Merry {belated} Christmas!

Christmas morning this year wasn't your typical "Christmas morning" since it was 3 days early, but it was no less special! Because we were leaving early Christmas morning for our trip, we celebrated our little family's Christmas on Saturday, the 22nd. It was so fun watching Liam's eyes light up when he saw his new train table and (eventually) tear open his Christmas presents! 

Everything set up and under the tree before midnight! 

Of course we were up early anxiously awaiting Liam to wake up! 

His train table...with about half his train stuff. We had more track and accessories wrapped, and then he got even more from my parents. Luckily the drawers hold a ton!

Little boy walked straight to his train table and didn't leave for about 15 straight minutes. He didn't even seem to notice the mound of Christmas presents right next to it. But he got the biggest smile on his face when he saw all his new "choo-choos!" Then he got down to business with some serious playing. 

"Liam, do you want to open some of your presents?" 

"Noooo."

We finally had to tell him what was in each present so he would open it! 

Obsessed with his new firetruck!

Liam decided after awhile he really liked opening presents so he helped me and Will open some of ours too! 

Loving my new DaySpring bag! 

After each present Liam would take a break to go play with his trains some more. It took nearly two hours to open his presents, so we finally just took a break! 

Wasn't interested in his stocking until I told him there were more choo-choos inside. Then there was some serious digging. 

I think he likes all of his toys! 

The best picture I could get of him in front of the tree, ha. Someone was too busy to pose! 

We had a great morning, and then Liam and I played all afternoon while Will fixed our fence. We had a crazy storm a few days before that blew part of our fence down! It was crazy! But luckily Will and our neighbor were able to repair it themselves and it didn't take too long. 

That evening our friends Jon and Joanna came over for dinner and we had a great time together.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 -from our family to yours!

I hope your Christmas day is filled with lots of love and laughter! 

See you next year!

*Peace out, 2012!*

A Christmas Smorgasbord!

A few weeks ago I thought it would be fun to join in on a Christmas blog swap some of my blogger friends were hosting, and here are the goodies I received! I was paired up with Ashley from ABC: The Alphabet of Our Lives and she sent me the cutest stuff!

I love this snowflake ornament! It probably won't get a picture in it until next year, but it proudly hangs empty on our tree right now and I still adore it!

This dishtowel made me laugh out loud when I opened it! And it's so appropriate for our house seeing as how there are piles of Christmas cookies here for the entire month of December! 

And finally I just love this "believe" sign! I set it up on our shelves behind my growing collection of snow globes. 

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I've finally finished sending out our Christmas card, so I wanted to share it on here! 

Checking the mail is my favorite this time of year! Packages and cards everyday, oh my! I tried to come up with a cute way to display all my Christmas cards. I used an empty frame and washii tape to make a fun little collage. I thought it was perfect...until it all fell about 2 hours later.

So I moved to the pantry door with regular old scotch tape and it did the trick! I ran out of room in my little frame anyway, and I wanted to make sure I was able to adequately show off all my favorite people!

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The next few days are going to be CRAZY busy! We are stuffing all our of Christmas celebrations into the next three days because Christmas Day we will be at the airport headed to Quebec, Canada! We are spending the holiday at the beautiful Le Chateau Frontenac and Liam will be getting his first taste of real snow! 

images via

Will sent me this....the high the day we arrive is FIVE! 

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We are kicking off the celebrations tomorrow morning which means TODAY is our Christmas Eve!! 

Eeek!

I can't even tell you how excited I am to put together Liam's train table tonight! Tomorrow morning it going to be the BEST!

Merry Christmas, y'all! 

Someone fat and jolly is coming down our chimney TONIGHT! 

Ho-Ho-Ho Round Two...

was another success! 

Santa said he was very impressed that Liam wasn't screaming at his age, ha! I do love the screaming pictures I have to admit, but I'm glad my guy was all smiles. I bet this means Santa is going to be extra good to him this year! :)

Liam's Christmas Nursery Tour!

Today I'm linking up with A Thoughtful Place to show off Liam's Christmas Nursery! 

You can also see how it's progressed since it was an actual nursery. Now it's kind of a nursery/toddler hybrid until we fully make the switch to a big boy room. Aaaaand now I'm going to cry. So enjoy!

Our Little People Nativity is so loved it's already missing poor Joseph! 

Liam's tree. I wasn't going to put any ornaments on it this year, but then I decided to stick on a few non-breakables. I'm glad I did because he now touches this tree much more than our big tree!

I hung a felt Christmas light garland over his crib with washi tape.

My favorite part of his room! 

I made this banner with my Cricut and some Christmas scrapbook paper one morning and then taped it up with washi tape. Super simple! 

I also made this pom pom garland. All it took was a clearance bag of pom poms from Michael's and a needle and thread! 

The reindeer glitter art I made. It might have found itself a permanent home in here. I'm not sure I will be able to pack it away!

Outfits from Christmas past and Christmas present. 

I'm not sure what I like more - Liam enjoying his tree or that cute little "bear bottom"

We've got to fly! Thanks for stopping by! 

First Christmas & A Par-tea

First, I want to address Friday. A horrible, heartbreaking day. As a former first grade teacher, I know how much those teachers loved their sweet students, and the heroic stories I have heard about the faculty and police officers trying to protect them are amazing. But it's all just so sad and senseless. I hope the families of the victims and the entire town of Newtown, CT feel the love and prayers from around the world. 

Even with the sad news all around us, we continued on with our weekend plans and I think we all enjoyed our family time together even more this year. 

On Saturday we had our Griffin Family Christmas with Will's extended family. It was a lot of fun with two babies to spoil this year! 

The advent books have really improved Liam's unwrapping skills. He was ripping through his gifts like a pro. The only issue was that he would get so excited about each gift, he would want it opened right then and forget about the others. We ended up having to set aside each gift as soon as he opened it and then hurry up and set a new gift in front of him to open. Then afterwards we opened a few for him to actually play with. I have a feeling opening presents on Christmas morning will be a slow process! I wonder if he will even notice the gifts under the tree after he sees his train table. I guess we'll find out on Saturday!

Playing outside with new toys!

Sunday we went to church, and then I had a Holiday Par-tea to attend! My friend Tracey and her friend Alex outdid themselves with a fun, girly tea party. We tasted 4 different kinds of tea and had different fingers food that accompanied each flavor. Plus some delicious champagne and girl talk thrown in!

I'll have to post more pictures when I get them, but it was all beautiful!