Merry Christmas Olivia!

Olivia has celebrated her first Christmas!  She went to lots of Christmas parties, scored scads of gifts, and we made her totally forsake her schedule.  When we finally got home last night, she couldn't have been happier about seeing her swing, being in familiar surroundings, or sleeping in her own crib.  She usually loves going to different places, but we think that the holidays totally overwhelmed her this year!  Needless to say, we all slept really well last night.

Olivia is pleased to be home and blogging with Mom in her Bumbo chair.

She wasn't content to let the dog lay next to her this morning; she wanted to eat his head.

When she wasn't fussing and needing our attention, we managed to snap a lot of pictures, so get ready for a picture overload!

We had a family party with some of Cassandra's extended family earlier in the week.  They wanted Olivia to play the part of the baby Jesus in the live nativity, but she would have none of it!  However, she was fine with wearing these reindeer antlers during carol singing.

Great-Grandpa Owen, Olivia, and her dollie snuggling.

We stopped by Bob's aunts' house to check out their Christmas train.  Olivia loved it, and quickly figured it out.  She would watch the caboose disappear on one side of the tree and then turn her head to wait for the engine to appear on the other side.  She sat there forever until finally, we got tired of watching her watch it and picked her up.  We definitely want a Christmas train for our tree now!

Olivia patiently waits for the train to appear on the other side of the tree.

Most of our Christmas festivities ended like this, with Olivia passed out in someone's arms.  Here she is with Aunt Anna.

Because we were going to be gone over Christmas, Santa was kind enough to come visit us early this year!  Unfortunately, Olivia wasn't too happy during this, or really any present opening.  Perhaps the ripping paper is upsetting to her.

Getting ready for present opening!

A personalized ornament for the tree?  Olivia isn't impressed.

New binkies!

She soon grew tired of her Bumbo.

Bob loves the first Knuffle Bunny book and was excited about this one.  Olivia wasn't.

Maggie helped Olivia open gifts toward the end.  She's actually really good at it!  (Check out our other dog in the background ripping a box to shreds.  The dogs love the destruction of Christmas!)

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is going skiing on Christmas Eve with Cass' family.  Unfortunately, Cass and Olivia were both unable to hit the slopes with everyone, but they came up to the lodge to visit and eat a bowl of hot chili!

Liv with her Aunt Didi who has some time off from school and left sunny California for a Utah Christmas.

After skiing on Christmas Eve, everyone headed to another family party, but this one had a special visitor -- Santa!  Every year, Santa takes time off his busy Christmas Eve schedule to listen to what the children want and sing carols.  Everyone under 40 is required to sit on his lap and listen to his corny jokes about reindeer horns and North Pole life.  We thought Olivia might object to sitting on the strange man's lap, but she didn't seem to mind.

Her Christmas tutu is delicious!

Olivia told Santa that she would like a giant bottle for Christmas that never emptied!

Santa handed her this toy, a squeaking puppy.  She is quite familiar with noisy doggies.

Finally, we ended up at Nana and Papa's house in Logan.  It had been a long day, and Olivia was very tired.  She watched her parents open her presents and was quite overstimulated.

Nana and Papa found her this cute rocking lamb!  We made her try it out before finally putting her to bed.  She couldn't have been happier to be swaddled and sung to sleep.

"Do I really have to try this out now, guys?  It's way past my bedtime."

After sleeping with visions of sugarplums dancing in her head, we woke up and headed over to Grandma Christa and Grandpa Chris' house for Christmas morning.

Sitting on Grandma Christa's lap.  She would rather eat her hands than open presents!

Check out her blue eyes!

After days of unwrapping presents, she finally got the hang of it!

Removing the bow.  Maggie's standing by to help her if needed.

She's ripping the paper off herself!

After presents, breakfast, and a much needed nap; we headed out on a little hike.  It was colder than expected, and Bob had to put on a lot of jackets to zip over Olivia and keep her warm.  She loved getting  out and seemed not to mind the cold!

Aunt Heather and Uncle Carter came with Bob, Olivia, Cassandra, and the dogs.

Finally, we had a family dinner on Christmas evening with relatives from all over.  Olivia got to meet Cooper, Bob's cousin who is 5 months older.  They were very interested in eating and scratching each other and required serious supervision.

All in all, it was a great Christmas!  Olivia had some great times, and she got overwhelmed more times than we could count.  We loved showing her off to friends and family, but we're glad too that things are going to calm down a bit around here.  Knowing us though, things aren't going to stay quiet for long!

We hope you all had a great Christmas as well.