Christmas Day

We had a fun yet uneventful Christmas this year.  It was a day of mixed feelings for me.  I really enjoyed being home to spend Christmas day but I missed my family.  I definatly didn't miss the Christmas morning rush to eat breakfast, open presents, getting ready, packing the car, and rush to Oklahoma City.  It was always stressful when it was just Duane and I so I knew it wouldn't be any easier with a baby.  We started the day by getting Brynlee up to say Merry Christmas. 

We ate breakfast.  Brynlee has oatmeal with applesauce (as usual) and we had cream cheese cherry danishes that I made a few days before.  This is a Dietrich Christmas morning tradition. 

Here are the danishes that I made.  They were awesome!  I only make these once a year so that makes them extra special. 

After breakfast we opened gifts.  Of course Brynlee had no idea what was going on but she loved trying to chew on the paper. 

Stop trying to get me to smile daddy, I just want to play with my new toys. 

I know some of you won't care about the next part but this year was a lot of firsts for us.  It was Brynlee's first Christmas, our first Christmas at home, and my first time to cook Christmas dinner.  I took pictures of what I cooked because I wanted to remember it.  It was probably one of the best dinners I have ever fixed. 

I make pork tenderloin, garlic cheese red skinned mashed potatoes, corn on the cob from the Dietrich garden, and HOMEMADE dinner rolls.  Here are some pics I took. 

Even though we were snowed in, the day turned out great!  I can't wait until Brynlee can really understand the reason we celebrate Christmas.  On Christmas day, Duane and I started talking about traditions and why we have them.  We discussed a tradition that we could start as a family since this was Brynlee's first Christmas.  This year we had the opportunity to adopt a child through Angel Tree.  It was a good feeling that day knowing that some little girl was waking up to a kitchen play set on Christmas morning.  So, we decided that each Christmas we would provide for a child in need.  We also talked about that as our kids get older and earn money, we should encourage them to also pick out a toy with their own money.  It doesn't at all compare to the gift that God gave us on this day, but we can only follow in his footsteps by giving to others and sharing his love for us.

We also started one other tradition this year.  We now have a Christmas Eve breakfast tradition.  We fix gingerbread muffins off and on through the year for breakfast.  When I saw this gingerbread man mold at Target I knew I had to have it.  We will now have a gingerbread man for breakfast on Christmas Eve.  He was delicious!

Be here tommorrow for Christmas #4.  :)