Christmas morning!

Christmas morning Olive woke up to not only a note from the big man himself...

but a thank you and goodbye note from Jovie.

She was sad for a minute until someone mentioned opening presents and then she was good to go!


After her Santa presents, she helped pass out gifts to everyone else for awhile. "Here go, Gigi"

Being Santa's helper is such hard work, it made her really thirsty!

Sweet little ballerina got so excited about her new dump truck!

Then she had to change costumes before digging into her stocking!

After the stockings were finished, Honey carried out 2 big black boxes to Mica and I. This was a project she had been working on for awhile.

Inside the boxes there are all kinds of things from my Dad that are meaningful to us. In my box, she put his bicycle jerseys and socks since I rode bikes with him. I also got his "Ropes Eagles" sweatshirt from first grade that I have always loved! The box is full of wonderful treasures and memories! It was such a special gift and it means so much to have these special things that remind me of special times with my Dad.

Olive couldn't wait to try out her new car in the kitchen. We laughed that of all of the toys, she played with the littlest one the longest!

Giving Daddy some Christmas love!
Christmas was definetly not the same this year without Dad, but it was good as it could have been. We feel so blessed! Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve we went to the candle light service at Honey's church. It was really hard for us to be in that service without Dano. We went to his favorite restaurant, Los Amigos, after the service. Olive wanted to ride the "horses" that were actually saddles in the bar.

When we got back to Honey's it was necessary to make cookies to leave for Santa. She is becoming an expert at decorating cookies!

She asked Honey to help her with the decorating.

Daddy got to help too!

She grabbed one of the big cookies and took a bite. Then she realized it was for Santa and she started giggling! She took the cookie out of her mouth and put it back down to decorate. I am sure Santa really enjoyed that one!

Before bed, we had to say goodbye to Jovie. I knew she was going to be really sad when she woke up and Jovie was gone. This has been such a fun part of our day everyday during December.

"Bye Jovie! I love you!"

We couldn't wait to wake up the next morning!

Santa Visit #1...Christmas Eve Morning

Olive must have been really good this year, because Santa came to see her twice! He came a day early to our house and delivered some special things! She was so relieved to see that Jovie was still at our house.

I thought it was so funny that there was this huge present in the middle of the room and she grabbed the smallest present under the tree to open first.

Dora books!

And still ignoring the big present and opening another book...

Finally after some coaxing, she chose to open the big one!

A trampoline! She hopped on and screamed "Thank you Santa!"

I wish you could hear the squeals that were happening during these pictures!

She was so sweet to want Stephen to open presents, she kept taking them to him.

And only after a lot of pleading from Daddy did she bring one to Mommy! :)

So excited to make donuts with Daddy with her new donut maker!

Then it was stocking time, which of course, took place on the trampoline!

Biggest hit of the day...the $3 "lip glop" from TJ Maxx! She puts on every color one at a time.

Then she had to do a little coloring with her Minnie markers in her new notepad.

And she made Daddy's Christmas when she said "I make OU." and she really had!

There were 2 more presents to open that we had saved for last!She was so excited! She squealed "my train! a train!"

After she opened the set, I went out and got the "train trundle" that Stephen and I made for the train to go on. We originally were going to make a small square to fit on her window seat because we don't have space for a train table, but they don't make train tracks very small. So instead, we made this "train trundle" that we are going to put under her bed to pull out when she wants to play with it. I think it turned out perfect!


She loved it! We had a wonderful Christmas eve morning and were looking forward to more celebrating with family!

Christmas Eve Eve with Pop

Christmas eve eve was our first Christmas celebration! Pop came over to open presents and have dinner with us. We had a great time! Olive LOVED helping Pop open his presents!

Almost as much as she loved opening her own presents!

The hit gift of the night was the "Just Dance 4 Kids" for the Wii!
You should see the moves this girl has!

She loved it! Thanks Pop for the wonderful presents and for spending time with us! We had so much fun!