Christmas

6:55 am, Rebekah every so sweetly says to me, "mama? is it morning yet...?" Close enough. So we wake up daddy who just got the call from grandma who said she was on her way over. I rushed down to start the traditional sweet rolls while Don and Rebekah waited for grandma to arrive. Once she was here they headed down to see what Santa had brought. (For those die hard Rebekah fans: yes, those are the same pj's she wore Christmas last year.)

Turns out Santa was pretty generous to my little girl. She got her kitchen:

Her stocking was filled with paint, crayons, and chocolate...

And band-aids!

Santa even came through with her last minute - "but it was in my heart all the time" - announcement of a mobile clinic.

Rebekah got grandma Hershey's chocolate and a butterfly tea set so she could have tea parties at grammy's house.

I had a friend's son turn our chair boxes into race cars for me and Rebekah. We raced that morning. I lost. 

Rebekah loved her new Duplos.

In fact she loved to unwrap everything, whether it was hers or not.

Don got much needed socks. He also got a nice drill and a coat that apparently I misread and bought a XXL instead of an XL. Very sad.

Grandma got another calendar (praise the day my friend Courtney gave me that suggestion).

Besides books and some clothing, I got Hershey's chocolate as well (i think the red-eye adds a nice effect).

Nana gave Rebekah (and me) another wonderful year at the children's museum. Rebekah is counting down the days until the arrival of Doc (coming Aug).

This year Don wanted to get Rebekah a bunch of board games. One is "Trouble." Rebekah had a great time pushing the giant dice button.

While they played I finished the annual sweet rolls.

Grammy made Rebekah some hot chocolate milk.

Afterwards Rebe went straight to her new airport.

I forced our annual family picture. I'm wearing a new sweatshirt and flannel - love them both.

One of Rebekah's presents from grammy was a lego kit. She wanted to put it together. I think we got a third of the car done before she lost interest and had to do something else. I, however, was determined. Don came out and helped with the end of the trailer. It's pretty amazing - that trailer comes complete with a little blender, a stove, a shower, a tv, and you name it! Turns out lego sets are a win for Rebekah and for the mama: I liked building it and Rebe likes playing with it!

Then I suggested we leave the house. I've always wanted to see downtown Indy and this sounded like my chance! On the way down there was much singing. I got a little on the camera. So fun!

Crazy that it's Christmas and we are barely wearing jackets!

A view of the canal:

This really cool buffalo made out of twigs. The face was amazingly detailed. Definitely something you should see in person.

I loved the view of the city.

We drove around and saw many of the sights. On the way home Don stopped at Reynald's Farm Equipment. They have been doing a free light display since 1955. It was very cool! I tried to take pictures but they didn't really turn out so I stole these off the internet:

My personal favorite. So big you could see it from the freeway!

These are mine - they didn't have pictures of the indy cars so I had to include them:

And this one was rather cool too. Hoosier Basketball!

A fun way to end a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we decided to keep it simple and get a Papa Murphy's pizza. Two actually: I like the gourmet veggie and no one else does. I got Don and Rebekah a ham and pineapple. 

We invited the sister missionaries over. Rebekah waited with great anticipation. She wanted to decorate gingerbread houses with them and then have a marching band around the Christmas tree. 

Thought I'd throw in here that the sisters agreed with Don about the pizzas. One sister tried it and said, "it's not bad..." Ah well. Just means more for me to enjoy!

After dinner we started the gingerbread houses. Rebekah was a great assistant. 

Their final product:

The missionary houses:

Next came the marching band. Complete with instruments. I didn't notice at the time but Rebekah talked to me about who should play what instrument early that day. She held true and gave everyone the instrument she decided on.

Then we moved into the living room for our nightly nativity story. Then we sang Jingle Bells led by Rebekah.

She had such fun!

After the sisters left, I remembered I hadn't taken two very important pictures.

Santa finally joined our reindeer.

And our gingerbread houses

(Rebekah acting like a goof in honor of Christmas Eve)

While I got ready for bed Don looked up the Santa tracker for Rebekah. Finally, way later then normal, we got Rebekah to bed. About 5 minutes later she asked if Santa came yet.

Children's Museum

Early December I planned on taking Rebekah to the children's museum but because of swim it had to be a Friday. The first week I had plans (which got canceled but not before it was too late to go), the 2nd week I had an unexpected doctors appointment. So that left the 18th. Kid's are still in school, I thought. It will be okay, I thought. Sometimes I do not like being so naive.

It was crazy! So many people! And most were teenagers (I did not plan for the field trip factor). The good news was that Rebekah still likes doing the thing that are on the younger side so we were out of the way for the most part. The bad news is teenagers can be thoughtless sometimes. For example, there's a little bear tea party room. Rebe wanted to go and have a tea party with the bears but the teenagers were in there putting the tea party food on a plate, moving the plate close to the edge of the table and hitting it with their hands, thus sending the food flying up to the ceiling. Seriously? And where are the chaperones?

But we still managed to have a good trip. I started it by making my daughter pose for a picture:

Love the look on her face. She learned the eye roll from her dad, by the way.

She did, however, want this picture taken.

We went to the top floor and enjoyed the view. Rebekah was kind of overwhelmed.

But we headed for a familiar spot - the carousel. She picked a horse and jumped right in.

 So happy!

The song the carousel played was Jingle Bells. Rebe and I started singing along. It was so fun to watch her total excitement and happiness. Such a precious moment.

Of course we had to visit China. She decorated both faces, although I think hers turned out much better than mine.

Then she wanted to build a glass sculpture.

And of course the race car was an important stop.

And the music room. Got to have music.

I finally (not without causing tears) talked her into heading home. On our way out we found this:

So many balloons! And this:

The car is actually very cool. Love how it looks like Darth Vader from the front.