This year Brindi was spoiled as this will be her last Christmas as an only child. We started off on Christmas Eve and headed to Old Town St. Charles for the Christmas Traditions festival where the streets are filled with Santas from around the world. Its a great festival when all the characters carry with them cards explaining their individual backgrounds. Characters like Jack Frost, Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Mrs. Claus, the Sugarplum Fairy, and over 10 different Santas are scattered throughout the streets.
On the way to old town, we passed a couple Snowmen. Christmas Eve morning we woke up to a clean blanket of "good" snow, not Missouri ice snow but the good stuff that snowmen are made of. As we headed home all Brindi wanted to do was make a snowman. She was set on making 5 snowmen but I was able to negotiate with her to only make 3.
Brindi started out as a really good helper but only lasted for about a half a snowman before she took a seat on the porch and directed the rest of the snowman construction. However, she did help with creating the faces to our snow family. Sad to say, Dad works a lot of weekends in December and missed the opportunity to do some much needed raking before the snow came so our snowmen were dressed in leaves!
Before we headed to bed Christmas Eve we opened our Christmas PJs.
Brindi's main present was a an Artist Esel with markers and water color paint. She seemed to like it, at least we hope she does. She loves to draw and has enjoyed drawing her hands and also kites on her new toy. Not sure why kites but that is her fascination these days. She also got a lot of plato.
A doctor set was another gift Brindi received and as soon as she opened it she made us all become her patient. Everyone had to take their turn and lay on the couch as we all played doctor and patient. This might have been her favorite toy.
Brindi also got some books, a cool money purse from her cousin that had pictures of them together on one side and a picture of the family on the otherside, a toy story matching game, a shapes creation necklace, a teddy pair mommy and baby, fingernail polish, chapstick, and a lot of candy.
Celeste received some new jewelry, clothes, and some much needed new silverware. Joe received the original NES with a few games, clothes, and several gift cards. We have truly been blessed this year are very fortunate for the life we live and we owe it all to our Savior whose birthday celebration this is. Merry Christmas!
One more week until the baby (still undecided on a name) arrives. We are still hoping she comes early but only time will tell. We seem to be trying everything in the book from long walks to feet/ankle massages and everything in between but no luck so far. The doctor even striped the membrane this week. We did start today with some pretty strong and consistent contractions but they have faded thru the afternoon.
We think Brindi is pretty excited for the baby. If only she knew the truth! We will see how excited she is after her little sister comes. But she loves to point to the baby and as demonstrated in the pictures below is spending a lot of time preparing to help once her sister arrives. Today she kept telling the belly, "Baby come out and play," "Baby its time to come out," and "Come out Baby!" We all echo her last statement.
