Crazy Westerfield Christmas!!!

Whoa! What a weekend. Westerfield Christmas is one of the things I looked most forward to as a child and I'm honored that we got to host it again this year. It's a big commitment for everyone to load up their kids, their gifts, and EVERYTHING else they bring and haul it all the way to our house. By dinnertime Saturday night everyone was here and the house was full of laughter, chaos, food and most importantly love. Sometimes when I think about getting everything ready and I see all the food that needs to be dealt with and I stress about having enough "stuff" and finding someplace for everyone to sleep comfortably, I wonder if it's really all worth it....then it's all over and everyone goes home and I miss them like CRAZY and want them to come back. So yes, it's absolutely worth it, I'd do it again next week if I thought they would all come back :) I'm so glad my kids and their cousins get to grow up looking forward to the same tradition.....and maybe before long we better start thinking about an addition to our house.....a bunk room might be a good investment :)

Watching their Shrinky Dinks cook shrink.

She thought she would sleep in her tunnel :)

Maggie was SO excited to have a wheelchair for her baby! (and a cast and crutches too)

all the kids lined up to help Uncle Jeff pass out presents.

Our teepee village! I love it. My girls were really surprised because I
told them I wasn't going to have time to make them teepees.

 It was a great time! I'm so glad they came....hopefully they will all agree to come back next year!

I couldn't share this picture before because there were still gifts to be given, but now I can.
Maggie made scarves for all the girls in our family, I think about 25 scarves. She had a great time doing
it and spent lots of time deciding which scarf would be perfect for which person. She was SO excreted to give them,
they were the first gift at most of our celebrations. I'm proud of the love she has for giving gifts...she's such a sweet and caring girl.


After everyone headed home from Christmas, Maggie rested for just a little bit and then she was off to a Birthday party.....

...she was pretty tired, but wouldn't have missed it for the world. And it was a nice relaxing time for me watching them play and enjoying some girl time with my friends.

This morning the girls were pumped to see that it had snowed just a little. They couldn't wait to try out their new shovels from Alex and Ellie.....

...Maggie wanted me to text Arnie and let him know they took care of it :) I think it's a good thing it was just a dusting!

Maggie's Grandma/Grandpa Days....

After Christmas Maggie got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house by herself for a few days. She was so excited to stay. The weather was beautiful, so she got to do a few things that don't usually happen at the end of December.....

Trying out Grandma's new fire pit. You don't usually get to have S'mores with Christmas decorations
in the background :)

Mom and Dad brought Maggie (and ALL her stuff) back when they came for Westerfield Christmas. It made for a full truck. Kindergarten has really cut into the time we used to get to spend in Omaha, so I know she LOVED her days there.

Christmas 2013

Wow, I can't believe Christmas Day has come and gone. I'm not really ready for it to be over or to pack it all up yet. I wonder if my family will notice the tree is still up at Valentine's day:)

I have always loved Christmas with my kids, but this year was better then usual. They were both so excited about Santa and all the pretty presents under the tree....but more importantly, they both understood that we were celebrating the birth of Jesus. It's fun to hear Maggie tell Gracie the story of the nativity and then hear Gracie try to relay it to her baby dolls. Yesterday Gracie asked me if she was born a baby like "Baby Jesus" and I told her she was...she waited a minute and then asked if we put her on hay too. She's been laying her baby dolls on the hay bails that came with some of Maggie's horse toys, apparently "the little lord Jesus asleep on the hay" has really hit home for her. We sing Christmas songs at bedtime and currently Gracie's most frequent request is "cattle loooowwwing", she means the second verse of Away in a Manger, but it's more funnier her way.

The girls and I went to Omaha on Monday evening, followed by Arnie on Tuesday morning. Monday night we were watching a movie with Grandma & Grandpa, The Parent Trap, about an hour into the movie Maggie looked at Grandma and said "how long has this movie been wasting our time?" We cracked up! When it was over she said she enjoyed it but apparently she had better things to do with her time :)

Tuesday we had our annual dive bar lunch at Danny's....we had to squeeze it in between Laura's work schedule and Deems, but it worked out and we all got to be there together. I was probably Maggie's age the first time my dad and I had Christmas Eve lunch at Joe's.

The guy who took this for us chopped off Elsie and Grandma :(

Here they are!

Pretty girls all ready for church.

We went to the candlelight service at church and then everyone came to Mom & Dad's for dinner. Before bed Maggie decided to write Santa a note and ask if we could keep Izzy, our elf on the shelf. (in case your wondering, Santa agreed, but said elves sleep 10 months a year, so not to expect much out of her for awhile.) Gracie left all of her sippy cups in a bag on the hearth for Santa, he took them back to the North Pole for the baby elves, since she's a big girl.

  
Did Santa come???? Did he??

Santa left the American Girl barn with horse and Pony, a Saige Doll and a
pink Carhartt Coat for Maggie.

Santa left Gracie a "tunnel", a little John Deere tractor and a toy Minnie camera (or cramera, according to Gracie).

Arnie and I were a little unsure what Gracie meant when she (repeatedly) asked for a tunnel,
but Santa seemed to know just what she was thinking!

A real "horse girl" coat!

 The coolest presents came from Grandpa & Grandma's workshop..... first it was a post office....

....then a Lemonade stand.... (I just noticed I spelled Lemonade wrong when I made the sign for mom, I'll get it fixed, just didn't want you to think I didn't notice)....

 

....then a theater....it's also a grocery store, but I must not have taken a picture of that.

Grandpa also made each of the girls cribs for their babies, they LOVE them.

 

 

 

I didn't get a picture of Gracie with her quilt...she was probably moving too fast!

After a really fun morning at home, we headed for Aunt Joyce and Uncle Lee's house....We did lots of singing, opening and eating....

 

All that partying was too much for Gracie, she fell asleep while we were singing. There is a rumor that
I feel asleep too, but I haven't seen the evidence :)

Arnie headed for home and the girls and I made one more stop at Grandma Westerfield's. After more playing and eating, we finally headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's to go to sleep.  Thursday morning Gracie and I came home and Maggie got to stay for a couple of days by herself with Grandma & Grandpa.

I took a while, but we got all of the new toys put away and are starting to get the house ready for this weekends Westerfield invasion.

 

What a wonderful Christmas we've had (so far), I can't wait for it to continue....then it will be time to start counting down the days till we get to do it all over again next year :)

 

Breaking in the kitchen...

Last Sunday Amy & Carrie came over and helped me break in my new kitchen. The baking was fun, but really just having them both here to chit chat and laugh was the best part. We had so many cookies when we were done we couldn't figure out what to do with them all.....

Monday morning the girls had to go to Norfolk Iron and judge our 1st Annual Christmas Ornament Contest. They had fun picking their favorites from each age group and then Maggie was SO excited to run around the office and hand out the prize $$! We had to add a last minute category for Gracie's favorite because surprise surprise, the girls couldn't agree :)

 Then the worlds BEST babysitter came over to give the girls Christmas gifts and to have a little "project" time. Lucky Miss Lauren

 

One picture of our Christmas tree before we headed out for Christmas. I love it when it's all decorated
and all the presents are wrapped.