naughty or nice?

What do you think? As if Olivia could ever be naughty...I mean look at that face! :) Santa was very good to Olivia this year! You'll see for yourself later on. But first...our holiday weekend! We did so many fun things! My grandmother and uncle came down from Michigan to spend Christmas with us...they do every year. This is my grandmother's second Christmas without my grandpa. It is still hard for her, but having Olivia around to entertain her helps tremendously! She is just blown away by all of the things Olivia is doing. From walking, talking and doing her baby signs..Nana Cleo thinks Olivia is the smartest baby in the world! Here is Olivia during some down time, having a rest on Nana Cleo's lap...

Prior to Christmas Eve we attended a few holiday parties. They were lots of fun but we were out late (I guess if you call 10 pm late). It was late for Olivia anyway, which meant she was not going to bed at her normal time. She was one tired child by the time Christmas was over! We also took her to the Fantasy of Lights at Franke Park. I thought she would enjoy looking at all of the fun light displays. We even took her out of her car seat and let her sit on my lap while we drove through. The cars move at about 5 mph so we thought this would be OK. Well she was more interested in crawling back and forth between Todd and I and trying to take the wheel, so the light display was not a huge hit! Maybe next year.

On Christmas Eve we took Olivia to the family mass at our church. We have not gone to church much lately, mainly because the thought of sitting through service with a one year old is not very appealing. Well we made it through about 3/4 of the service before we sneaked out the back. She was actually being quite good, but we were very late for yet another holiday party! Our close family friends, Korrie and Tom, host a Christmas Eve party each year. It was another late night, but Olivia was having a blast with all of the children at the party. Korrie has a twin sister, Kim, who has twin boys of her own...Logan and Conner. Look at these cuties...

We were up and about pretty early on Christmas morning. Before heading over to my Mom's to open presents we were going to Todd's brother's for breakfast and presents. But first we had our own little family Christmas. After watching a little Elmo on TV we opened our stockings. Olivia was quite determined to pull her gifts out, but needed a little help.

By the time we made it to my Mom's Olivia was getting a little tired. I knew we had a limited window to open presents before she got cranky. It was such fun watching Olivia tear open her gifts. Of course she needed quite a bit of help, but she gave it her best shot!

No...those are not all hers! She is not THAT spoiled!

As you can see, she was enjoying trying to rip open her gifts. But once that wrapping came off she truly became a happy girl! We tried to avoid buying her anything else Elmo...but there was one thing we found that we could not resist. It was a big stuffed Elmo that was the same size as Olivia. I knew she would just love cuddling with this little guy...and I was right!

Olivia wasn't the only one who got presents on Christmas. We all received some very nice things. Todd was most thrilled with the iPod I got for him. Can't you tell? What a goof!

Now Christmas isn't all about presents. Although you would think so by looking at those pictures. It is also about spending time with family. So before signing off I want to share some nice family photos from our special holiday!

We are a little sad that Christmas is over. Now it is time to put away all of the decorations...yuck! But we have the new year to look forward to. I can't even imagine how many exciting things we have to look forward to in the upcoming year! This past year was so amazing...how could it get any better? Olivia is just a sponge lately. Each day she is learning something new. I promise to update you on all of her new skills very soon. Now it is time to catch up on all of the things I have put off the past month!