Christmas 2016

I was so excited about Christmas this year! I think last Christmas was kind of a blur because of Olivia's arrival, so I in a way felt like I had to make up for it or something this year. Plus, I want Christmas to be a magical time for my kid, and even though she is too young to remember it or appreciate it this year, I wanted to start making our own Christmas traditions right away! 

Since we spent Thanksgiving with my in-laws, we stayed with my parents for Christmas. I love that we live so close to both sets of grandparents and that Olivia has already been able to make connections with them. Such sweet moments happen (like G-Daddy reading to Olivia early in the morning) when visiting and it makes my heart happy!

Miguel, Olivia and I drove up to Atlanta on the 22nd so we had a few days to enjoy family before the actual holiday. One of my favorite things we did was go over to my sister's house and make cookies for Santa with her kids! I love being with family and those kids... man, they just have my heart. 

Mom somehow managed to make a Christmas ghost cookie... Maybe it was out of a Christmas Carol or something  ;)

Too bad there aren't many sprinkles on this cookie...

It's a Christmas Eve tradition for us to spend the day with Miguel's family. But before we headed over to Lawrenceville, we made sure that Olivia left some cookies for Santa since her stocking was hung at Lolly and G-Daddy's house. 

Christmas Eve at my in-laws is always so much fun! Growing up I always wanted a big family and my dream came true when I married into Miguel's! There are always a lot of people and we span many tables and rooms. We eat a yummy Cuban meal and open presents late into the night!

Being the first Christmas with Olivia taking part in the celebrations, we had to make some modifications to the schedule and Olivia was able to open her gifts before dinner and bedtime. Olivia received the cutest play kitchen complete with miniature pots and pans and fake food. This gift has been a HUGE hit at our house and Olivia is a big fan of "cooking" while mommy and daddy make her meals. 

Olivia received so many generous gifts from friends and family but I think I stopped taking photos after the second gift or so because I started helping Olivia play and had to clean up wrapping, and I was caught up in enjoying the moment!

This mower from Aunt Jessie and Uncle Juan has also been a BIG hit!!

After dinner we put Olivia to bed and enjoyed more time with family and friends and opened gifts. We wrapped the evening up really early for an Amador Christmas Eve (around 11PM) because the three of us had to drive 45 mins back to Milton and get Olivia back in bed. 

Christmas morning we all woke up with a lot of excitement (and a cold for me! boo!). I was soooo excited to see Olivia open her stocking and experience Christmas as a one year old (as opposed to her first Christmas when she was only 3 days old)!

Olivia went right for the rocking pony that Santa had left her! Let me tell you... she LOVES this pony! We have to keep it in a "stable" (closet) at our house and bring it out only at small periods of time otherwise she would never want to stop playing with it. Plus, it has a song that plays when you grab its ear and Olivia has learned how to make it play. It's pretty stinkin' cute watching her with her pony. She's already grown out of the little purple seat only a month later (growth spurt?!)! Luckily, it was removable. 

The Rays came over after they opened stockings at their house and got to do stockings all over again at Lolly and G-Daddy's. Man, how cool is it that Santa comes twice sometimes?! 

Olivia is really into taking things out and putting them in (baskets, cabinets, bags, etc) right now, so she was all about emptying her stocking! 

She loves this Little Pony toy... we play "get ya, get ya" with it and she runs away and laughs and laughs. 

It's a Leeper tradition that Santa leaves a piece of fruit in the toe of your stocking. Santa always left my sister an orange and an apple for me. Santa must know Olivia really well because he left her her absolute favorite, an avocado!!

We spent the morning munching on breakfast food, coffee and our family's Christmas morning traditional Monkey Bread while we opened presents. 

There were so many gifts and sugar infused children with short attention spans, that we took a break opening gifts for a bit. I really liked how low key and slow paced Christmas morning was this year. I don't generally welcome change (I like routine and tradition) but sometimes change is good and fun and gives you the opportunity to make new traditions and that's what this year brought I think. 

The rest of the afternoon the boys cooked a delicious Christmas dinner for our family, I took a long cold-induced nap, and the kids played with their presents. Again, I dropped the ball on taking photos, but I think that is just a sign that I was enjoying living the moment (or maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was sick and zombie-like?). 

There is nothing better than spending time with family and the people you love and our busy Christmas holiday was full of just that. What a Merry Christmas 2016 we had!