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

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Our Family Christmas | 2013

Christmas Prep | 2013

part I: brynn finally meets santa.
   I am not the most conventional person when it comes to Christmas traditions, but that's mostly because I have a Brynn. She basically makes nothing easy these days. Nada. Zilch. Yes, that child can take anything I dream up and turn it into my worst nightmare faster than Jolly 'Ol Saint Nick can spout out a "Ho-Ho-Ho!"  

 That being said, she is just your average chip-off-the-old-block, so I cut her some slack, and hug her, and remind myself that no one can quite understand her rebellious nature except for her and her personality twin (aka, Mommy)... And then I say a prayer that one day before she turns 13, we can come to a mutual agreement (or sign a legally binding contract) that we will never let our strong wills and stubborn noggins come between us. Or maybe, just to be safe, I should ask Santa for a lifetime membership to the Wine of the Month club... Hmmmmmm.

So, getting back to the whole Christmas subject... This is THE year for Brynn. The year that it has all fallen into place, and she is super-dee-duper excited about everything Santa Claus. Not even the extreme fear of toting along a 5 week-old baby in the beginning of RSV season was going to stop me from giving her the opportunity to sit on his lap this year and do the whole shebang... (although, I convinced my RT brain that Florida's 80 degree weather couldn't possibly be letting all of those yucky germs circulate as quickly as they do up North. I know, I know...) Luckily, we didn't have to trek it all the way to one of the gigantic malls in the area to get a crack at Santa this year... He came to the Oakstead clubhouse! And while this Santa was a little less traditional than I would have liked, he was just as sweet as pie. Brynn walked right up to him and gave him a HUG. I was worried that she would chicken out at the last moment, but she acted like she had known him for years. They had a merry old conversation, and she asked him for her "Amber dolly," which she has been asking me about for at least the last month (Sofia the First is big in our house right now)... It was a success! I was so happy for her little accomplishment, and so proud of her for being so brave and sweet.

 Of course, she started things off with a hug, which I thought was totally brills considering how many times I've had to tell/warn her that Santa is watching her behavior.

... bribery through sweetness is always worth a shot. ;)

part II: the makings of a christmas card.

Oh, the joys of trying to get a 3 year-old to cooperate for a photo shoot... and then there's OUR 3 year-old. She has, and probably always will refuse to look at the camera. Yes, literally. It takes a prayer and a miracle, and one spectacularly rare mood for her to actually want to be a part of a photograph. She isn't what i would call "camera shy"... I would classify it more as "camera-rebellious". She enjoys torturing me. This is why I don't pay people to take family photos. And this is why we rarely have an organized, posed, cutesy family photo to speak of... It's impossible. And drives me to drink. So, the times when we are forced to do said photo ops, I try to tap into all of the patience I have stored up (which isn't very much), and just give it our best shot...

I mean, how hard can it really be? Right?

 Oh, good gracious... this isn't going to be easy.

Then we thought bribery with chocolate might work... wrong.

yes, I was literally holding her in place. I just knew it was going to make a pretty picture.

(go ahead and add that to the list of things that crazy, desperate parents do...)

 poor lucas.

... at this point, it was almost laughable that we were going to come up with anything redeemable.
I literally had the self-timer set for a 9-shot sequence... Yes, that means it takes 9 pictures at a time.

Then, we did a little readjusting... Daddy grabbed Lucas like a football, we gave Brynn a little pep talk, threatened Ozzie with a trip to the pound (only kidding), and came up with  this...

 nailed it.

I hope you all are enjoying your Christmas prep too!!

xoxo

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Christmas Prep | 2013

Here Comes Santa Claus... and the Snow!

'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!
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OUR CHRISTMAS MORNING:

after such a long night, B wasn't very willing
to start the Christmas festivities any earlier than necessary...
at 8AM (and after a few attempts at making enough noise to disturb her slumber),
we determined it to be necessary to wake her up...

about an hour later, we were headed to grammy & pawpaw's house

for a little more family fun...

 

 as usual, B & A were two peas in a pod.

 in my last post, i mentioned how much they enjoy their little "crawling game,"
which is basically a version of "follow the crazy toddler leader."

they are always finding a new adventure :)

the latest and greatest adventure was, of course, opening gifts!

and B made sure everyone knew that she was no novice.

she needs a little practice in realizing 

that she can't immediately play with every gift that she opens...

because there are more that require her attention :)

but for now, we'll just have to deal with a little meltdown here and there 

until she gets used to the idea... which will hopefully be soon!

    exhibit A: toddler meltdown.

when the kiddos were all finished,
  we watched everyone else open their gifts...

and grammy and pawpaw had a little fun with spaghetti santas :)

(which is a very humorous family joke, that is probably only funny to us)

after all of the gifts were opened, and we all filled up on Christmas brunch...
B decided to help put little A down for her nap!

... and then, with a lot of coercion, it was her turn for a little nap, next to the Christmas tree.

while the girls were napping, the daddies decided to exercise their building muscles...

they put together a wagon, a big wheel, and a picnic table.

GO DADDIES!

when the girls woke up, they took little A's new wagon for a test drive!

later on, Miles-Man arrived, and it was time to watch him open all of his gifts!

photo of M by Uncle Andrew
 

the "ellie belly" is showing some hoosier pride! :)
our little niece is due any day now... and we can't wait to meet her!!

LET IT SNOW:

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of course, anyone who lives in the area, 

knows that we had a major snowstorm predicted for Christmas night.

i'm not entirely sure of the amount, but it was substantial enough to weigh these trees down...

we usually can't see anything except the very top of the workingmen's institute.

i'm not the biggest fan of snow, especially in large doses, but it was very pretty...
and a lot of fun to play in! :)  just ask the Oz Man.

he thinks he's hot stuff.

and here is our snowman...

B named him "Max."

i hope you all had a very merry & bright Christmas too!
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Here Comes Santa Claus... and the Snow!