Christmas 2014

We opted for a quiet Christmas vacation at home in Redwood City, with a couple of trips across the Bay to Danville to spend time with my family :) Daisy had a lot of fun with the Christmas tree and re-arranging all of the (gratefully shatterproof) ornaments, and she got SOOOO excited each time we saw Christmas lights on houses. Holidays truly are more magical with kids, especially once they start to understand what's going on!

"helping" set up the Christmas tree

The Menlo Park stake does this AMAZING creche exhibit each December, with nativities from all over the world. I took Daisy, and we spent most of the time in the kids' room playing with the baby Jesus dolls in the dress-up nativity area. All five of them. She was obsessed with babies and was not good at sharing them. Haha.

This is also the month that Daisy became obsessed with her "by-oooh
 shirt. She loves BYU and the cougars! Chris is so proud.

It rained a TON in December too. Our front sidewalk had the most glorious puddle.

Daisy and "The Ben", her favorite baby friend. Our friend Steve and Stacey's 3mo son!

I lost my wallet in December, too :( and on one of our trips to search for it, Daisy befriended this random waitress at a restaurant we walked past, all for the purpose of seeing this Olaf statue.

Christmas Eve with friends! The power went out, but that didn't stop us from sourcing candles and flashlights and still having a great dinner :)

How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Shari is a captivating storyteller!

We acted out the Christmas story from Luke 2 with all of the kids....Daisy was a wise man, With a stogie and one shoe missing. Of course.

cutest little nativity kiddos! I didn't get great pictures, as I was elected to play Mary. Probably had something to do with me being "great with child", haha. My friend's 5yo son was Joseph and he was adorable. 

We didn't put presents out until after bed on Christmas Eve. It's my favorite part.

And I also love seeing all of the Christmas Cards from friends and family!

Christmas morning! We were FaceTiming with Grandma and Grandpa Rydalch while we opened presents :)

New dolly from Grandma Great!

The glorious unwrapping aftermath.

We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary right after Christmas! It was a Sunday, so we just went to church, Daisy looked too dang cute, and we enjoyed some nice snuggle time on the couch afterward. We introduced Daisy to The Incredibles! The night before Chris and I went out to Danville so my parents could watch Daisy and we could go see The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. Each installation has come out right around our anniversary, so the past 3 years that's been our anniversary date :) hashtag nerds. hashtag we're in love. hashtag mushy.

The BEST part of the Christmas season, though, was the birth of our niece!!! Sarah and Adam's baby girl was born on December 30th. Lily Marie is the cutest and we LOVE HER. It's so much fun being an Aunt and Uncle!