The Morning Of

After a late night of wrapping presents, we were so excited to wake up and see how Leila would react to opening gifts in the morning. Though we didn't buy her many gifts (she doesn't need very much), I'm grateful that we were able to afford to buy her a few little toys to get her excited. It's kinda hard to teach a little one the true meaning of Christmas.

I wasn't sure if she'd be excited, overwhelmed, or not really interested. Once Greg and Shasta arrived, we had our traditional Christmas breakfast; pull apart rolls. With happy bellies, we let the unwrapping begin. The fam loved being able to witness Leila on Christmas morning, because next year we'll be having Christmas morning in our first home just the three of us. Our goal was to be in our home by Christmas, but I think it worked out better this way. 

I was surprised that Leila didn't try to get into all the gifts once she woke up (there weren't that many under the tree before she went to bed). I guess after a couple days of telling her, "don't touch" she was no longer tempted. 

Once we started opening the gifts, she got so excited. Beyond excited. She kept clapping her hands and loved playing with her new toys. After opening only 2-3 gifts, I thought that was enough and a little too much overload for her. But it was Christmas morning and she had gifts from grandparents and Aunt Natalie to open so we let her continue on.

Lately, Leila loves having a "shawl" wrapped around her - pretty much a blanket with a chip clip that holds it on. Since we're leaving Grandma's nest soon, Grandma bought her a new blanket and clip to call her own. Now she's ready to go shopping with her new purse.

This popper/pusher thing is what we bought Leila yesterday...but Grandma had the very same toy from Eric's childhood in the basement. Score. So we wrapped it up as if it was new, this one's cooler anyway. And daddy played with it as a kid so it means that much more.

Leila woke up tired, and after opening only a few gifts, she was ready for a nap. So we resumed after she was well rested. You can see her face getting tired and worn out.

After nap time we resumed and opened a gift from her abuelito's. A shopping cart complete with cardboard boxes so she can go "shopping". She loved it.

Daddy's turn. Our budget for eachother was $10. So we were forced to be creative. I made Eric some things for his office at work and for his home office. Two mouse pads because I couldn't decide on one, and two pen holders. One with the bark and one without because, again, I couldn't decide. I can't take all the credit for the awesome pen holder, Mike cut the wood for me and helped me with the whole thing. He cut and sanded, and I drilled all the holes.

Helping Uncle Greg with the clean up.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!