Christmas

So, I wanted to capture our living room full of its Christmas glory before it was over and gone, especially since this might be our last Christmas here. These were taken yesterday right before Emma's bedtime. All but one of the presents under the tree are for Emma, and those don't even include the presents from my parents! She's going to get to do Christmas AGAIN in a day or two. She is definitely getting spoiled this year. 

This next picture was trying to put Emma down for bed last night...can you tell how smoothly it went? She was so excited because we'd been telling her all day that the next day was Christmas, and we had been telling her she couldn't get into the presents until Christmas. Plus, we let her do some stuff we don't normally let her do because it was Christmas Eve. So, she was wired, but she was so CUTE that we couldn't mind that much. We were so glad to have the book my parents bought her for Christmas (Away in a Manger) because it was perfect for her age to talk about the birth of the Savior. She loved getting to read it over and over again and talking about Jesus's birth. It was a beautiful evening.

This morning we got up, and Emma got to open her presents. I cannot believe how rewarding it is to see a child's excitement and joy when opening presents. It just fills your heart. She went straight for the only bag present, which was from us because we were too lazy to wrap the last two gifts. It had her Elmo book and her Elmo PJs. We got her to half heartedly open one more present before she ran over to her PJs and insisted on us changing her into them right then and there. So, she has now been wearing those all morning.

Her lamb piggy bank from Nana. She baa-ed at it and then proceeded to give it kisses.

She keeps bouncing from one present to the next, and I don't know that she's going to get much of a nap today. She is just bouncing off the walls with excitement. At one point this morning, Emma closed Dustin in her room with her, and I came in to see what was going on a few minutes later. Emma had piled all of her blankets and pillows and what not on Dustin's lap and was trotting around with her Elmo doll. When she saw me open the door, she promptly said,"No! Da Da!" and then closed the door on me. Rude! :) It totally reminded me of this video. She has LOVED having her Daddy home for Christmas break. It is super cute to see them play together. They've started this thing where Dustin calls her GiGi (because she says gigi all the time), and he'll walk in the door and say,"Hey GiGi," and she will come running with the biggest grin on her face, laughing, and saying "gigi" back to him. I think the nickname is going to stick for awhile.

Christmas evening we spent with some friends from church. We had an awesome dinner and talked all evening while their girls and Emma played. It was a lot of fun.

Oh, PS. I had a doctors appointment on Monday, and they ran some more tests. My pressures have come back down, and I didn't have any proteins. So, although I am still supposed to take it easy and rest as much as possible, I am not on nearly as strict of bed rest as I was. Thank goodness!