Wonderful Christmastime

lol this post is wayyyyy later than I was planning it but OH WELL.

hmmm I should have fixed my hair & put on makeup before pictures but OH WELL
Our Christmas this year was very extended. The years that Sym spends actual Christmas with her dad we do a pre-Christmas Christmas. Usually it’s just one evening of present-opening and Christmas-movie-watching but this year we did a whole thing, an Eve and a Day, a full Mini Christmas.

On Mini Christmas Even we opened our Christmas pajamas, had pizza and watched Elf.

Of course, Santa doesn’t come on Mini Christmas Eve, but luckily the Christmas Elf was available to fill our shoes with candy, or in the case of family members who are to small for candy, leave some new shoes.

I was up very early with Gwen that morning, and found Sym already awake. She fell back asleep though, under the Christmas tree, which was just about the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.

When she finally woke up it was time for presents!

I made breakfast…

And then Sym played with the new Wii U pretty much all day. Taylor had thought to unbox & pre-update it a couple days before so there was no (well, very little) waiting.

This was the second year I made an actual Christmas dinner, and it was just as good this year. Since I started eating meat again while I was pregnant with Gwen I decided to do make roast beef with yorkshire pudding, neither of which I’d made before (well, I’d tried to make roast beef before but it didn’t turn out). I started cooking a little late in the afternoon so dinner wasn’t until almost 7 but everything turned out delicious!

Between Mini Christmas and actual Christmas we went to a party at our friend Jenn’s house. I was particularly happy with how my hair turned out.

Gwen came with us and had her first public transportation ride on the Skytrain, which she loved!

She also did well at the party, eventually she got fussy and we came home, but I think we were there later than we’d planned on staying. It was also our first extending visit somewhere with her and all her baby accoutrements and I think we did pretty well also.

With Sym away, actual Christmas was a much quieter time, although still special. On Christmas Eve we watched Die Hard (BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIE EVER) and made holiday nachos, and set up a fantastic treat buffet of candy, cookies and pies.

On Christmas Day we opened our stockings and some small extra gifts. I think my best gift this year though was when Taylor said he missed having Sym here for Christmas, since it’s a lot more fun when she’s home. We’d planned on having perogies for dinner, but we ended up just snacking all day and night and then finished up the day by dragging ourselves through the first two Lord of the Rings movies (we watched the third on Boxing Day). I hadn’t seen them in years and WOW I do not like them! LESSON LEARNED, I guess.

All in all it was a nice holiday, and I’m very ready for our traditional New Year’s Eve feast/Dance Central-a-thon/viewing of Anchorman tonight!