Monday, January 9, 2012

A Hawaiian Christmas

This year's Christmas Eve party theme was Hawaiian Christmas.  We had leis for everyone, mai tai's, and endless supplies of Hawaiian food, like Jim's amazing kalua pulled pork sandwiches on sweet Hawaiian rolls, teriyaki chicken with grilled pineapple,  fruit, cookies, cakes, it goes on and on......  It was wonderful!  Lots of friends and family came over to share in the evening.  It is just a wonderful event that Andrew parents put together each year. 

 It is nearly impossible to get a serious picture out of Chloe.  Always a silly face!
 Then after Christmas Eve was over, next came Christmas morning.  Chloe opened a lot of presents.....I mean a lot!  She loved every single thing!  She also loves all of Madeline's toys, which is a bit of a challenge, but manageable so far with a little redirection :)   
 Here is a cool magnetic airplane block kit.  Chloe had Andrew make probably 10 different airplanes that morning!
 Lacing games for dexterity were a fun surprise as well!
 Of course she now has new stuffed animals that she takes everywhere, names and talks to.  Here is "other bear" and "special bear".  She named them all on her own, and keeps their names straight.  She knows just who everyone is! 
By the way- Christmas eve is so much fun as a parent!  (yes we have been parents for two Christmases before this, but this was the first year Chloe knew what was going on, so it made it extra special for us).  We helped Santa stuff the stockings and put together a massive doll house.  We stayed up pretty late- maybe 1 or 2 am, but it was just so fun, we couldn't help ourselves!  The presents lasted for a week after Christmas.  We let her open a few each day, just so that she would really appreciate everything people got for her and not get too overwhelmed.  I try to pull out a different activity each day for her so she gets to play with everything, just not all at the same time.  The toy mess would drive me totally crazy otherwise!  Next year I think I will ask Santa for more storage!

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