Reagan and Too Much Christmas

Starting on Christmas Eve, Reagan was excited to wear her Christmas dress that I found several months ago (on sale for $12!). After asking if she'd like to wear a dress, she said, "how about my christmas dress because it's almost christmas time!" We ate a wonderful Indian meal at Rani's house, watched a Frosty the Snowman show on TV, and exchanged a few gifts. Rani, Ganga, Lali, and Pavan gave Reagan this adorable holiday dress and headband. Christmas morning was just us opening our stockings and presents followed by my family tradition of having crepes for breakfast (which I've never made before and must say I did a good job on ... they were slightly thicker than they should have been, but tasted great ... and I added flax seed meal for a little added health cause they otherwise have very little). I also added vanilla (sorry Mom), but only a little capful (sorry Dad) :-). We only gave Reagan about 3 presents last year and bumped it up to 5 this year plus 4 small stocking gifts, trying to keep things reasonable ... but by the time friends and family gifts were added in, she was swimming in gifts anyway! We got her a tool set with battery operated power drill that works just like Daddy's, a cash register with a scanner that beeps and has play money. It also operates as a real calculator. She was pretending to ring up all her gifts with the scanner. We also got her a little laptop with games on it, a ballet outfit for barbie, a ribbon wand (like they use in the Nutcracker), water paints and multi-colored pencils (just to help fill the stocking mostly), and finally, a stack of Berenstain Bears books, her new favorites, that she had to go on a scavenger hunt for ... Cam set that up and she had fun finding them all around the house.

Uncle Brandon and Aunt Danielle got her this cute ballerina tutu, "twinkle toe" shoes (which is what she calls them now :-)), and this super soft, cute bunny that came with a little coat, but Reagan said it was too warm for the coat, so it came off immediately. From her friend Jack (and his Mommy and Daddy), she got a little Polly Pockets doll and the game Hi Ho Cherry O. She's somewhat interested in playing the game, but has been obsessed with all the little plastic berries that come with it. She's cooking them in her kitchen, serving them, separating out the green ones cause they're "sour-y" (how she knew to associate green with sour, I have no clue) and pouring them from container to container endlessly. Cam made a chute out of blocks and a cardboard tube for her to send them through.

From Grandma Connie and Grandpa Don, she got a mix of things, Barbie dog show set, the game Thin Ice, little kitten and cat figures which have become the Barbie's pets, a little doll and bathtub set which she wanted to play with immediatly and the bathtub has also been a container to pour the plastic berries into, and a cute backpack which she's wearing here while playing with her new laptop:From Grandma Laurie and Grandpa Martin, she got these sparkly ballerina jammies and the soundtrack to the Lion King (my mom was trying to remember the words to the song Circle of Life on our trip ... which stemmed from a long explanation involving the earth and sun and the days and nights and things living and dying ... which all stemmed from watching the sun set and seeing both live and dead sea life on the beach in Florida. Reagan was very intrigued with it all.) Here's a video of her singing her made up song, Twinkle Toes, to the tune of Jingle Bells, after pairing her sparkly jammies with her twinkle toe shoes:

Christmas afternoon, we headed to Uncle Jim, Aunt Stephanie and Cousin JT's house where my grandparents are staying. We had a great meal (mmm... my Grandma's stuffing, I've missed that) and brought a cheesecake for dessert that ended up being cheese soup .. oops! But it still tasted good. They all got Reagan a big stool-size soft cube with shapes and colors that plays music. The new baby will enjoy this one too!

Dec 27th was our final celebration with Cam's extended family who live locally. It's his Grandpa's brother's branch of the family, so it's his Dad's (Gpa Don) cousins and their families. We had a great meal there with chicken and ham .. delicious! Afterward, the two little ones, Reagan and Tessa (a year older than Reagan .. 3rd cousins), were showered with gifts ... so generous of everyone! Then the adults did a white elephant/pirate type exchange. I was able to steal and lock in (2nd time stolen, so cannot be stolen again) a $25 Macy's gift card along with a bag of M n M's (my fav!) and some Trader Joe's candies. Cam got car cleaning products - chamois's, interior wipes, wax, soap, etc. Kathie and Kristen also got me a Pashmere scarf, it's very pretty!

Here's Tessa and Reagan playing with Reagan's laptop before dinner. Reagan was quite upset at the end of the night because we weren't going to Tessa's house, just to our house. She suggested that she get bunk beds so Tessa could sleep on the top and she could sleep on the bottom. I don't know how she knows what bunk beds are, but that was super cute!Here's the whole bunch (from left bottom row: Kathy, Donna, Emily and Tessa, Me and Reagan, Kristen, Dan. from left top row: Kathie, Jerry, Debbie, Jerry, Karen, Ken, Cam, Jim.) Reagan made out like a bandit: Aunt Kathie and Cousin Kristen got her butterfly wings, a fuzzy tiara, some princess stickers you scratch off to reveal sparkly stuff (she especially thought this was pretty cool), and a little purse and play pearl necklace. Aunt Debbie got her a bouncy ball and a Mickey Mouse backpack/gamepack with tic tac toe, card games, etc. Aunt Emily got her a fleece GAP sweatshirt and a Snow White Polly Pockets type doll with changes of clothes.

After all those gifts, Tessa and Reagan had the most fun with this big box ... of course!

Emily (Tessa's "Omy" or Grandma) played with Reagan and Tessa a lot and they loved it. She had them perform some songs for us (Reagan was still too shy to sing along, but she rang her bell):



THANK YOU TO ALL for the great food, gifts, and company!