Lauren celebrated her 2nd Christmas with us this year! And, although she doesn't quite understand what Christmas is all about, she definitely had a good time with us and family. She knows who Santa Clause is and will point to him or a picture of him when you ask her. She also can pick out Baby Jesus in the nativity set. She'll pretend to rock him in her arms or give him a kiss. I have been so surprised that she has not wanted to pull at the ornaments or Christmas tree and there were none broken this month! I just knew that our tree was going to end up being decorated only on the top 1/2. In fact, at least once a day, she will walk partially around the tree and cock her head to the side as if she's inspecting all the ornaments. She partially unwrapped one present under the tree a few days before Christmas but this happened after we taught her to open gifts a couple of weeks ago, so I guess I can't blame her.
She still loves taking our picture and will really give a huge smile when we ask her to...
On Christmas Eve, we went to meet Baby Taylor born earlier in the week to Laura and Benny. She is just precious and they are very lucky parents to have her in their lives.
At The Moore's showing off her "Lauren smile" with a major cross bite...
We arrived in Chipley on Christmas Eve at noon and started our weekend at Mama Lee's house for lunch. Lauren did a good job with her gifts, but she tires out fairly easily. She would definitely be happy with simply one gift... :-)
Mama Lee made matching monogrammed aprons for us two girls. I wonder if she knew that Santa had received Lauren's wish list with 'kitchen' listed?!
We enjoyed a wonderful lunch and visiting with each other. It was nice to hear about Mallory and Kaitlin's 1st semesters in college away from home. It won't be long and we'll be hearing about Thomas' experiences! Aaahhh!! I hope time slows down over the next 6 years!
Lauren with her two maids-in-waiting (ha!) getting her dressed for the Christmas Eve Church Service
Lauren had fun playing in the nursery at church but before we went, she visited with Ganny and Grandaddy.
Aunt Kay and Mitchell
After church, we went to Uncle Gabe and Aunt Stacie's house for breakfast food dinner, a Guettler family tradition. Lauren loved hanging out with her aunts and uncles...
climbing up and down the stairs (this became a big no-no before the night was over)...
and trying to escape out the front door!
"Isaac, if you'll just let me past you...I'll be your best friend!"
Lauren always enjoys being with her boy cousins. Lucas was cuddling with a Aunt Jeannie when this picture was taken...
Big Girl, Lauren!
Uncle Glenn and Isaac
Hanging out with Ethan, Isaac, and Duane on the computer.
I wanted LEB to get to bed close to her normal bed time that night so that we would hopefully have a good-attitude kind of day on Christmas. We left Santa a cookie on the plate that she made in art class and glass of milk and she went to bed just after 8:30pm.
Lauren woke up the next morning around 7:30 am happy and ready to start her day...she had NO idea that the entire day was going to be so much fun and full of family gatherings!
I carried her down the hallway upstairs while Eric was at the bottom of the stairs with the video camera ready to capture all of Lauren's excitement! I put her down at the bottom of the stairs and she started to walk directly to her the gifts that Santa had left. There was a little bit of a smile and then a huge smile...she she saw a pack of C batteries laying on the couch and went straight for them! I couldn't believe it!!! Our Christmas morning excitement had been curved by a pack of Duracell batteries!! After a little redirecting, she headed straight for the left over cookie...ha!
We finally started noticing all of the presents from Santa and opened almost all of the presents (we finished them off after nap time that day). Next year, I will probably tell Santa not to wrap so many presents and to recommend that he do it exactly like he did at Gigi's house when I was a little girl. Santa must have been a genius on Church Street in the 1980's. :-)
Playing in all the wrapping paper
...and with Pops' new hat.
"Aunt Kay! Look what Santa brought both of us!"
"Grandaddy, can you believe that I have my very own kitchen?!"
With Kali
Opening a present with Gigi. "What could it be?!"
"OMGoodness! A Bitty Baby!"
"I love her!"
"Thank you, Gigi. I really like my Bitty Baby!"
This photo is going to be the theme picture for Christmas 2010...so, so, so sweet, cute, smart, funny, melt-my-heart kind of picture...
Pops with Kendall and Lauren
Lunchtime
Out of all of the toys that she got for Christmas, she still wanted to play with her old toys...
Marley, Aunt Kay, Dustin
Walking around in her dress from Dada and carrying lip gloss and a mirror
Gigi and Pops bought the girls a roller coaster...they LOVED it!!
Just like Little Einsteins: "Pat, Pat, Pat, Pat...blast off!"
Mid-afternoon, we went to Aunt Mary Ann's house and Lauren got to play with her cousin Addison (2 years old)
We played lots of fun games...
and had a good time being with everyone!
Next, we went to Aunt Stacie's house again to exchange gifts.
"Hum, I wonder when we are going to open presents?"
Aunt Sarah, Dada, and Uncle Lance
"Wow! Christmas Day was so much fun, but I"m so tired."
We had a great, full day. Lauren even managed to squeeze in a late morning nap and was a good girl all day long...
Lauren ready for church the next day...wearing the dress and coat that Aunt Kay gave her. And of course, her pocket book.
Back in the sleigh driving back to Panama City. I had no idea how we would transport ALL of our STUFF if we didn't have a suburban...it is always packed!
Merry Christmas!!
