Christmas in February

No, we aren't trying to change the holiday, nor did we celebrate anything with gift-giving recently, nor did we get any gifts that we could be excited about. Somehow, though, I could not manage to make time to tell you about our actual Christmas until now. :0)  So you get our December Christmas in February.

We had a very fun Christmas that was mostly spent with my family, merely because Steve's was out of town until New Years. Steve, Emi, and I spent Christmas Eve here at home. Our landlords/upstairs neighbors invited us to come have dinner with them and their family, and we decided to accept (I think a lot because I didn't want to try to cook an elaborate meal for the three of us). About 1/2 way through dinner, Emi started feeling like she had a fever. She crawled up on Steve's lap and nearly fell asleep! So we took her downstairs and put her in bed. We weren't sure if it was just going to be a nap or if she would be down for the night because it was only about 6pm. Much to my appreciation, she stayed down the whole night! I got a lot done on unfinished Christmas presents that night!

Saturday morning (Christmas Day), we opened presents and then around lunch time, we headed up to my parents' house. We enjoyed a relaxing day playing games and eating really good food with Mom, Dad, Alison, Ben, and Haylee. On Sunday, Megs and her family came up and we all enjoyed opening gifts again. It was especially fun to watch the kids.

The week after Christmas, the weather got pretty bad. Lots of snow and cold. And we all got sick. Most of the Frohlichs shared a rather nasty cold/flu bug. Wasn't that nice of us? :) Megs and I did end up taking Emi and Ariana to a place here called Jungle Jims. I forgot to bring a camera, so I don't have any pictures of it, but Emi LOVED it. It's a fun little place where they have a bunch of street carnival rides set up indoors. They had a carousel, one of those things that has swings all around it and it spins, a mini roller coaster, bumper cars, a "safari" car ride, a boat ride where the boats went up and down on arms attached to a center pole that spun, and a "spinning teacup" type ride. Emilia's favorite was the carousel. She though riding a different horsie each time was the greatest thing ever. She must have ridden that ride a dozen times at least.

My nesting instinct has been ridiculous this pregnancy: I have cleaned and organized almost every room, closet, and cupboard in this house since I stopped feeling sick from morning sickness. I have also made somewhere in the vicinity of 50 meals I have never tried before, learned how to bake my own bread, learned some woodcrafting as Steve and I made one of Emi's Christmas presents, hand sewed some play food for Emi, made a quiet book for Emi for church, and to top it all off, I decided after Christmas (because I had a little spending money--Thanks Ryan and Heather!) to completely redo/redecorate Emilia and the baby's room. I bought a whole bunch of used furniture off KSL and have been refinishing it. I MADE a quilt for Emilia's bed (and I don't really sew). I'm recovering some throw pillows right now, and next week, my mom and I are going to reupholster some chairs.  It kinds of makes me wonder what kind of personality this child is going to have. :)

Now for some pictures--

Our Christmas tree.  Pretty huh?

An ornament that Emi painted all by herself for our tree.  She absolutely adores painting things.

These are the flowers Steve had delivered to me for my birthday.  Aren't they pretty?  The picture doesn't really do them justice.  Our little camera's flash is always way too bright.

Before Christmas, this was Emilia's princess dress.  She would put it on and pull the skirt part up like this and then dance around the house proclaiming her princess-ness.  I ended up having to hide the skirt because she wanted to go out in public like this all the time.  I made the mistake of letting her wear it to church one Sunday--that was an interesting day. :)

This is Emilia's first experience with presents from Santa Claus.  I think she's been converted. ;)  She enjoyed opening presents, but each one was so distracting, we had to convince her to open more!

This outfit from Santa (crown, necklace, skirt, and wand) became her new princess outfit.  She wore it non-stop for at least a week or two after Christmas, and she usually has it on for at least part of the day still. 

Getting ready to open the big gift from Mom and Dad...

It was a little kitchen just for her.  I thought it turned out really cute and that it would be such a fun thing to entertain herself with.  Yeah.  Not so much.  She likes to take out the play food and hand it to people, but she never cooks it or washes the dishes or anything.  Maybe when she's older. <>

Emilia playing with her gift from the Strattons.  Heather told me what it was beforehand and I was a little worried because Emilia was really afraid of our real vacuum. Well, it turned out great--she loves the vacuum--and now instead of running away and crying when I vacuum, she gets hers out and "helps."  It's really fun! :)

Me in my new maternity sweater.  It's kind of a dark picture, but it's a really cute sweater.  I was excited. :)  Unfortunately, I gave the camera to Steve and we didn't get any pictures of him.

Emilia in the princess outfit that Nana made for her.  The baby Pooh was another fun gift she got.

Okay, no more Christmas pictures.  These next two were taken a few days ago.  I was making some brownies and she wanted to lick the spoon.  What a cutie-pants!

After Christmas sometime, I had a bad day and needed to get out of the house after Steve came home from work.  As I was getting ready to leave, Steve told Emi that they needed to read stories (our usual bedtime routine).  She excitedly hopped up and said, "We read books!" which surprised me because she's not usually excited to go to bed.  Then she grabbed my book club book off the couch, and went and got Little Women off the bookshelf (because it has a pink cover).  The Secret Life of Bees she handed to Steve and said, "Read, Daddy!" while she climbed up on his lap and started to pretend to read Little Women.  So Steve started reading to her out loud.  I could tell she was getting sleepy as Steve read and rocked, so I got her PJs and a diaper and told Steve she should go to bed soon, and then I left.  Two hours later when I arrived home, this is what I found: So cute!

I have also been helping my Mom and Megan get their new business off the ground. Not that I've done anywhere near the work they have, but I helped design and write their website.  Check it out at BakeMyDayUtah.blogspot.com. If any of you reading this are in Utah, spread the word!