Christmas 2010

Christmastime!

The stockings were hung...

Santa had made his rounds...

Well, not quite yet, I wanted a picture of the cookies first....

What's missing at 6 a.m. on Christmas morning????

Anybody???

See any smiles?

Nope. No excitement.

The gingerbread houses had more excitement than Galina did.

After a bowl of cocoa puffs, she picked the first present to open.

Liked it. Still, no smiles.

Present #2.

"Fine. Take a picture."

At least Daddy was excited!

Finally, something resembling a smile!

Gone. What else is in here....

A bit of an "ooooo" and a smile! She LOVES lollipops! She's been telling Brian and I that for Christmas she wanted:

1) Lollipop

2) Airplane Ride

3) Airplane Ride

Yay for Jane Austen!

Still playing with that thing...

Brian got a nice pair of Oakleys and a GPS. I told him it was "to save our marriage" - you have no idea how many arguments we have because he's driving like he knows where he's going, but has no clue, so does not ask, I'm not paying attention - so we get lost. Not anymore...now Mr. Burns (from the Simpsons) can degrade us as he gets us to Target or Chili's the first time!

A Kindle! Brian's gift for me. I'm very excited to have it. I was reading a paperback the next day and he was SO offended :) I didn't want to buy a book I already had - but I'm making a list of books to buy! I wonder if he knew the Kindle would mean I'd spend more money...?

Finally, after getting dressed (side note - this child wants to get dressed AS SOON as she wakes up - she'll eat breakfast and watch a few minutes of Sesame Street, because we're up at 6 a.m. but then she wants to be dressed....so strange to me. Who doesn't want to hang out in jammies all day?), she got on the bike. She does love it - I'm blaming the lack of excitement that morning on the stomach bug she had a few days before and how crazy her sleep schedules has been lately. Looking forward to next year!

Christmas Tree Cakes. Can I just say that Little Debbie is going to get an earful from me one of these days. Why, oh WHY, can't they sell these delectable treats on this island? They don't even sell their Zebra Cakes. It's depressing - and possibly good for me - but still depressing.

Thank goodness Mom and Dad sent TWO boxes. Man I love these things.

She was pretty happy about eating a debbie cake at 7 a.m. :)

BBC. ShopPBS. Love it. These shows do not come on the BBC channel here. We're so excited!!

The hit toy of the day. Seriously. I bought her a baby cabbage patch doll - would have NOTHING to do with it. So sad to me. Poor baby cabbage patch. But she loves this guy - and this was all Daddy. Brian decided about a week ago that this was what he wanted to get Galina. Anytime they sit down to play play-dough she asks him to make her a dinosaur, a pillow and a blanket. She loves this dinosaur. I know his name is Rex, but she calls it Dinosaur. She's not super creative with names. We asked her to name her stuffed elephant once and she said, "Couch." And that's what she says if you ask his name, "Couch."

The jelly house from Pop Pop. She's still working on it. She really likes it. She shares too, but only when it's a piece of icing and it's taking too long for her to eat it and she wants to take another bite. Then she'll hand me the slobbery icing piece. Nice.

Uncle John and Aunt Kerri and the girls sent the second runner up to the Dinosaur. It's a leap from Text & Spelling toy. I love that it goes through the alphabet and tells her the letter sounds. That's what we're working on now. She knows the alphabet, she knows her numbers - time to tackle letter sounds! She's loves it!

So, our spoils - minus dinosaur and cabbage patch - one was being played with and one had been exiled to her bedroom, I'll let you decide which was which. We had a fantastic Christmas, a yummy Christmas dinner. We love and miss everyone and can't wait to spend time with everyone again! Thanks for the love and gifts and phone calls - Merry Christmas!!