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!

Olivia's 1st Birthday Celebrations

Baby girl turned the big ONE in December. As soon as I found out that I was going to have a little December baby I was adamantly determined to make her birthday stand alone and apart from Christmas. I do not want her birthday to be overshadowed by the holiday! 

On Olivia's birthday both she and I woke up with colds. Booooooo! It was a strange morning as we were also trying to get out the door and on the road to go home for Christmas. But, before we packed everything up I insisted that we celebrate and make Olivia's morning special. 

We made breakfast - which Olivia didn't eat much of which was a sign that she did not feel good - and then finished things off with a homemade, "healthy" smash cake I had made the night before. I was slightly proud of this cake since it was made of fruit and I had to make my own gluten-free oat flour etc. We sang Happy Birthday to a bemused Olivia and let her dig it...

She actually didn't seem very interested. I'm not sure if it was that she had never been served something so substantial or if it was just that she had no appetite because of her cold. Either way I was kinda disappointed she didn't go crazy over it, but it's okay! 

After cake we opened a few presents from mommy and daddy. Olivia didn't really know what was going on, but she had fun pulling out the tissue paper and seemed to enjoy her gifts (a bead maze and some books). 

Excuse our jammies and bedhead haha

After a quick nap the three of us headed home to Atlanta for the holidays. It was a pretty uneventful day, but we had dinner with my parents and sister's family and she opened a gift from her grandparents after dinner. I was so sad she felt sick, poor baby. I'm glad she won't remember feeling awful on her first birthday, but it was still sad for me. 

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with family over the next few days. But the Monday after Christmas we were back in party mode to properly celebrate Olivia's 1st birthday with a party! My parents graciously allowed us to throw the party at their house. We invited family and some Atlanta friends and are so grateful to everyone who came as we know it cut into vacation and holiday time with family! 

I really tried hard not to go too overboard with this party... which is kind of hard for me. I could have very easily done a theme and let myself get completely carried away, but I knew I wouldn't be at home, Olivia wouldn't remember the party anyways, and I didn't want to overload myself since it was the day after Christmas.  I guess the birthday theme was birthday and dots. I'm glad I stuck with a low-key "birthday" theme especially since I was really sick the day of the actual party. 

(I wouldn't have been able to pull any of this off without the help of Miguel, my dad, my mom, and my sister who came over early to help! Miguel blew up all the balloons, my dad ran errands and picked up the food, and my mom and sister helped with all the little details while I sluggishly ran around blowing my nose haha. Also, thanks to Miguel's dad, Pedro, for taking photos!)

Luckily, the birthday girl woke up feeling better than previous days and she also took a good nap in the morning, waking up refreshed and happy just in time for her party!

Sadly, we've reached the stage where the bow doesn't stay on the head for long... 

A friend of ours in Savannah has a New Years day baby and decorates their Christmas tree each year with balloons for his birthday and I decided to adopt this as a birthday tradition for Olivia! I love this because it helps make her birthday seem special and independent from Christmas! 

My dad was awesome and got this inflatable pool and ball pit balls for the kids to play with! They loved it and it was a great way to entertain and contain the kids in an adult space. Thanks again dad for getting that and setting it up for us!!

I kept decorations pretty simple, but made these posters highlighting some milestones for Olivia and documenting each month of her life. 

We kept the food simple and had a family friend bake the birthday cakes. 

After playing for a little bit, we sang happy birthday and did the smash cake for Olivia. Olivia seemed to like this cake a bit better this go around (probably thanks to the sugar!). Sadly, no one remembered to get us singing on video. Pout. 

Forgive my red rudolph nose... stupid cold. 

After cake we opened presents. Olivia had a lot of practice opening presents over the days leading up to her party thanks to Christmas and seemed to enjoy receiving even more gifts! 

After presents it was time to visit some more and then wrap the party up. Short and sweet. 

It was such a sweet morning and I loved having family and friends celebrate our princess with us. Nothing is better than being with the people you love and celebrating happy events together. Thanks to all who helped with the party and who took time to be there with us (Lolly and G-daddy, Grandpa and Grandma Amador, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Jared, Karis, Evan, Aunt Jessie, Uncle Juan, Uncle Adrain, Brian and Lauretta Kloer, Alice and Joyce, Sarah Wilder/soon to be Hecht, Jennifer and Mike Wilder, Uncle Peter, Linda, Lauren Jones). You each mean so much to our family and we are so glad you are part of Olivia's and our lives! 

Wish we had thought about getting a group photo! We were all too busy enjoying the party I suppose.  Next year! =)