Christmas 2011

Every year I think I blog about Christmas over a month after the fact. Moving on New Years Eve is a pretty good excuse for this year though. I feel a need to document so here are the main events.

The week before Christmas we moved in with my parents so we weren't living in a moving-zone throughout the holiday.  It was so nice to have a break from the move and just hang out with family. One day we went to the city with the Leinfam. We took the ferry in and went ice skating at the Embarcadero. We did this last year too and I hope it will continue to be a tradition because we had a great time. Lucy loved being with her cousins all day.

It was an Anderson Christmas this year so as is tradition on Christmas Eve we started the evening at my Grandma Joyce's house.  We acted out the nativity with Lucy as Mary, Katy as Gabriel and me as a multitude of heavenly hosts (I just talked very loud:).

We also played the Toy Symphony, carols and the Christmas Concerto as a family. This is a big tradition and something Grandma loves. Lucy loved seeing me play my violin and I loved seeing my Dad play his viola.  Lucy played the toy trumpet during the toy symphony, which is the same instrument I always played for that piece. She loved it. This year I played the water whistle during that piece and let me tell you-it was intense.

We went home to my parent's house to enjoy other traditions like singing "Hang up the Baby Stocking" and watching a Muppet's Christmas Carol. I wish I knew how to use my camera because this would have a been a super cute shot of Lydia:

On Christmas morning we all managed to stay asleep until 7 AM. We let Joyce stay asleep and went down to see what Santa brought us. Santa brought Lucy a new singing Rapunzel doll. Santa learned from his mistakes and braided Rapunzel's hair this year.

Lydia and Joyce got this new play stand from Santa and loved it.

 We opened presents for awhile, had a wonderful breakfast with Grandma Joyce, and went to church. After church we continued opening and playing with our presents. This time Joyce got into the wrapping a bit.

I was very spoiled this year. I got a whole winter wardrobe from my parents, a new diaper bag from the Leiningers, two awesome shirts from Becca and a tripod from Danny.  Katy gave me some increidbly thoughtful gifts: she made this plaque:

  and she shadowboxed these jammies.

Isn't she thoughtful? I cried.
We had a fantastic Christmas.  We loved spending quality time with our families, especially knowing we'd be leaving so soon. Okay, gonna cry if I keep typing. The end.