We decided to just stay home and enjoy Christmas with our little family this year and it was so nice, relaxing, and peaceful. We had a small party at our house with some friends a few weeks before Christmas. Alayna also had a Christmas party and carol singing program at preschool and we attended Mike's work Christmas party.
This was the first year Alayna was really excited about Christmas and Santa coming. Throughout November and December, our craft Mondays were spent making homemade ornaments, cutting out snowflakes, decorating Christmas sugar cookies, etc. We hung Christmas drawings and our homemade snowflakes up all over the house, which made it look like a real winter wonderland. I was sick with the aforementioned stomach bug when we were supposed to put up the tree, so Mike and Alayna spent some quality time working on it and making a huge mess!
I told Alayna that Santa only came to good little girls' and boys' houses, and although she is on the whole a very good girl, I had to remind her several times to behave so Santa would come. Well, this unfortunately ended up backfiring me.... On Christmas morning, Alayna woke up at 5:30am and called for me to come into her bedroom. Our conversation went something like this:
Al: Do you think Santa came last night?
Me: I think he probably did.
Al: I don't think he did because I wasn't very good.
Me: Oh, you are a good girl sweety. I bet he came. Let's go see!
Al: (Looking very sad, looks out the window, then back at me.) No, I don't see anything. He didn't come! (Starting to cry.)
Me: Why don't we just go look out at the Christmas tree and see if he left anything.
So we went out and of course he did come and brought lots of very nice presents. And Alayna was overjoyed, but now thinks she can be bad and Santa will still come... Oh well.... Check out what a disaster our living room became on Christmas morning!
We got a lot of great gifts, but some of the highlights were a princess kitchen from Santa, an awesome red wagon from Grandpa and Grandma, a homemade kitty backpack from Aunt Christa, a cool elephant doll from Aunt Jaime, a baby scarf and knitted hat from G.G. Shoemaker, princess dolls from Pat and Becky, and a birdhouse from Joanna and Jason.
Finally,Grandpa Mellin came to celebrate New Year's and his birthday with us. Here's a picture of him with the girls. All in all, we were blessed with a very happy holiday and hope you all were too!
This was the first year Alayna was really excited about Christmas and Santa coming. Throughout November and December, our craft Mondays were spent making homemade ornaments, cutting out snowflakes, decorating Christmas sugar cookies, etc. We hung Christmas drawings and our homemade snowflakes up all over the house, which made it look like a real winter wonderland. I was sick with the aforementioned stomach bug when we were supposed to put up the tree, so Mike and Alayna spent some quality time working on it and making a huge mess!
We planned on having Mike's dad, brother Jason, and his wife Joanna at our place for Thanksgiving this year. Unfortunately, a bad stomach virus arrived in Casper and took out nearly everyone in town for a few days. It hit us the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had a similar illness last Christmas when Jason and Joanna came to see us in Tennessee, and we really didn't want a repeat of what happened then, with everyone being so sick and miserable. So, we decided we had to cancel our Thanksgiving and just spend the holiday on our own. Our friends, the Tituses, who have generously adopted our lonely little family, invited us over to their house on Thanksgiving day since we had all survived the stomach bug and decided we were all immune. I wish we had more pictures of the Titus family, but here are a few pics of the lovely evening, plus some of Alayna's school Thanksgiving party. 
