merry christmas and a happy birthday!

as if she actually knew what christmas morning was all about, madeleine woke up at 5:55 yesterday morning. usually, i can keep her downstairs and entertained for a while, but she insisted on going upstairs. so, i reluctantly woke up randy and we all headed upstairs.

her first glimpse of her stocking and...



the birthday balloons that santa brought her. which she loved.



santa brought all sorts of art supplies in her stocking, which went well with the art easel that randy and i bought for her. imagine that...



i wish my pictures weren't blurry



more looting through her stocking. she took quite a while to do this, pulling out each item and using it before moving on to the next thing.



stickers!



this is what madeleine does when i tell her to smile for the camera.



we gave madeleine a step stool from ikea and she loved it. she also got a tiny pooh figurine from jeanie and she insisted that pooh stand on the stool with her. she would carefully balance pooh on the stool and then cautiously climb up on the corner of the stool, so not as to disturb pooh.

for randy (and let's be honest, myself), i made a flannel quilt. we live in the basement at my grandparent's house and it can get chilly sometimes in the winter. randy is naturally apt to get cold anyway, so i thought that it would be a fun learning project to make a simple flannel quilt that he could curl up in during the winter. it turned out pretty well, although i did realize quickly that flannel is an interesting fabric to work with and not quite as easy as i thought it would be for a beginning quilting project. i am still really happy with the results though. randy loves it too.

after christmas morning at our house and a nap for everyone, we headed up to my parents for the rest of the day.

a head lamp from pa'a.



some time outside in the snow



and after christmas celebrations in the afternoon and a delicious prime rib dinner, we had madeleine's birthday celebration. i can't believe that she is two!



after we sang to her, she didn't want much to do with her cupcake and insisted on a cup of water instead.



she finally licked about two fingerfulls of frosting off the cupcake and then she was done. not really into the whole birthday sweets tradition.



opening a gift from g'ma and pa'a...



the very hungry caterpillar book with a matching quilt, made by my mom



she had to stop and read the book before moving on to opening more presents.



we left the blocks until last, knowing that the other gifts wouldn't get the time of day after she opened them.



sure enough, as soon as they were opened, madeleine beckoned the boys over and everyone enjoyed the blocks.

we had a wonderful, low-key christmas and birthday. we feel immensely blessed to celebrate the birth of our savior and the birth of our daughter on the same day and are grateful for both of their presences in our lives. may you all enjoy the remainder of your holiday season!