Merry Christmas!

We hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior! We had a great time with family as we watched Laura enjoy all that is Christmas time. We got about a foot of snow the weekend before Christmas and had a great time playing outside in it. Laura wasn't able to walk in it, but she sure loved going down her slide into a big pile of snow!

A few days later my grandparents and aunt arrived to spend the week. One of the highlights of the week was visiting a few of the houses on our city's "Tacky Lights Tour." This one was definitely one of the most over-the-top houses most of us had ever seen. Laura kept looking out the window, pointing, and saying "oooohhhh!" at all the houses. It kept us all entertained!

One of our annual traditions is going to the Christmas Eve service at my parent's church. This year we had to go to the earlier "kid-friendly" service. It was quite different than the reflective, worshipful service we are all used to, but Laura had fun coloring and singing the Christmas carols and Shawn and I had fun since we didn't have to worry about the noise she was making. She seemed quiet compared to most of the other children in the service!

Christmas morning was so much fun! Laura's big present was a kitchen from Nana and Granddad. She was so excited when she saw it and went running into the family room to start playing. For a while we thought we might just take back all of her other presents since she didn't seem to notice anything but the kitchen -- but we ended up letting her open everything. She was just overwhelmed with what to play with next. Never the less, the kitchen is still her favorite toy from Christmas morning.

Christmas morning festivities had to be interrupted for Laura's breathing treatment. She came down with bronchitis a few days before Christmas, but fortunately aside from the cough, she didn't really feel bad. She actually loved the breathing treatments. We told her the mask was a duck and the whole time she is wearing it she looks at us, points at the mask, and says "duck!!" Anything to make it work:)

And of course, as every parent knows, the boxes were almost as much fun as the toys. Laura loved being pulled around in this box. But even this got old and it was back to the kitchen as fast as her little legs could carry her!