Our Christmas Celebration

We had so much fun celebrating Christmas with our family. We are so thankful to have each other and to be able to celebrate Jesus' birthday. I (Averie, of course) was singing "Happy Birthday, Jesus" all the time...and I always looked forward to adding one more nativity item to my Advent Nativity calendar each day. There are lots of pictures (Mommy took over 200, so we did good to narrow it down this :) ), but they are from 4 different celebrations...Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, Christmas with the Karaffa's, and Christmas with the Van Wingerden's. Enjoy!!

CHRISTMAS EVE:

We attend our church's wonderful Christmas Eve service...filled with singing lots of Christmas carols. Then, we each get to open one gift (this tradition started with Daddy's side of the family...), which is always jammies (for Daddy & Mommy, it's a warm-up suit, etc.). We put on our new jammies and get ready for bed. This year, I got to do 2 new things...leave out my cookies and milk for Santa and stay up late to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Mommy's favorite Christmas movie). Daddy & Mommy thought for sure I'd fall asleep during it, but I didn't. I watched the whole thing. Afterwards, though, I feel asleep very quickly so that Santa could come...It was such a fun night!

Check out my new Jammies...

And, here is Brady opening his...

We put on our jammies and sat in front of the tree for a few pictures. Of course, Brady was more interested in everything hanging around him...especially the lights...and the candy canes...he is quick to grab!

Us in our jammies...

And, one more before Brady goes to bed...

CHRISTMAS MORNING:

I ran downstairs and quickly looked to see if my cookies were eaten. Of course, Santa drank all the milk, but he did leave some cookies half-eaten. So, without hesitation, I finished those off for him. That made Daddy & Mommy laugh. And, I noticed all this before I even noticed what he left for me...

...a big girl bicycle...Thanks, Santa!

I was pretty excited...check out that smile!!

Then, after we ate a yummy breakfast of pancakes and bacon (made by Daddy!), we read the Christmas story in the Bible, prayed as a family, and then opened our gifts. Here, Daddy taught me the art of "peeking" at a gift after only unwrapping the end of it. I thought that this was so fun, so I did this for most of my gifts...

Daddy & Me on Christmas morning...

I had fun opening up some really great gifts...

And, Brady had fun eating the paper...and smiling!

Brady also liked opening gifts...and playing with tissue paper. I don't think he cared what was in the box, but now he's having fun playing with his new toys!

Here, Brady was saying "thanks, Big Sister" for my fun toy that we can play with together...

Mommy & Brady...Brady's 1st Christmas!

Mommy & Me...getting ready to go through our stockings...

Going through my stocking was so fun. I got some great goodies...

Here, Brady is going through his stocking too. However, he was napping by the time we got to our stockings on Christmas morning, so once he got dressed and we had the chance, we let him go through his...I loved watching him open them...even if it was later! :)

A few pictures of Brady...

Merry 1st Christmas, Brady Boy!
CHRISTMAS WITH THE KARAFFA'S:
Around lunchtime on Christmas Day, Poppy, Nana, Uncle Blair, Aunt Brittany, and McKinly came over to celebrate Christmas with us. We had a lot of fun. The guys got some really cool helicopters that they were flying around, and we just enjoyed spending time together.
Here is Brady playing with our cousin McKinly...

Brady opening up a few gifts (now that he has had his morning nap, he had more energy to open gifts! :))
And, Poppy & Nana with their grandchildren...Averie, Brady, & McKinly!
That night, we eat dinner at Opa & Oma's house, but we celebrated Christmas a few days later...What a fun day!

CHRISTMAS WITH THE VAN WINGERDEN'S:

A few days later, we went to Opa & Oma's house to celebrate Christmas. I got a new stroller for my baby dolls from Opa & Oma, and I loved it! It's so much fun!

...and a Leap Frog Leap Pad...how fun!

Brady got some fun toys also...a choo choo train, Leap Frog toy, etc.

Here, Daddy is helping Brady open his gift from Uncle Abe & Aunt Cindi (they drew his name this year in the gift exchange. He got a cool parking garage for his cars!) Oh, and look at Brady looking at Daddy...isn't that too cute?

Uncle Michael & Aunt Courtney had my name this year, and they gave me a Bitty Baby American Girl Doll baby doll (who we named Karson) with a diaper bag full of goodies. I carry Karson with me all the time...taking her for walks in my new stroller.

Brady & Oma

Me & Oma
Me & Opa
Brady & Opa

We sure had a wonderful Christmas, and we hope you did as well. Thanks again for all your love and support throughout the year. May God bless you this New Year!

The Karaffa Family ~ Christmas ~ 2008

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Hi Everyone ~ We hope that you are all doing well and enjoying this wonderful holiday season. We have been super busy, but we sure have had lots of fun. We are a little behind on some "blogging" since Mommy slipped on our stairs a few weeks ago and had a L2 Transverse Fracture (basically, I (Averie) have been telling people that Mommy broke her back...but, she keeps telling me that she broke a piece off the end of her vertebrae and not her whole back, but it was still painful). But, thankfully, Mommy is up and around for the most part (thanks to lots of pain meds and the many prayers of others!!) And, now we can share some pictures of our last few weeks. We will post some pictures of our actual Christmas Day celebration in a few more days...Mommy took a LOT of pictures, but we sure LOVED celebrating the birth of our wonderful Savior as a family. Enjoy the pictures...

Here is Brady...5 months old!

Here I am at my preschool Christmas party. Mommy got to come (thanks to Aunt Helen helping her), so I was excited about that. We ate yummy lunch, played some games, sang some songs, and then made a reindeer craft. It was a fun party!

Mommy & Me...
My cousin, Stephanie, and her Mommy, Aunt Helen. Stephanie & I are only 8 months apart, so we get to be in the same class...how fun!

Showing Mommy some of the fun things we do in class...here we are singing a fun song...

...and then the fun dancing part! I sure love preschool, and it sure was a great party!

Then, a few days later, my cousin, McKinly, came over, to play with me and Brady while Mommy rested. We also were trying to take a Karaffa grandchildren picture for the calendar we were giving to my Poppy & Nana. Here are a few of the pictures we took...

This is McKinly....he loved the ornaments!

McKinly again...

Then, it was Brady's turn for a few pictures!Brady Boy!

Once he sat up, he wasn't sure what to do with that candy cane. So, Mommy let him "explore."

I don't think he liked it...of course, the wrapper is still on...and he basically gagged himself, so that explains the face :) :)

Cute little brother of mine...

Then, he got to hold a present...he didn't tear into it like I would have, but he just looked at it...and tried to eat it, of course.
Then, it was my turn for a few pictures...
Aren't I too cute? :)

Such a big 3 year old am I!

And, here was our best attempt at a group picture...the Karaffa grandchildren: Brady, Averie, & McKinly!
Mommy also took some pictures on a different day in front of the poinsettias! Here is Brady...
...here am I...
...and, here we both are...wishing you a very Merry Christmas...
Merry Christmas, Everyone! We love you!

We are so thankful...

We sure had a fun Thanksgiving. It was my first one, and I had a great time. We went to my Uncle Art & Aunt Kelly's house for lunch...there was so much yummy food. I can't wait until I can start eating it...And, there were so many people there...my grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and some friends. We had a wonderful time.

Here I am...ready for Thanksgiving!

My 1st Thanksgiving...

Our Family...Daddy, Mommy, Averie, & Me

Poppy & Nana (Karaffa) with their 3 grandchildren...McKinly, Averie, & Me

The Karaffa Family (left to right) ~ Uncle Blair, McKinly, Aunt Brittany, Poppy, Averie, Nana, Mommy, Daddy, and Me

The Van Wingerden Family (back row to front row...left to right...sort of) ~

Uncle Thomas, Uncle Michael, Daddy, Eric, Uncle Art, Uncle Todd, Uncle Abe

Miss Lindsey, Aunt Courtney, Me, Mommy, Grant, Aunt Kelly, Aunt Helen, Aunt Cindi,

Brayden, Sam, Stephanie, Opa, Averie, Oma, Jackson, Carter, Kaitlyn

Paul, Zach, Andrew, & Noah

When we got home, Averie was SO tired from playing with her cousins...and missing her afternoon nap. She fell asleep on Daddy's lap within the first minute of sitting there. 5 minutes later, she was snoring...it was so funny! :)
Then, about 30 minutes later, Daddy fell asleep too. All the food and fun knocked them both out!
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone. We have so much to be thankful for. God is so good!

O' Christmas Tree

Hi Everyone ~ Can you believe we are less than 23 days from Christmas? We are so excited about all this Christmas fun...the decorations, the lights, the gifts...and most importantly, celebrating the birth of Jesus. We have been busy here, but we had a great Thanksgiving (we have SO much to be thankful for)...and we are so excited about Christmas. Enjoy the pictures...and Merry Christmas to you!

After a yummy Thanksgiving lunch with Daddy, Mommy, Averie, Poppy, Nana, Uncle Blair, Aunt Brittany, McKinly, and me, we went to go Christmas tree shopping. Daddy & Mommy told me that this has been a tradition for years, and we were all ready to go. There were lots of great trees, and surprisingly, we all found a tree really quickly. (Daddy & Mommy told me that in years passed, it has been known for them to go to several different lots to find that perfect tree!) So, here we are with the Christmas trees!

My first time at the Christmas tree lot! It was fun...and it sure smelled great!

A quick family picture!! Averie LOVED it...can't you tell?

Now, our house is all ready for Christmas...Merry Christmas, Everyone!