Christmas continued

since my family stayed in lodi on Christmas, we decided to start a new tradition. so, the day after Christmas, everyone came over to our house for dinner after church and we exchanged our gifts. it was great because Christmas just kept going! i made trevor's favorite meal, angel hair pasta with hot italian sausage and my homemade tomato sauce. we had sourdough bread, salad, cran-raspberry punch, choc chip cookies, and oatmeal choc chip cookies. it was a good meal to have after the heavier ones from the previous 2 days. and once again i didn't get the pictures that i wanted. boo! we were having too much fun hanging out and opening gifts. it was so exciting to finally give everyone the gifts we had picked out. i am recording what we got everyone here on the blog so that next year we can remember and hopefully not repeat anything!

brett got an itunes gift card and a justin beiber poster that trevor signed "never say never." we think we're hilarious. brett was mildly amused, but he liked the gift card at least.

richard got the book Earth from the daily show and a video game he wanted. and he also got hooked on angry birds over Christmas. he had tried to hold out on playing it for a long time but he finally had to give in to the fad. trevor has played angry birds daily for a long time!

dad got the dvd of a-team and mark twain's autobiography, which he immediately started reading (yay!) and which was also his only surprise gift. it was very exciting because this year dad gave us a real list of what he wanted! it was fantastic because we always have such a hard time shopping for him. the boys got him his titleist hats, some dvds, and a giants sweatshirt.

mom always says she wants us to be happy for Christmas or for us to all go to the temple, which are both very nice, but you can't wrap them mom! so i had to get creative and try to guess what she might want/need. the boys were helpless. so from the boys got a new coach purse which is totally gorgeous, jewelry, and perfume. from me, trevor, and shelby she got framed picture of shelby, framed picture of she and dad with shelby, and the calendar i made (i always knew presents would get easier when i had kids!) as well as a cute hot chocolate mug from anthropologie with a letter c on it. c for cindy and c for chocolate.

miss shelby made out like a bandit. she got some new duplo legos so that she can build more towers. she loves making them as big as she can reach. from our family friend lorraine she got the purple hippo pajamas she is wearing along with a little matching hippo stuffed animal. you just never know what she is going to love, and oh boy does she love that little hippo. every night at bedtime we have to get "mr. hippo" and tuck him into bed. she can't sleep without him! and she wants to wear the pajamas every day! and i think she is eating a chocolate chip cookie in this picture too.

she also got a kitchen and lots of accessories to go with them! my mom has been wanting to get her a kitchen for a long time, but it took me a while to find the right one.

of course she loved the pots and pans and immediately started making "rocket soup" from the little einsteins.

the kitchen was in pieces in the garage waiting for trevor to put them together. :)

oh but here is big jet. before we hauled out the Christmas tree i wanted to document trevor's masterpiece.

we put the kitchen right where the Christmas tree had been. it's a perfect spot for the perfect kitchen. it's from the land of nod and i couldn't be happier with it!

the shopping cart was an instant hit and shelby is obsessed with it.

what is extra fun about the fridge is that it has a chalkboard on the front and it's also magnetic. mom got shelby the alphabet magnets i've been wanting forever that every other mom seemed to own. our fridge is stainless steel so it's not magnetic which was sad, but now we have a magnetic fridge that is all shelby's!

the stove/oven/sink is fun too. i like the little window.

like a good girl, she is always washing her hands in the sink before she starts cooking.

mom got her an ice cream set, so if you come over be ready for her to serve you up a scoop! don't expect the pink one because that is hers, she only likes "pink ice cream."

the cookies and doughnuts are so fun too and she loves to bring them to daddy wherever he is in the house. by the end of every day there are cookies and doughnuts in many rooms. :) when you ask her what she is doing in the kitchen she always answers "baking cookies" which makes sense since that is my favorite thing to do in my kitchen. apparently it's genetic.

we tried to organize the plates and utensils and so far she is very good about putting them back in their places. so proud. we have a mix of wooden and plastic foods and she seems to like them equally.

and finally, mom also got her a princess castle and carriage which she loves. sometimes dinosaurs end up in the castle terrorizing the princesses. it's pretty hilarious. after Chistmas trevor and i worked hard to organize the toys because trevor was thisclose to losing it and throwing all the toys away. we made it though and so did most of the toys. except for the truly annoying ones that would wake up the baby, those are gone. what an awesome Christmas we had! thanks to everyone for all the love!