Christmas Volume III: The Christmas After Christmas

Yes, I know that it is almost April but I haven't finished telling you about Christmas yet! Since we spent Christmas at Nathan's parents' house in Oregon (and my sister also spent the holidays at her in-laws) we decided to get together in January at my parents' house to exchange presents. Grandma and Grandpa sure loved having all the kiddos around!
My niece was walking, and Annalee was in her walker. They are only 8 months apart. They had a lot of fun together . . . so much fun that they couldn't look at the boring old camera.
I was so excited to give my presents. I had made an apron and a chef's hat for my nephew since he likes to help his mom in the kitchen. It had Disney's Cars on it--one of his favorite movies.
But he was so enthralled by all the unopened presents that he didn't really care about what the presents were once he'd opened them. I asked him to put on his kitchen gear for a picture, and he refused. That's when his mom told him he didn't have a choice, and that they would watch A Christmas Story when they got home and reflect on his good fortune of having an aunt that didn't make giant pink bunny pajamas!
I had also made a dress-up tu-tu for my niece, but she didn't want to dress up! She cried while her mom was putting it on her (hence, the red face).
Oh well, I know the kids liked them later! I guess the pressure of "Christmas morning" was just too intense!

We got a lot of nice stuff, including some things not for Christmas. Because it was so close to my birthday, I got some birthday gifts, including a cook book called "The Cake Mix Doctor." (It was all part of my sister's evil plan to lose more weight than everybody else so she could look like a supermodel in our family pictures at the end of the year!) It has some really yummy recipes! Also, Annalee got her birthday present early. My sister's friend makes art out of little kids' hand and footprints. The one she made of Annalee's footprint was sooooo cute! I can't include a picture of it here for copyright reasons, but you can see some examples of what Piggies and Paws does here. The one we got was kind of like the angel, but it went with my nursery theme.

A few years ago my sister gave us a beautiful magnetic Nativity advent calendar. Annalee would squeal and start waving her arms like mad every time we passed it in the hall. Here she is playing with it one more time before we put it away with all the other Christmas decorations.