Christmas Morning!

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Here's the living room once we finished setting up Christmas Eve (this is actually Christmas Day, since we didn't get everything done until after midnight!)

And here is Wes seeing everything for the first time on Christmas morning! He was so excited, it was such a priceless moment to see the joy on his face.

Grandpa got Wes this train to go around our tree and he sure loved it! It makes all kinds of noise and plays music too. It's the perfect size train for an 18 month old!

Lots of goodies in his stocking!

Checking out white board markers for the first time. Coloring on his new easel has now become a daily activity. We'll tackle paint when things get a little drier outside!

And I got a bread machine from Michael and Wes! I've been wanting one for a while and I was so excited to try it out. My whole wheat bread turned out great and the French bread was amazing! (The only problem is I've found myself eating a whole loaf of white bread, which I would not have purchased at the store. I guess the fact that it's homemade justifies the empty calories. You're following my logic right???)

And Michael got some new clothes and shoes. Since Wes was helping us open our gifts, he figured it would be extra helpful if he just climbed into the gift box.

Then we headed over to Grandma Susie's house to spend the rest of the morning with Grandma, Papa, Auntie Jessica, Uncle Nino and cousins Haley, Gia and Cash.

We had a delicious breakfast...

...then began tearing into Christmas gifts!! Papa got Wes these Snoopy golf clubs and they are such a hit!

And Wes got a Sit and Spin, among many other wonderful things, from Grandma Susie. What an amazing morning! We are so blessed to be able to give and receive in such a capacity. But above all, we remember that God gave us his only Son on Christmas morning and we receive Him with an open heart!

Next up: Christmas afternoon at Grandma's

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we drove to Lake Elsinore to spend the evening celebrating with Grandpa, Auntie Caitlin and Auntie Madison and Uncle Nathan. Uncle Nathan's family was there too, and we had such a fun, and delicious, evening!

Aged prime rib, ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, salad, home made bread, cookies, pie and cheesecake. What a feast!!

Wes has always been a ladies man!

Wes and Nathan's mom, Shelly. We also discovered that Wesley loves candy canes!

Here is Wes helping Daddy pick a gift during our big gift exchange. We went home with a digital picture frame and a gift card to Chili's! There wasn't too much stealing, but there were some really fun gifts!

And Wes was spoiled by everyone there! He got a Sing and Discover Story Piano from Shelly and John, and Auntie Caitlin gave him two recordable story books! One so Wes can hear her read him the story and the other one for Daddy to record a story. These are such a great idea for kids who's Daddy's work a lot and whose Auntie's live a little far away!

And from Auntie Madison and Uncle Nathan, Wes got...

...a vacuum cleaner! This kid loves it when I get out the big vacuum, so he was so excited to get one just his size. This one even has a detachable dust buster, which is his second favorite cleaning tool. And Wes is in for a big treat soon, because Disneyland is in our near future...thanks Grandpa!!!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Christmas Eve Eve

On the 23rd, we went to Great Grandma Virginia's house in San Clemente to celebrate Christmas with her. We had prime rib, mashed potatoes, and broccoli and fruit cake and gingerbread cake for dessert! It was a great way to start the Christmas festivities!

I didn't take too many pictures, but it was a beautiful night, so I snapped this one of the sunset.

Wesley and Gia playing Great Grandma's piano.

Ugghhh!

Any good mom should know that when her kid is silent, it can only mean trouble. I was in the kitchen and realized that I didn't hear Wes playing anymore. So when I came around the corner, here's what I found:

Wes is in the full-blown climbing stage and now uses anything and everything as a step stool. So of course being the smart mom that I am, I told him that if he was going to climb on his music table, I'd just put it in the middle of the room and take care of that little problem. I went back into the kitchen and two seconds later heard that all too scary silence. Here's what I found this time:

In another ultra smart mommy move, I grabbed my phone to snap a picture instead of grabbing my child balanced precariously on the edge of the table. This picture was followed shortly by a fall from the table. It wasn't a bad fall, just one that will hopefully remind him not to stand on small plastic tables anymore. So maybe it was a smart mommy move after all.

Christmas Cookies!

I'm a little behind, but on the 15th, Wesley's friends Connor and Brooklyn and their mom Lora invited us over for a Christmas cookie and ornament decorating party!

I had a hard time coaxing Wes out of the playroom though! Other people's toys are just so much fun :)

But I finally got him into the garage to decorate an ornament.

Who knew dumping out the bowl of stickers over and over again could be so much fun?!? Since Wes wasn't too interested in cookie decorating, I stepped in and ate, I mean decorated, Wes' share of the cookies! Thanks for a fun party Fugitt Family!

The Mission Inn

Michael and I have been wanting to go to the Mission Inn's Festival of Lights in Riverside ever since we saw it featured on one of those "most amazing lights" Christmas specials. We can't believe we've lived in Southern California all our lives and have never been here! We invited Jed and Katie and Gracie to join us for a night of Mexican food and Christmas cheer!

The Mission Inn is decorated with more than 4 million lights! We went last Thursday night and just beat the week of rain that started Friday!

The tree in the hotel lobby is so beautiful.

All throughout the courtyards Santa's elves are busy at work making toys.

This one took a little break to pose with Gracie and Wes.

We ate dinner at Las Campanas Mexican Cantina and the ambiance just couldn't be beat! We were surrounded by thousands of Christmas lights and two toasty heat lamps. The food was really good and the Mission Inn margarita was gone way too fast.

Wes and Gracie have become fast friends.

We stopped to watch the ice skaters...

...and visit with Santa's reindeer.

We capped the night off with a carriage ride around the Mission Inn. What a great way to see all the lights and displays! We were too nice and snuggly under a blanket to take pictures, but it was really beautiful!

We even got to pet Daisy after our ride. We had such a fun night, and were so glad we got to share it with family! Might have to add this to our annual Christmas traditions list!

More Christmas Lights!

This amazingly decorated house is just down the street from us and they've been decorating it like this for over 40 years. It's at 2249 Santa Ana on the corner of Albert and Santa Ana and all the years we've lived here, we've never done more than drive by it. But this year we ate an early dinner and then took a walk over to check it out!

This is Santa's living room and the week before Christmas Santa comes to take pictures with the kids. They also do a food drive to benefit a local shelter.

All the mechanical displays are Peanuts themed and here Wes is watching the Woodstocks' play hockey and waiting for a little bunny to pop out from behind some snow.

Santa has such civilized reindeer.

And this is a rotating nativity scene. The doors close and when they reopen, a new scene appears. Here is baby Jesus and the wise men, then the shepherds are next. So cool!

A Few Things I've Been Sewing

Here's a few sewing projects I've done this Christmas season.

I made these wine bottle holders for Chrissy and Kevin's annual wine tasting Christmas party. Chrissy asked me if I could make some bags to keep the wine's we were tasting a secret and this is what I came up with. It worked perfectly!

The first one was trial and error, but once I got my pattern all squared away, they were super quick. And they are made of felt, so I didn't have to worry about hems, perfect!!

I also made new table runner's for my kitchen table and buffet.

I love having runners on my tables, it just gives them something extra. I also made one for my coffee table, but since that's used mainly as a hot wheels race track, I'll have to save it for a couple years down the road.

And I made Wes some beanbags as stocking stuffers.

These were fun to make and really easy. I did fill them with real beans, so we'll have to keep them from getting wet! I'll be convincing Michael shortly to make Wes a bean bag toss too!