The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I wish I could simply give you all the joy that was in our home this holiday season.
I wish you could see Christmas for the first time again.
I wish I could somehow explain so you would believe that the magic is real. And it was in my daughter's eyes every single day.
I wish I could but I don't think I can.
I will try anyways.

My heart is full to bursting when I think of all the fun I had while helping to bring Christmas to Ammely this year. I have never seen anyone so in love with Christmas. Maybe all parents say that. Maybe it will be this way with all my children when they begin to understand. Maybe. But for now all I know is that Ammely loves it. She. Loves. Christmas. And I love her for that.

She loved the lights.
She loved the trees.
She loved the bells and the trains.
She loved the music.
She loved Santa Claus and his reindeer.
She loved the presents and the wrapping paper.
She loved the nativity.
She loved the stockings.
She loved the treats.
She loved the activities.
She loved the movies and the books.
She loved to just say it - "Merry Christmas!"

So I tried to let her have it - the whole, joyful experience.

She was watching Christmas shows well before Christmas. Definitely before Thanksgiving. Maybe even before Halloween. She had been learning and asking and talking about it for months. So I was excited to start putting Christmas in the house after Thanksgiving.

Ammely loved every detail. I can't tell you how much fun it was to be at home every day. EVERY day she was excited to see the tree. "It's a beautiful Christmas tree Mommy!"
EVERY day she was excited to turn the lights on. EVERY day she would spend hours looking at the ornaments and playing with the nativity. EVERY day she would eagerly go to the stockings. I was excited to get up and go downstairs every morning because I knew that she would be so happy just to see the Christmas decorations. People, that is real magic.

I think just having decorations up would have been enough for her all season long but we had the good fortune to do a lot of fun Christmas things too.

We did our 24 days of Christmas - a story, song and scripture every night.

I absolutely love this new tradition of ours. It brings the real meaning and spirit of Christmas into our home. And it does that every day. Plus, it was a really great way to find regular times to teach Ammely about the original Christmas night. 

We took advantage of our stocking advent calendar and had a little something to do or learn or open each day.

We made Christmas cookies with Rori.

We wrote a letter to Santa.

And we even got a letter back from Santa!

We made a hand print reindeer for Santa Claus.

We made Christmas treats to give away.

We made popcorn and watched Christmas movies.

Arthur Christmas - one of our very favorite Christmas shows.

We read Christmas books.

We read them like we were studying for Christmas finals. So many Christmas books. Ours and the library's. Always available under the tree.

We had a Baysinger Christmas.

Delicious food - soup, bread, salad, dessert, hot chocolate, soda - everything was amazing. Everything.

 Presents galore.

Do you SEE how very loved this little girl of mine is?

Yup. That dollhouse is for her and Lynnden. As well as a full HERD of My Little Ponies. Uncle JT and Aunt Tamzon were way too nice. But we are so grateful! And the fact that she was no good at sharing it just shows how much she loves it! She plays with this every day. Thank you thank you!

And they spoiled us too!
Daddy got some fishing/irrigation boots that he is excited to put to good use!
And what did I get you ask?
Just LOOK at what the ultra talented Tamzon put together for me!

My very own FHE board! It's a one-of-a-kind folks! She did this WHOLE thing from scratch. If I had an ounce of her talent, I'd be running through the streets and singing from the rooftops.

She even stitched in our names!

AND she used daisies! My very favoritest flower!

Enough about me and my awesome gift. Back to the festivities.
Per tradition, we all left with a delicious box of cereal. Every single one of us. Such an amazing tradition. SO darn good.

We had a Teddy Bear picnic at Aunt Tammy's house with Aunt Amber, Uncle Boyd, Kailey, Charis and Reid.

How darling is this? SO glad we were invited!

And we had a very special guest at our Teddy Bear picnic.

You just have to watch this short video of the girls when Santa Claus just happens to show up to our picnic! It's adorable. And a little blurry. Curse my hard-to-focus, on-its-last-leg camera!

I think Ammely's heart fell out of her chest from the shock. 

This was such a special night. Ammely is still talking about "Santa Claus and Kailey and Charis."

And Santa was so good with Ammely. When she was shy and unsure he got down on her level and talked with her.

He asked her if she would give him hugs - that Santa likes hugs from little boys and girls best of all. She eventually agreed to that.

Thank you again Aunt Tammy for inviting us to your very special picnic! It will be a night talked about for years to come.

We went to the airport and flew on an airplane to Colorado.

Ammely LOVED the moving sidewalks. Easily her favorite part of the airport/flying experience.

Daddy even journeyed on to Wyoming with Grandpa Breakall for a couple days of good fishing.

And good fishing it was! A complete success.

Just LOOK at all that grub! Mmmm-mmmmm.

However, Wyoming was as welcoming as it ever is. Icy, snowy and bitter cold with a biting wind.

Needless to say, they hurried home after catching their fill - stopping for a little Wyoming culture and memories along the way.

At the gas station - no gas station at home has anything so cool.

Grand Avenue Pizza - one of our favorite splurges when we were living the college life in Laramie. 

It was a wonderful (but COLD) time. Thank you Dad for making it possible!

We got a new train set just because we like trains and Grandpa likes us!

We made gingerbread houses with Aunt Kristen, Kailey and Robert, and Tasha.

Grandma Breakall left to go pick up Uncle Jared - so Aunt Kristen became "Grandma" for the duration of the event. I don't think she minded.

Aunt Kristen definitely has the "Grandma" thing down because she not only let Ammely play with candy and "ginger houses," but didn't leave without giving presents.

How cool is this toy?! I think we've chopped as many toy fruits and veggies as she has! :)

Hey Kailey, I think a baby looks good on Robert. Just sayin'. ;)

We discovered snow.

Okay, I know you may be guilty of skipping over the videos. I get it. But don't do it this time. This is seriously adorable. It was dark so it's mostly just audio. This was Ammely's first time seeing it snow. SO Precious. Watch at least a little - you won't regret it.

The next morning it was still snowing so she got to be out in it for a bit while we were out and about. Absolutely loved it.

So we of course had to build a snowman.

We literally had to drag her kicking and screaming out of the snow and into the car - so when we got home we bundled up and headed outside to properly enjoy the snow. Grandma even brought Lynnden out for a bit!

She turned into a snow princess pretty quickly though, so she went back inside with Grandma.

We played hard and long.

And it paid off...look at this beauty!

We ate ourselves sick on devilishly delicious food.

Strasburg's Pizza Shop breadsticks. My favorite on the planet.

French fries and wild dippin' sauce from this place.

 Japanese Pan Noodles at this place.

And we delighted in a whole realm of delicious things from Corona's Mexican Grill in Strasburg - my favorite Mexican food ever.

AND we had a very delicious, very generous surprise Christmas morning. A member from the ward brought us over a smoked Prime Rib for breakfast. Oh. My. Gosh. A-freaking-mazing. SO nice of him. SO tasty.

We had Reindeer pancakes that would make Pinterest proud.

We had hang out and relaxing time.

We made Lynnden's hand print ornament.

We made cookies for Santa Claus.

We had Christmas Eve jammas and books.

"Shhhh...don't tell Mommy and Daddy that I just rolled right over top of you."

We had a Breakall Christmas.

Just look at her face! She sees presents from Santa all right.

We had family pictures taken.

Tasha was wonderful enough to do this for us. She did a spectacular job. Especially since Ammely was a cranky-saurus. And it was like 30 degrees outside. And bright - we all had a time keeping our eyes open.I'm amazed at how many keepers she got out of our irritable, hurried lot of people!

We had to get on an airplane and go back home to Arizona.

It's always bittersweet to leave. We had a magical Christmas in Colorado - but home was beckoning to us.
So we said good-bye to the view from the front door of my childhood.

And onto the plane we went.

Once there, we had to sit tight for a nice little de-ice.

Gave us some time to say "Good-bye Colorado Rockies."

Good-bye snow.

We somehow managed to get ALL of our loot home to Phoenix. 

Six  checked bags, three backpacks, two car seats and a double-stroller did the trick.

A big "Thank You!" to Mom and Dad for spoiling us so thoroughly.

And another big "Thank You!" again to Mama and Daddy for playing musical cars and braving the Christmas airport madness to get us and our STUFF home!

Once we were home we were able to do our own Christmas!

And boy oh boy was it a Christmas! Surprises for both of us! 

We walked in the door to find Ammon had a brand new barbecue grill by the Christmas tree...

...and I had...Brand. New. FURNITURE. YAHOO! 

I loved my other furniture - but then at the beginning of the year I ruined it while trying to wash it. And Ammely drew on it. Several times. And it had other lovely layers of baby barf and potty training un-successes and heaven knows what else. And the cushions were wearing thin and tearing. It was time for something else. And my amazing husband  secretly saved his pennies so that he could do that for me.

Unfortunately, we were too excited to remember to take pictures of everything as it was. But it was awesome. Here's a snapshot I took on my phone the next day...after everything was made a mess and opened though.

And here we owe a big, fat, GIGANTIC thank you (and perhaps our next born child) to the Bunkers! They were INCREDIBLE enough to play Santa Claus for both of us. We both had them secretly do our dirty work while we were gone. Which is EXTRA awesome because not only do they obviously have their own lives to tend to but they just had a brand new baby. Baby Eli. One of the most precious baby boys you ever did see.

See?

Beyond the BIG surprises we also had a few more gifts to open under the tree too.

Happiest with the wrapping paper.

PLUS we got more Christmas spoils at Grandma and Grandpa Lords!

Grandma and Grandpa Lords, you should know that we bought Ammely a couple of games for her new MobiGo but this is by far her favorite one. She plays it all the time! Thank you thank you!

And we've been enjoying our spoils ever since.

Fish fry with our Wyoming fish!

Lovin' on my new couches!

We had the Spirit of Christmas brighten our days - may it do the same for you all year long.

We were given so much by so many this season. Already though the thing that lights up my soul as I remember our holidays is the magic that came into Ammely's heart. And she gave it away to share with anyone who wanted it. It's the thought of her singing Jingle Bells around the house. It's her enthusiastic "Merry Christmas Mommy!" It's the light in her eyes as she spent time with the lights and ornaments of the tree. It's her believing enthusiasm about Santa Claus and reindeer. It's her exclamations of "It's so beautiful!" as she saw snow fall for the first time.

We had a truly merry Christmas.

May you too find and experience the innocence and magic and miracles and pure joy that Christmas brings. It's brought to us by Christ and He is giving it to all who ask all year round.

Merry Christmas.