Holidays 2010

Don't think you got cut from the Christmas card list.  I just never got around to putting together a Christmas card this year.  Mostly because this is the best photo we could get.  Poor Kinley was an ice cube.  It was freezing and really windy out the one day we had the opportunity to head to the square and try to get a family photo.

We loved every minute of this Holiday season around the Bell household.  Kinley is at a perfect age to understand and enjoy all the parts that make it such a special time of year.  She even got to help decorate the tree this year and picked out a few presents by herself.  Including ones for the dogs.  She asked while we were shopping one day what we were getting them for Christmas.  I couldn't resist.  However since she's also a perfect age to tell everyone exactly what presents they were getting, she didn't get to pick them all out.  She helped make some pillows and blankets for her cousins and immediately told them when they walked in the door on Christmas Eve what she had made them. 
I told Andy on Christmas morning, we needed to cherish these memories because kiddos sure seem to grow up fast these days.  So for documentation sake, here's a  list of things I'd like to remember.
Each morning when she woke up she'd run to turn on the Christmas tree and find "Cary" elf.  Then would settle down under the tree to look (but not touch) the train and Santa's workshop Andy and his Papa made together many years ago.  She is Grinch and candy cane obsessed.
We saw Santa on 3 separate occasions.  The first was at school, and she would not go near him.  Except to get a candy cane.  Mean Mommy might have told her since she didn't go sit on his lap and tell him she wanted eggs for Christmas, she wasn't going to get any.  (For those of you who don't know, eggs is all the child asked for for Christmas.)  By the end of the day she said she was ready to tell Santa what she wanted.  So we headed to see him at Bass Pro the next week.  There she developed a new smile that looks very close to a grimace, but in reality she was very excited to see him and loved it.  The very next day, Santa also came to the library which is the only time I have a photo of.  Again with the same scared little smile on her face.
She's still asking any time we're in the car at night if we can go see Christmas lights instead of going home and cried when we took down all the Christmas decorations.  
She was so excited and grateful for every little thing she received and truly took joy in giving and making others their gifts as well.  She picked up each of her toys, hugged them to her face and said "I love it."  Such a sweet, sweet little girl.
Enough rambling.  You can check out some of the fun we had over on my picasa page.  Here's a link to an album of all our festivities.