Four Christmases

This Christmas was certainly different than our Christmases in Alaska. It was always a little sad being away from family during Christmas but it was sure a lot less hectic. Over the past week we had 4 different Christmases, 2 Christmas dinners (including one more to come on Sunday) in 3 different states. Rayna did really well with all the driving. (To anyone planning on traveling with a 1-year-old my advice is to get a portable dvd player-- and lots of Baby Einstein videos).

Rayna made out like a bandit this year. John's mom and step-dad got her this cute Dora table with a basket in the middle. At John's big family Christmas (which I didn't get any pictures of) there were only 2 little kids there and the mound of presents for just the two of them was as big as the couch.

John's dad and step-mom got her this tricycle. She can't peddle it yet but I'm sure you can tell from her face how much she likes it.

We had Christmas just the 3 of us today. We got her a bag of rocks since she always likes to collect them outside. I made the mistake of giving those to her first and we had a hard time getting her to open presents because she wouldn't put the rocks down.

To all of our friends and family- we hope your Christmas was enjoyable too. May you all enjoy your time with family and not forget what we're celebrating-- the birth of Jesus. Merry Christmas!!

Away in a Manger

My grandmother's church does a live nativity every year. So I thought it would be good to take Rayna since I've been trying to teach her about the Christmas story. We got there before they set up and Rayna was able to check out all the animals. They had a cow, a donkey, a sheep, a goat and a llama in place of a camel. Not surprisingly Rayna loved the animals. She especially liked the donkey because he would eat hay from her hand. She tried feeding the other animals hay but they weren't having it. I didn't let her get close to the cow though. He had crazy eyes and I didn't trust him.

I tried pointing out Mary and the shepherds to her but she wasn't interested. Oh well, maybe next year.

Hey Look at Me

Rayna is turning out to be quite a ham. When she sees that you've got a camera she'll do one of two things: a) run over and grab the camera or b) cheese it up. Here are some prime examples.

Here she was playing with John's safety glasses. I put them on her and she even waited for me to get the camera.

This morning she wore this really cute dress to church and I wanted to get a picture of her. I surprised her with the first picture but once she realized what was going on she gave me a big grin.

She likes to step into our shoes but usually they're too heavy for her to walk in. But she was walking around the house in these. Once I had the camera she kept looking back at me and grinning like, "Hey, are you getting this, Mom?"

Our House

Ok, people have asked me to post some pictures of our house so here you go. I took these awhile ago but never put them on, and I kept meaning to go out front and take a picture of the outside of the house but as you can tell that didn't happen. And now it is 10:15 and dark, so sorry.

It already looks different. We've painted and hung up curtains and such. But it's a two story with a living room and a den downstairs along with the kitchen and a half bath. Upstairs are 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. Anyway, we are really happy with it.