Christmas 2013

What a magical Christmas we had this year! It was Jake's 1st Christmas and Grace understood the meaning of Santa and was extremely into ALL THINGS Christmas. Here is a recap of our holiday...
We had our usual Christmas gathering with my parents and brothers on the 21st. Gracie was so appreciative of all her gifts and enjoyed helping out Jake open his as well.

That Monday we had our annual cookie baking at Grandma's house. Grace liked helping by taking the wrappers off all the Hershey Kisses and she was very excited to be making cookies for Santa. BUT she was more interested in playing with cousin Ella :)

Then came Christmas Eve with the Wons side at Uncle Tim and Aunt Gay Lynn's house. The night when by in a whir. It seemed like we got there, ate dinner, opened the kids gifts and left...oh wait, that is what happened! Oh the life of having a little one that goes to bed at 6:15 :) Despite the whirlwind of an evening it was great to spend time together and a big family. Grace and Jake received more presents, what lucky little ones :)

Before we went to bed, we made sure to set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Then it was off to bed because Santa doesn't come until everyone is asleep!

Christmas morning started bright and early! Gracie was bursting with excitement to see what Santa brought her! Since Grace and Jake were on the nice list this year, they received many presents. Grace was thrilled with every gift and Jake enjoyed his gifts as well. I think he was more amazed with all the wrapping paper and boxes scattered in the family room.

After a quick breakfast, some playtime, and a little nap for Jake, we were off to Danville for the next couple days. We arrived in time for lunch, followed by some naps, gift opening, and a nice Christmas dinner. We had a great visit with Bryan's family and brothers.

Whew! And there you have it...Goodwin Christmas 2013. It was busy, but oh so fun and the fact that we were able to spend it with the ones we love made it even better!

Santa!

We opted out of our usual Bass Pro Shop Santa trip this year. In years past we have had up to a 2 hour wait to see the big guy, which was fine with just Grace. Waiting with Jake on the other hand for 2 hours, not so great. We decided to visit Santa at the Mall instead and it was just fine! There was a minimal wait and no crying. Yay! Jake wasn't phased by Santa at all. He just kept looking at him. Grace was very excited to have Santa tell her that she and Jake are on the nice list...of course they are! We are all very excited for Santa to make his stop here soon.

Some Holiday Fun

One of our favorite times of the year brings about a lot of exciting activities. Here is a recap of the past couple weeks...
Gingerbread house making

Finding Elfie...

Playing in the snow and drinking hot chocolate...

Baking some holiday treats and doing some taste testing :)

Jake at 11 months

One more month and our baby is 1...crazy!

At 11 months, Jake is now pulling himself up onto EVERYTHING! He is ready to move and explore and just has to figure out the whole walking thing now. Jake is starting to try to say some words. The other day Bryan and I swore he said, "Water." But he hasn't said it since. When I ask him what a duck says he will say "qua qua" and we think that he has been saying, "Grace" for a while now as well. It can be hard to tell with those first baby words :)

Jake continues to be a sweet boy. He is becoming more cuddly and we love it when he gives us kisses (still open mouth) and hugs (lays his head on our shoulder). He loves to play with doors, but it scares me because of the possible finger pinching! Grace and Jake had big belly laughs today playing peek-a-boo with the door.

He cut another tooth recently, so I think he now has 8. Jake also continues to be a great eater and sleeper. The crabbiness has subsided a bit as well :) The planning has begun for his 1st Birthday Party and I really can't believe that a year has almost already gone by...sigh. We love you Jake!

Grace's first movie!

Last weekend we also took Grace to see her first movie, Frozen! Boy, was she excited, but I am pretty sure that Bryan was more excited about the whole experience than Grace. Bryan has been talking about the day when he could take our kids to movies before we even had kids...he is quite the movie lover :) The movie was great and held all of our attention!

Getting ready for Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving we took our annual trip to Ide's Tree Farm to find our perfect tree. This year Mr. Jake was along for the adventure! The kids had a great time! I think they were just happy to be outside :) We found our perfect tree and Bryan quickly cut it down, hauled it back to the car, tied it on the roof, and we were off.

Later that weekend we finally got around to decorating the tree. Grace was excited to hang her ornaments and Jake even tried to hang some too!

We spent the weekend a good part of the weekend decorating our house for Christmas. Grace loved going through all the decorations with me. Each thing that came out of the bin Grace proclaimed as 'Amazing!' The kids have their own little tree that they decorated as well. With baby safe ornaments, although Jake hasn't shown much interest in either tree yet.

On December 1st our friend Elfie arrived! He made a little bit of mess on his first night back, but left a note and a special treat for Grace. Grace of course loves looking for Elfie each morning :) The kids have also started their advent calendar, which was a great gift from their Nonnie and Papa last year. One of the presents on the 1st was a new outfit for Elfie; boots and a scarf! So now he is kept nice and warm on his flies back and forth to the North Pole each night :)