Christmas Day

 Christmas Morning started like your typical Christmas Day.  Glenn and I woke before Emma, and even had time to shower.  This is the advantage of staying up late with Family.  Then Emma walked into the living room and saw...

 this!  All her presents from last night were lined up with her stocking and stuff.  Emma was thrilled to open her stocking snuffers, and very curious as to what Mom and Dad got as well.

 Emma playing with her presents as backdrop to the nativity.  I just thought this was precious and had to take.

 Emma is more excited then Glenn as to what he is opening.

 Mommy gets some loves!

 After we finished with the stockings, we moved into the Family Room where Santa had left Emma more gifts.  We had a very princess themed Christmas this year.  Here is Emma's new Little People Disney Princess Castle.  She loves it.

 Here is Daddy putting together Emma's Disney Princess Lego Castle.  Emma loves her Lego's, and adding in princess just made it perfect.

 Here is Emma with the finished product.

 Later that day, Uncle Jeff arrived at our house to celebrate the holiday.  After visiting and eating, we traveled to Grandma's place to open presents.  We discovered (as we left) that the facility had a stomach bug going around, so we found Grandma in bed.

 Uncle Jeff enjoyed his presents and the visit.  After leaving Grandma's place, we took a break back at our house.  Then that evening, we dropped Emma off at Grandma & Grandpa Cawood's house and went to the movies.  The Case Family tradition was to watch a movie on Christmas.  This year it was the Hobbit, so not good for a 3 year old.  Great movie by the way!

Christmas Eve with the Cawood's

Pirate Cousin got a Razor from the Grandparents

 This year, Christmas Eve was spent at my Brother Joe's house.  The kids had a great time opening presents and playing together.  Christmas is one of my favorite times, and getting together with family is the main reason.

Emma opening her present

Army Man got a remote control flipping car.

Emma picked out this top for Grandma

Emma and her Barbie Car

The cousins sharing this gift

Emma and Army Man racing their cars

Time for the Christmas Story

Cousin Love

2012 Santa Visit

 This is our 4th year of taking Emma to visit Santa.  Thus far, Emma has never enjoyed the experience, and her photos are not great.  This year was success.  She sat on his lap, spoke with him and smiled for the camera!  YEAH!!!

We decided to make it extra special with her first trip to Build A Bear.  I had thought a Christmas animal, but Emma had a different opinion.  So, meet Rainbow Bear who is dressed as a Ballerina.

Emma peeking around Santa's House

 Glenn's favorite part of this day was as soon as we got home, Emma sat next to the piano to remove her shoes (which is what we all tend to do in this family) and proceeded to remove Rainbow Bear's dancing slippers.  It truly was adorable.

Oh Silent Night

My parents stake puts together an annual Community Christmas Nativity Event.  They invite the community, and each night for a week or two they have the entire building set up with nativities and Christmas pageantry.

 In the Cultural Hall, they have live music as well as nativity sets that members have let them borrow to view.  Many of the classrooms were set with scenes from Jesus' time, and volunteers were there to tell about the scene and how it related to that time.  For example, there was a workshop as Joseph would have had where he taught Jesus to be a carpenter.

In the Primary Room they had lots of stuff for little one's.  There were tables with crafts and coloring pages, as well as a life size nativity that the kids could dress up and enjoy.  I believe Emma is dressed as a camel here.

Trimming the Tree

 We picked up our tree this past weekend, so now it was time to decorate. After getting all the lights on, we let Emma take over on decorating the bottom of the tree.  She did a great job.

 I am currently teaching Pre-school (for the first two weeks of December) so am interested to see how well the kids do with all the decorations.  I have a one finger rule for them.  They are allowed to touch the decorations with one finger only, but not pick it up.  It works well with Emma.  Here's hoping it works with all the other kids as well.

The finished product

We had a hard time getting a good photo with Emma holding still.

ZOO LIGHTS 2012

 Our family tradition for Zoo Lights is the go the first night that there is no rain, if possible.  This happened to be during the week this year, and ended up being the perfect night.  It was cold, but it is almost December.  Of course it is cold.

 Emma, being freshly home from Disneyland, is all trained in the character poses.  She was very friendly with all the characters we found and smiled pretty after giving them a hug.

Glenn got some really good shots this year, so enjoy!