Lily turned two and Christmas too!

I was going to try to make two separate posts about these two events, but Lily ran off with 6 of my laptop keyboard keys....it took me days to figure out that they were in the TRASH (I had already put that trash outside too)! Silly girl....I still haven't found the "n" key. :( Over five years of owning this computer and it gets messed with by my two year-old toddler. Which brings me to the reason for this post: Lily is 2! More like a 2 year-old body with a 15 year-old attitude. She is something else...but let's get to her big day:

It so happened that Lily's birthday (the 19th) was the day before Daniel's big final! We planned on celebrating her birthday on Friday after Daniel was done with school and free for two weeks! We were so excited to have Daddy all to ourselves. :) I still wanted to have a good special day on her birthday, so she woke up saying, "happy birthday," whenever someone would call and I fixed her cinnamon roll pancakes. Awesome, by the way, and easy to make. She then opened presents and we just had a great day hanging out.

 We had her favorite food, spaghetti, and she helped me make her chocolate cake with chocolate icing. She really loves licking the bowl (my uncle used to give me a coffee mug with cake batter in it and we would drink it together....those were the days). She got some awesome presents from Mimi and Grandpa Craig. I think she really enjoyed her day.

Then, Daniel's big final came the next day and he passed with an excellent grade! Our treat for Daniel and Lily was to eat at Chick-fil-A (ok, that one was for me), and a trip to see the zoo lights with some friends. It was really cool. It almost didn't happen though cause every parking lot we went to filled up only as soon as we got in. Finally, Daniel got fed up with it and created his own parking spot with our incredibly awesome Fit...oh yeah, it wouldn't have worked if we didn't have good ole' Eclectic. It was a fun and Lily really enjoyed meeting the Panda Claus.

Before we knew it, Christmas came around. We went to a dinner on Christmas eve at a friend's house. It was wonderful. My favorite part was gathering around the tree and reading Luke 2 and singing Christmas hymns. It was magical.

Christmas day came and Lily really got into it. She was so excited to open all the presents...ALL of them...still working on learning about possession. She was a sweet sister though and opened Lena's presents for her and even gave Lena some of her own to hold. We were blessed to get a Blendtec from our awesome sister and bro; this will help with our New Year diet. ;) We went to a wonderful dinner at another friend's house. It was so great. There were a lot of people, but boy did we love their family that came from New York. They are Latina and they sure can make the party lively. They were so fun to be around. The kids also put on a little skit while we read Luke 2. Lily was the lamb...she did not play her part well cause she kept trying to steal baby Jesus...Good memories. We had a very Merry Christmas.

I was really concerned about trying to implement Christ in Christmas this year and for Lily not to get too wrapped up (or us for that matter) in the materialism that Christmas brings with it. I believe what really helped me to focus on Christ this Christmas was the singing and reading of the nativity with friends, it brought so much warmth to my heart. Lily was even singing along. I want to do that with family and friends every year. I have also decided to make a fun, interactive nativity for Lily and Lena next year...I've got to learn how to crochet though...