A Low Key Christmas

We had a very low key Christmas this year at our house. It was our first Tennessee Christmas and it was nice to stay home for a change. Daniel's dad (Paw Paw as Claire calls him) drove in from Louisville on Tuesday and stayed until Sunday. In addition my friend Lindsey spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with us since she wasn't able to go home for the holiday. On Christmas Eve we went to the Opryland Hotel to meet up with our friends Holly, Mark and Ava who were traveling through on their way to Kentucky. It was good to see them and the girls enjoyed running around the gardens of the hotel. Christmas Eve we went next door to our neighbors house for appetizers and drinks and then came home, put Claire to bed, and finished putting together the train table from "Santa." Santa was definitely good to all of us this year.

Daniel's dad bought us a new fire pit for Christmas. Here they are getting it put together.


It took us about an hour just to set up the train set. Luckily Daniel had already put the actual table together or we would have been up really late.

Finished product.

Christmas morning we were all up early and ready to go see what Santa brought............that is everyone except Miss Claire Bear. She decided to sleep in until 9:30 a.m. As you can see she is in our bed which definitely doesn't happen very often. She didn't sleep very well so I eventually brought her to bed with us in an effort to let the rest of the house sleep.

If a hair-do is any sign of how well someone sleeps, Claire much have hibernated!

Our reaction to what Santa brought............I think I was much more excited!

However it didn't take Claire long to get just as excited.

Claire loves cars so I couldn't pass up these car house shoes. She loved them.

Paw Paw bought Claire a little tea set and she had so much fun with it. She poured us all a cup as soon as we opened the box.

We also had another guest for Christmas. This is Ernie. He is Lindsey's roommate's puppy and since she was dog sitting she brought him with her. He was such a good puppy and Claire really enjoyed having him at our house.

Santa was good to Daniel and me as well. He brought Daniel a new power washer and I got a new camera and lens that I wanted.

He also brought Claire this slide. She absolutely loves it! She has no fear at all which scares us a bit...........especially when she gets to the top and stands up with no hands and then throws herself head first down the slide...........crazy girl!

The train table that Santa brought also has a cover so it can be used as a arts and craft table. One side is white like the rest of the table and the other side is a chalk board.

After opening presents we went downstairs to get some coffee and were surprised to see that it was snowing outside. Claire had fun standing outside with the snow falling.

The last item revealed was this play house that Santa (with the help of Gigi, G-Paw, Nana and Grandpa Bob) brought for Claire. She loves it so much. We have it in the garage for now because it's usually warm enough in there that she can play with a jacket on and it's out of the winter elements. It was a big hit. Thank you grandparents!

Inside the house answering the telephone. This is exactly what she says every time she answers the phone......."Hello........Hey!" So cute!

She loves to ring the doorbell but she always does it after she gets in the house instead of ringing it before she enters.

Of course she wanted Paw Paw to play inside the house with her. He was a good sport and I think he had just as much fun as she did. Claire really took to Paw Paw and followed him all over the house. She liked to grab his hand and say "Paw Paw, let's go."

And that was about the end of "fun" Christmas festivities. About noon on Christmas Day Daniel started feeling horrible. He came down with a stomach/intestinal bug and he was down for the count for two days. He is feeling better but still not 100% as of this morning. I think it will take him some time to get over the weakness. I didn't end up making Christmas dinner on Christmas Day hoping that Daniel would feel better the next day and we could enjoy it then. However, he still didn't feel good the day after Christmas. I ended up making an abbriviated version of Christmas dinner and Paul and I enjoyed it by ourselves. Oh well, there's always next year. I'm just glad Daniel is feeling better.

The day after Christmas I also went to see my friend Jenae's new baby boy, Steven James. He was so precious and so tiny. Here is a picture that Jenae took.