Christmas!

*warning...super long!

Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year!  Christmas eve we decided to have a surprise for Cortney - to go ice skating!  We talked to her earlier in the day and asked her if she had ever gone ice skating, to which she replied, "No, I just practice on the kitchen floor in my socks."  and "When can we go mom?"  I told her we probably had to wait until she was older.  Which she is used to hearing since she always asks if she can  do anything I do like driving, cutting with a sharp knife, etc.

So later in the day we got her all bundled up and told her we were going to a surprise, she got very excited!  Chris wanted to wear the scarf I made him so of course wanting to be like her daddy she wanted to wear a scarf too, so I let her wear the one I made for myself...looks like I need to make another one!  The drive was about 20 minutes or so, and it was to a park Cortney had been to a couple times.  She got a little excited when we pulled up, "I like this one mom!"  Then I told her we were not going to the park, and she just looked confused.

I told her to look over there (pointing at the little rink) and asked her what they were doing.  After she found out we were going ice skating all she could say is, "I want to try!  I want to try!" pulling our arms hard speed walking towards the rink.

Here are some pictures with daddy!

 That's my girl!  Never looking at the camera :)  I wonder what she was thinking in the one right beneath the words - kind of looks like she is trying to fly away or something

 I know this one is no the best of Cortney but it shows my lip thing I do.  When ever I concentrate hard on something I put my lower lip in my mouth.  Every time I have a photography session I come home with a sore lower lip.  I don't even realize I am doing it, but I just love how Cortney is like me in so many ways!  Here are a couple of Mom and Cortney!

Haha, love this one!  We went around the rink only once, but Cortney probably fell about 5 times when it was just her and me.  oops!

 I only fell twice and got one big bruise on my knee, Chris fell kind of but caught himself before he actually fell on the ice.  And I was keeping track of Cortney, until she got more brave and was trying to do things on her own.

 So here she is licking the ice off her scarf.  Yuck!  I kept telling her how yucky it was that she was licking the ice off her hands and clothes after she fell, but that didn't really stop her.  As a matter of fact when we were all said and done Cortney started licking the ice off her skates, we ended up taking them away because no matter what we told her she would not stop.  Silly girl!

We also got a special note and bag from Santa Christmas Eve morning explaining  how some elves got sick and wouldn't be able to finish all the toys for the children.  He goes on to ask  Cortney if she would give some of her toys and put them in the bag for him to pick up later that night when he dropped of the presents!  Cute idea right?

I have one word how the whole thing went down: DRAMA!  I will give her props, after the first couple of toys we put in the bag she did much better and even picked some to put in herself with out any help from us!  But one of the first things we did was go over to her stuffed animals (since she has so many) and I asked her about the ones I know she doesn't play much with, since she was starting to have a meltdown.  I picked up one in particular that I have never seen her play with and asked, "how about this one honey?"  She got very dramatic and said "That is my only daughter, and I love her!"  Then started sobbing.  Oh goodness, but like I said towards the end she got much better at choosing ones to give away.  Maybe next year Santa will have to deliver the bag a couple days early to give her some more time to think about it.

Christmas morning!

 Santa must have enjoyed the cookies and Santa milk, and the reindeer like the carrots too!   We didn't do too much in the way of stockings...

 And here is our tree!

 Cortney coming down Christmas morning

 She stopped and stared at the plate for a minute or two just smiling!

Looking at stocking stuffers - yeah probably should have changed the settings on my camera, but I decided to just enjoy the moment instead :)

Cortney only asked for one thing from Santa this Christmas, and that is a pony castle.  Santa left a note to Cortney saying thank you for all the toys she gave to other children, and how it made them so happy.  It also said because she did he got this special present for her!  I love watching the sequence of her opening this up, lets just say there was squeeling, screeching, and she was literally shaking she was so excited!

 Mom and Cort opening presents together!  PS see honey bear?!  She is wearing a new dress I crocheted for her!  Her old blue dress was one of the first things I ever crocheted and I have to say I have improved greatly from when I first started, yay!

 Chris said he had just as much fun watching me watch Cortney as he did watching Cortney.  I get pretty into it sometimes I guess!

 You cannot see what this is but it is a banana slicer.  Kind of random but she was excited about it!  They use it at her school so they can practice slicing bananas, it is one of her favorite work jobs, some how santa must have known ;)

 In this picture you see Cort excited about a pony present (right now she is all about ponies).  You can see  my hand in the corner of the picture pointing to daddy because he bought it for her...now look down at the next picture taken a couple seconds later...

 big hugs for daddy!

 Yes...another pony!  She did get lots of nice other things, but her reactions just are not quiet the same as these ones!

 Grandma Carol loves everything with red hair, so naturally she got this one for Cort, the doll from Brave.  She loves playing with the bow and arrow!

 Chris got a Lions Checkers Game

 Yup...had to do one with a Chris face!

 And it wouldn't be Christmas without aunt Paula sending something Superman to Chris!

 We were so thankful for all the presents we received from everyone!  We feel very blessed this Christmas season!

Next on to food.  So I just realized I didn't take any pictures of me with my presents!  Oops!  I got some fun kitchen toys, my favorite was a Belgian waffle maker...LOVE!  It is the kind that flips over and you can cook one on one side and one on the other...awesome, plus it made amazing waffles for Christmas morning!

We have been planning for a couple months to make sushi Christmas day for lunch!  A little intimidating, here is the first roll I made...

 And here is some that I made later...much better!  It took about 4 rolls to get it down, and it was very yummy!  And not as hard as I thought it would be!  Love me some california rolls!

 Oh yes and here is how Chris makes sushi...just puts everything right on a spare piece of nora sheet and eats it up!

Later that night we were invited over to a friends house and we had a yummy dinner and the kids got to play!  It was a fun Christmas!