Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year.

The girls were so excited, especially Lexi.

We just stayed here in Albuquerque and just celebrated as a family.

Here's some pictures from the holiday...

I've always been a believer of opening one present on Christmas Eve.

This year we let the girls open there present in the morning of Christmas Eve.

Here they are in their PJs from Nana.

Here are the girls all ready for our fancy Christmas Eve dinner.

And here are the girls eating their "Christmas Popcorn." I found the recipe on Pinterest.

We bought the Grinch.

Lexi couldn't understand why the Grinch could be so mean.

But she did end up loving the movie.

Here's our living room all ready for the girls on Christmas morning.

Here are the girls right after we woke them up.

Lexi was tired but excited and Avery was just confused.Here are the girls with their new fairy wings and their stockings.

We had church at 9 am so we only had time for stockings before Church.

Luckily, our girls were fine with waiting.

After church we came home and opened the presents.

The girls got lots of dress up clothes for Christmas.

And they were so excited.

Sean's brother Josh had our name in the Christensen family gift swap.

Josh sewed us all something.

Here is the bow tie Josh made Sean.

Here is Avery with her Magnadoodle from my parents.

We had the missionaries over on Christmas day.

We gave them stockings, ties and socks.

And we played games with them.

It was a great Christmas.

Here's the link to Christmas 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007

Pre-Christmas Activities

Why, yes, I'm a bloggin machine right now!

Here are a few pictures from December.

It snowed a few times. It never really stuck though.

The girls however were excited.

Lexi was so excited about Christmas crafts.

Here is a snowman that she made.

She was very proud of it.

And it is still hanging up in our dinning room and probably will all winter long.

Avery made one too.

We (well I) strung popcorn on some thread and we put it on the tree.

It turned out okay but I will probably never do it again.

Next year will try Cheerios or Fruit Loops instead.

We finally had a star on the top of our tree and a tree skirt on the bottom.

We (well the girls) decorated a gingerbread house again this year.

We talked a lot about baby Jesus this year.

Lexi even memorize parts of some scriptures about Christ's birth.

The girls decided to decorate a "manger" for baby Jesus.

Lexi was so concerned that baby Jesus wasn't born in a hospital.

She told me that she would let Jesus in the hotel.

And just for fun here is a picture of the excited bride Lexi and her bride Belle barbie.

And I just was so proud of myself.

I found this remote control Geo Trax's train set at the thrift store for $6!!!

Now we officially have a boy toy at our house.

The River of Lights - Our Albuquerque Christmas Tradition

We went to the River of Lights last year, and loved it, so we went again this year.

It was really cold that night, in the 20's.

Avery didn't talk or make any noises the whole time.

Avery just looked confused and a little miserable. She was not a fan of the freezing cold.

Lexi had a good time for the first 20 minutes or so and then she was cold and starting whining.

Sean and I had a great time.

We walked through a different part of the Botanical Gardens this year and saw new things.

As long as we are here in Albuquerque, this is definitely one of our Christmas traditions.

We will just have to go in November next year when it's still a little warmer.

Lexi's favorite part of the night was when we saw the lion.

Lions are still Lexi's favorite animal.

YAY! One more post done. A few more to go!

Family Nativity

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas!
Love,
Sean, Sam, Lexi and Avery
(and Brett)

...

And here's the link to last year's nativity picture.

Avery Doesn't Like Santa

And here's the link to last years picture with Santa.

Christmas Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas celebrations...

Lexi excited for it to finally be Christmas Eve.

Avery on Christmas Eve waiting for Dinner.

Lexi was so excited to eat the pie that she and I made together.

Singing Christmas songs together.

As we read the Christmas story from the New Testament, Lexi layed out the characters.

Lexi and Avery rolling around on the ground together. Well, actually Lexi is trying to roll on top of Avery and Avery is rolling away.

Here are all the stockings laid out in front of the tree Christmas morning.

Avery decided to wake up at 6:30! Way too early. So she was the first one to go find her stocking.

Lexi decided to wake up at 7 (an hour earlier than normal) and as soon as I told her it was Christmas she popped out of bed and ran into the living room straight to her stocking. She was so excited to find that Santa had left her Smarties and not candy canes.

Lexi LOVED opening all the presents for us and Avery enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper and boxes.

Lexi was so excited to get some slippers just like I did.

Lexi was so excited to wear her Princess shoes and PJ's. Princesses are officially her new thing.

We got Lexi this kitchen/tea set. We knew she would love it.

Avery was content just playing with her new toys.

(Look at those four upper teeth!)

Here the girls are modeling their Christmas PJ's from Sean's parents.

Lexi was SOOO excited to have a tea set like on Beauty and the Beast. Now she can have tea parties.
Avery had a great first Christmas. She just spent the whole day playing happily on the floor. She even got a little power nap on Sean's lap. A special Christmas gift for Sean, for sure.

It was a bitter sweet Christmas for sure. We loved being together just as our little family and being able to start our own traditions. But we missed being with our families in Washington. In fact, this was my first Christmas away from my mom. It was hard for me to not be home with my parents. But being a parent of an excited 2 1/2 year old gave me something to be really excited about. And now Christmas is only going to get more exciting every year!

(For fun here are the posts I did for Christmas 2009 and 2008 and 2007.)