Christmas 2012

What a fun Christmas we had!! I was so excited for the holidays this year. The older Asher gets, the more fun holidays are. Since we are building our house we really tried to keep things simple this year. Tim and I decided not to get gifts for each other, which was actually great, and way less stressful. For Asher, we just got him a few things that we thought he would love. It was perfect, and something that I think we will continue to do every year. I love that he didn't end up with a crazy amount of toys that he won't play with. I feel like this way, as he gets older, we can focus on Christ rather than gifts and Santa.

We started our celebrations on Christmas Eve with my dad and Leslie at their house. It has been a tradition since Tim and I were dating to spend Christmas Eve at my dad's. We started out with our traditional cookie decorating for Santa. Asher enjoyed sneaking cookies while the rest of us frosted.

 

After cookies, we had a delicious dinner, as usual. Then we exchanged gifts and enjoyed spending time with everyone. Asher loved playing with everyone, playing the piano and climbing up and down the stairs all evening. He did get some super cute gifts, that he loves, and is still playing with everyday a month later. He got the little people zoo as well as a cute piano with a microphone.

We tried to get a photo of all the kids in their cute Christmas jammies, this is as good at it got! 

Christmas morning was my favorite, Asher was so cute when he got up. The first thing he did was run over to his stocking, pull out a sucker and then ran to turn on the TV, ha ha. Not quite the reaction we were expecting but it sure made us laugh. Once we directed him back to the gifts he got pretty into it. He loved the ball popper and his puzzles, and of course the sucker :)

Later that morning we had my mom, Rudy and the Davis bunch over. We had yummy cinnamon rolls and opened gifts. Asher loved the play kitchen he got from my mom and Rudy. We knew he would love it! He plays with it all the time still. He is too cute with it, he makes all the sound effects and always pulls us over to his kitchen "cook" with him. Asher loves it these days when we have people over, and he loved that Grandpa Rudy gave him chocolate milk! Tim and I also got spoiled with

new couches for our house, which I can't wait to start using.

Christmas afternoon Tim's parents, Aaron and Jonathan came over. We had a relaxing time visiting, and watching Asher show off all night. He is such a ham when he's the only little one around. He loves being the center of attention. It's so funny, he starts off shy but once he feels comfortable he can't get enough of the attention. He got the perfect gifts from Grandma and Grandpa McDonald, books and a quiet book for church. He loves books so much! And the quiet book has been great for sacrament. I love that he didn't get toys from everyone. He already has too many, but can't get enough books.

We had a wonderful Christmas and we feel so lucky we live close enough to spend the holidays with family. We are also grateful for everything our families do for us!