Friday, December 27, 2013

Our Family Christmas | 2013


'twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse
the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
the children were nestled, all snug in their beds
while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads...

It was upon us... Our very first Christmas in Florida,
and our very first Christmas without our families.

While it was strange to spend the day in short-sleeves and flip flops,
and also without the hustle and bustle of trying to make it to all of our stops,
it was surprisingly very fulfilling to spend the eve and the day with just the 4 of us...

 we took our sweet time, and baked some special cookies for Santa...
and made sure to set them out with some milk.

These days, Brynn is always in the kitchen with either Allen or me. She truly relishes in being our sous chef, however she usually tries to take the reigns right out of our hands.
I love that she enjoys being in the kitchen so much... 
it's worth any amount of mess that we have to clean up in the end, or choking down any "special touch" she adds to our food. :)


 the Grammy version.





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CHRISTMAS FIRSTS:

Lucas' 1st Christmas
Our 1st Florida Christmas
1st Christmas as family of four
 That moment that you wake up on Christmas morning is still almost as thrilling now... The anticipation of seeing the excitement on their sweet faces is probably the best gift of all! This Christmas, Brynn decided to "sleep in"... So, we had to go in and wake her up to let her know that Santa had come!

 1st photo of the morning.

 Santa will always leave "evidence" of his presence in our house... I can't get enough of that!


 the magic of this moment still gets me... 

First thing was first for Brynn... finish off Santa's cookies. Because who leaves cookies uneaten?!
Then it was onto the opening of gifts.


 Lucas was so excited to open his very first gifts from Santa.

 It didn't take long for these two to start enjoying their gifts...
The only thing that Brynn wanted, and asked Santa for this year, was an "Amper dolly."
Amper is actually Princess Amber from Sofia the First.
and Santa definitely came through for her with that.



Santa brought some rollerskates for Brynn... Another perk to Florida living -- the living areas don't have carpet. :) We had a few falls before we finally put it into Stage 1 and added a little "padding" to her little tooshie.


 We always try really hard to stick to a version of the  "4 gift rule"...
1 thing they want
1 thing they need
1 thing they wear
1 thing they read.

This year, we did a pretty good job, and Brynn was so satisfied with all of her gifts! 
There was nothing that wasn't played with...

Funny enough, the something she "needed" was a comforter for her bed... We never bought one for her new "big girl" bed because it was just too darn hot, which made it entirely unnecessary. Add that to the list of things you don't need during a Florida summer... She was ecstatic to add a little Sofia flair to her room.


By the end of the day, we were all pretty exhausted.

Merry Christmas!!!
xoxo,            
the Weinzapfels



3 comments:

Katiern827 said...

Great minds think alike! I started my Christmas posting tonight too. Cracking me up with B's tooshie padding! So happy you all had a wonderful first Christmas in Florida as a family of 4. Precious:)

Natalie said...

1) I live in SC, so I've never known a Christmas that didn't involve shorts and flip flops. Welcome to the South! :)
2) The padding in Brynn's tooshie is HILARIOUS.
3) I'm glad you had a wonderful Christmas with your new family of four!

Kristen said...

Omg Brynn's tooshie cracks me up!!

And I love your 4 gift rule. :) I've decided that for our kids first Christmas (and maybe their second), I'm not even going to buy them anything. Ryan's parents went INSANE, like above and beyond for gifts for our niece who is only 6 months old. I like what my SIL did, and they put money into a savings account for her.