. Its so amazing to see how much she has grown and matured in just one year. Oh so beautiful!

We had an absolutely fabulous time at my parents, but all good things must come to an end. As we were leaving, Van said two things. A) She didn't want to leave and go back to school, and B) when were we going to come back again? Obviously, she loves our family as much as we love her! We talked a lot about how much we will all miss each other when her school year is over and she goes home. Of course, she is always welcome to spend her holidays with us when she comes back to America for college, and we will welcome her with open arms!