A Very Merry Christmas

Kolt took leave for a few days this last week as to be sure that he didn't get scheduled for duty on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.  He is on Holiday routine right now so he is pretty much off for a month but has a day of work or duty about once a week.  He's also been going in for a lot more scheduled flights since he's going through his flight mech training.

I had to work on Christmas Eve day however, the bank closed at one (I usually get off at two) so I only worked a few hours.  At work we had an ugly Christmas sweater day, played games, and ate some Christmas treats.  When I got home I baked some gingerbread cookies and we got ready for our dinner.  We had our close friends Kate, Cooper, Camille (her husband Ed, had duty) and their baby Eddie over for dinner.  We decided to keep it simple since we were going to have a big Christmas dinner the next day so we stuck to lasagna and salad.  A few weeks prior we had each drawn names for a gift exchange and on Christmas eve we all exchanged our gifts.   After everyone left and Brinleigh went to bed, Kolt and I continued our Christmas Eve tradition of exchanging one gift each.

On Christmas morning we woke up and Kolt made some cinnamon rolls and his mom's breakfast casserole that she makes every year on Christmas day.  Brinleigh loved both!  Once we were done with breakfast we started to open some gifts, starting with Brinleigh's gifts from Santa first.  We took loads of pictures as she gently tore the wrapping paper on each gift, we laughed at her funny facial expressions, and then had to move her new toys out of reach because she became fascinated with knocking boxes over so she could stand on them.  In between Brinleigh's gifts, Kolt and I would take turns opening our gifts.  Kolt and Brinleigh got me a Kindle Fire HD with a rapid charger and a pink case.  I absolutely love it!  I was so surprised, as you can see by the pictures Kolt captured.  They also got me a chalkboard that I had been wanting with a few boxes of chalk.  Kolt got a nice thermos, a button up shirt/jacket from bass pro shop, flannel pajama pants, a coffee mug, a phone charger for his truck, U of A tervis tumbler cup, a bottle opener that can be mounted along with a bottle cap catching bucket to go underneath it, and a few other things.  (As you can tell, I wasn't expecting such an awesome gift this year so I didn't get Kolt anything extravagant.  Hopefully he still loves me though.)  Brinleigh made out with the toys!  The girl didn't receive not one outfit or piece of clothing (other than some socks I put in her stocking)..... isn't that every child's dream?  (I mean, maybe not when you're one, but still.)  Brinleigh received a little people Disney princess castle, little people princess klipity klop horse stables, little people Disney Cinderella carriage, little people Noah's Ark and a ridiculous amount of animals to go with it (notice a theme yet?) a couple cabbage patch cuties (Thanks to Aunt Mandy for going on the hunt for me), a tea party set, some stuffed animals, a few books, sippy cup, Minnie mouse plate, and a ton of other toys that I can't remember off the top of my head right now.  Kolt and I also got a few gift cards and a dual screen portable DVD player system to put in the car for our future road trips with the baby.  (Thanks Mom & Cordale!)  

We Skyped with Kolt's mom while Brinleigh opened her gifts from her Grandma D, Grandpa Dave, Aunt Paula, Aunt Rayne and Uncle Kenny.  Thank You all so much! And then we just hung out in our pajamas and started cooking our Christmas dinner.  

Around four o'clock Kate and Cooper and Camille and Ed and baby Eddie all came over with all the food they made.  Brinleigh wore THE most adorable little Santa dress that her Grandma Jen bought for her.  The cuteness was just too much!  I did strip her down to eat dinner but then the dress went right back on.  We had a turkey, ham, green bean casserole, broccoli cauliflauer casserole, jalapeno cheddar biscuits, mashed potatoes, marshmallow fruit salad, and rolls for our Christmas dinner.  Everything was so delicious!  And I was so excited that Brinleigh actually ate it! (If you remember, she wasn't a fan of the Thanksgiving food for some reason.)  After dinner we all opened stockings that we had all contributed little gifts to and enjoyed some desert.  Kate made some cake pops and Camille made a chocolate cake.  We put Brinleigh to bed, our neighbors, Jon and Kelly, came over and then we all played a card game.  It was a wonderful Christmas.