christmas eve + day 2012

Please excuse any poor editing of these photos.  I tried to go to bed early so I could get up and get stuff done, ended up waking up at 3am and not getting back to sleep, and gave up when Chris's alarm went off at 5:30am.  So I just started editing through blurred vision and not enough sleep.  Oh well.  It's about time I get some photos up from December.  My hard drive and instagram feed are full of them.  I have a feeling I'll be back dating some posts...

Moving on to Christmas Eve... We drove up to Omaha to see my dad's side of the family.  Chris had to work the night of the 23rd so he came a bit later after getting in a nap, but he made it.  Woot.  The same guy has been playing Santa at our family's Christmas Eve for over 30 years.  Is that insane to anyone else?  It is to me.  Ryann was pretty skeptical of him, and when it was her turn, she went up took the gift and ran.  Santa tried to lure her in, but her grip on the present was too strong, she won :o).  The evening was spent at my uncles house hanging out with family.  Sometimes it sucks to travel for the holidays, but it would be so hard to miss this.

Christmas morning I woke up at 6:30 am to two itty bitty eyes peering over the side of her bed making clicking noises, just waiting for Christopher or I to move.  As soon as I flinched, "Is it wake up time?!?"  Seriously kid, you didn't go to bed until 10:30.  Cut your parents some slack ok?  After hanging out for a bit and rousing my siblings, we headed to my parents hotel room to open gifts.  Ryann of course had to help everyone else open theirs too.

Her favorite gift by far was a personalized minky blanket that I ordered from The Sleeping Babe on etsy.  Of course Ry was spoiled (as were Chris and I).  She made out with some Thomas the Train stuff, new books, ladybug slippers, a vTech writing toy, a doll stroller and various other things.  My favorite gift was a Canon 60D and a new Sigma 30mm lens.  Yes, I was definitely spoiled!  :o)  Can't wait to take pictures of the new babe.  Of course taking pictures with it in general is fun, but a newborn is a lot less mobile than all of my other subjects.

The majority of the day was spent hanging out in the hotel and jumping on the bed.  That evening we headed over to another uncle's house for Christmas dinner.  Ryann had a great time playing with her cousins (second cousins?  whatever...).  I love seeing her interact with her relatives.  She felt pretty cool at the kid's table as well.

All in all it was a great Christmas.  I'm so thankful I got to spend time with my family.  Can't believe next year we will have another little one!