Christmas Highlights

Whew. The holidays are officially over. We had our end of the season holiday party (a HUGE success, I might add) so I finally have some time to breathe. Which means blogging! I decided to put almost all of our holiday fun in one post because I was too tired to break it up into individual posts. The only exception was our weekend trip to Warsaw, MO to my aunt and uncle's cabin. That will get it's own post. The pictures are super cute and I don't want to cut too many. So here is our (long) summary of the holiday events!

Early in December we went to Wild Lights with my parents. Since they're members, we went to a special night just for members and had a great dinner, along with some fun activities. Charlotte was starting to get sick, so we didn't stay as long as we would have liked, but we still had a good time.

Family picture in front of some of the lights.

Short break for the sweets set up in the Lakeside Cafe

We got our tree at Ted Drewes, a proud Drury family tradition. Charlotte was a CRAB AND A HALF that day and was super clingy, but she did release her grip on my leg to enjoy her very first, just for her ice cream cone.

Our annual cookie bake was the second (?) weekend in December. Audrey loved watching the mixers while Charlotte played with her cousin Morgan upstairs most of the night. She was still clinging desperately to my leg that day, but as soon as Morgan walked in the door, it was all "Mommy, who?"

The F1 generation hard at work

Charlotte and Morgan checking out the progress in the kitchen

Decorating sugar cookies after Charlotte and Audrey went home with Daddy. I have officially passed the sprinkles torch to the younger F2 generation.

Last tray ready to go in the oven (at about 12:30, 1:00 in the morning, I might add)

A sampling of our masterpieces.

This was the day we put our tree up. Audrey was SUPER excited. Can you tell?

Charlotte helping to unwrap the tree

Ready to put the star on!

Charlotte loved putting the star on top of the tree. She sang songs about it for weeks after. When we took it down, we let Charlotte take the star off. She then informed us it was "my star" and tried to run off with it. We're working on sharing.

So proud!

First ornament on the tree! It was Charlotte's new Little Mermaid ornament. She loved it almost as much as she loved telling me it was her ornament, not mine. Again, we're working on sharing.

The finished project!

Our lovely mantel. I put the Christmas cards we receive in the garland so we can enjoy them instead of stacking them in the kitchen. We had so many this year, it was awesome! By the time Christmas rolled around, the whole mantel was full and looked so festive, full of the faces of our friends and family. Definitely one of my better ideas.

The presents ever.

First visit to Santa! We went to the Santa at Crestwood Center. He's been there for 26 years. He is a very convincing Santa. Charlotte was a little shy at first, but once we put Audrey on his lap, Charlotte jumped right up there. It was super cute.

Morgan and I had so much fun decorating my grandmother's sugar cookies, I invited her over to decorate a different kind of sugar cookie with royal icing. It was a lot of fun. These pictures are of the cookies I made the night before for Charlotte's Christmas party at school, but they're very similar to what Morgan and I made. For some stupid reason, I forgot to get a picture of our beautiful cookies. All, well.

Filling in the gaps. I kind of liked the action shot. Nice picture, honey!

Charlotte was so happy Morgan came over. She was so excited and worked up about Morgan coming, she passed out on the couch while we were decorating. It's the first time she's ever done that. I came out into the living room and saw her curled up on the couch. Adorable.

Christmas Eve. We went to my parents house. My mom had rye bread and dill dip, my absolute, number one favorite snack EVER. I hadn't had it in years. My mom used to have it every New Year's Eve when I was a kid. It was my favorite part of the night. Charlotte dove right in and it felt a little like I was watching myself, 26 years ago, sneaking just a little more bread and dip. Like mother, like daughter.

What? It's Christmas- I can have a cookie before dinner!

Grandpa swing!

Charlotte helping Grandma and Grandpa with the ornament she and Audrey gave them for Christmas.

Hugs for Grandpa!

Grandma helping her unwrap her first present. Charlotte did OK with the gifts. She was so excited about the first one, though, she didn't want to open the rest. We had to push into opening the others.

Is there a sweeter face in the world? No? I didn't think so.

Audrey opened (ate) a few gifts of her own.

The Freeman fam. We have a similar picture from last year where I'm carrying Audrey in a much different way. :)

Our tree Christmas morning. Yes, the picture is foggy. It may or may not have had something to do with the fact that I left the camera in our cold sunroom over night, brought it into the warm, humid, house and did not let it warm up before taking pictures. Maybe.

Yay for Santa!

Daddy had to help Audrey open her gifts.

New puppet books!

Charlotte playing with her new toys. She's a lucky little girl.

The carnage. I spent the rest of the morning picking up the trash and cleaning since my parents, brother, Aunt Robbie, Uncle Scott, Morgan and Paige came over for dinner. We had a very late start- the girls slept in until after 10. It was CRAZY. And AWESOME.

One more present for Audrey!

We headed out to KC the Tuesday evening after Christmas. I took Wednesday and Thursday off of work (Friday was a holiday) so we could have an extra long weekend with Matt's family. This meant, however, that we had to drive during the MU bowl game. I listened to parts of the first half on the radio (yay!) and then saw the end at my father-in-law's house (boo- darn interception). The girls were happy to show their spirit! Whenever Charlotte wears her outfit (a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Drury) she'll tell anyone who even remotely makes eye contact with her, "Go Tigers!" That's my girl.

The kiddos opened their presents from Grandpa Freeman and Grandma Edie the morning after we got there. Audrey was fascinated by the fan in the living room. It was far more interesting then her toys.

A brief moment away from the fan to explore her new book.

Isn't this a great Christmas picture? Such excitement.

Thanking Uncle Shea for her present. She loves her uncles!

Giving Grandma and Grandpa their present from Audrey and Charlotte.

Helping Grandma open her presents later that night. Matt's Aunt Cindy and Uncle Kevin came over with their son Phil and his girlfriend Sara. They moved to North Carolina so Phil could enter the MBA program at Duke and we miss them dearly! It was so nice to see them again. Uncle Andy and Aunt Lindsey came that night, too.

The next day we went to Kalediscope, a really fun (and free!) place for kids. It's part of Crown Center and is a Hallmark/Crayola sponsored place for kiddos. They get to come in during a shift (I think 1.5-2 hours) and do crafts. It was really crowded, but Charlotte had a good time, once she got used to the number of kids running around. She still gets a little nervous in large groups of people (again, like mother, like daughter).

Modeling her super cute glasses.

Water color crowns. Doesn't she look like such a big kid in this picture? I can hardly stand it.

Playing under the big Christmas tree at Crown Center. This was the day before New Year's Eve (I think), and the weather was freakishly warm. St. Louis had tornadoes the next day. Crazy weather.

My worst nightmare. One that I get to avoid for another 16 years, thank goodness.

Charlotte had a great time playing in all the cars and trains. It was a really neat little area next to the skating rink.

Audrey playing with Grandpa before heading across the street to lunch.

What better place for lunch than the Crayola Cafe?

Audrey was tuckered out. Kalediscope was exhausting!

We then headed over to Belton to spend the rest of our weekend with Debbie and Kirk. We stopped in Lee's Summitt to have a great lunch and spend some time with Charlotte's non-biological grandparents, Carla and Dave. Charlotte took right to Carla. She wanted to sit next to her at lunch. Just like with Morgan, it quickly became, "Mommy who?" Debbie babysat that night so Matt and I were able to be grownups and go to a New Year's Party at a friend's house. It was nice to actually call each other Matt and Linda instead of Daddy and Mommy! New Year's Day we celebrated Christmas with Uncle Andy and Aunt Lindsey. Lots more spoiling!

Audrey opening up her stocking.

So much excitement! I love those two pictures. "For me? Really? I love my reindeer!"

A good looking crew.

The divided loot before a GIGANTIC mess.

Charlotte was a present-opening pro by the this point in the game. She dove right in!

This may be her favorite Christmas present. Those, dear readers, are light up Little Mermaid shoes. She ripped open the box and immediately began taking off her shoes so she could wear the "Mermaid shoes". She LOVES them!

Grandma helping her putting them on (this is moments before the realization that there was paper shoved in the toe, making it hard to fit Charlotte's foot inside!)

Trying to get a better look at the lights. Such a goof ball.

Audrey getting in on the fun.

Gramma (Gigi) opening her present. It was a collage of pictures of her cabin. She sold it about a month ago and is really quite sad about it. I think she really liked all the pictures to remind her of all the good times at the cabin!

Charlotte modeling her new hat and scarf while watching Aunt Lindsey open one of her presents.

And that's pretty much it! I don't have any pictures of our holiday party, so that officially wraps up the holidays for us. We put the tree away, Charlotte told the tree, the decorations, Santa, and Christmas "bye-bye" (over and over and over again), and we're ready to move into the most depressing month of the year. Until next year, "Bye-bye, Christmas!"