Our Christmas was lovely this year. We awoke to our usual morning call – “Mama, Mama! All done! All done! Grae Grae had a nice sleeeeep”, had a little family snuggle in bed, and made our way into the living room so that Miss G could open the little gifts in her stocking. It was filled to the brim with bath fizzies, miniature kitchen utensils, wooden stamps, a couple of little clothing items, an owl puppet, and some of her very favourite nuts and treats. Grae opened the tiny packages carefully, admiring each before moving on… She was thrilled with all of her new goodies.
With her stocking opened, we took a little present break and made a big Christmas breakfast together.
Brad and Gracen’s jobs? Playing with our freshly made gingerbread play dough and entertaining the crowd.
With breakfast eaten and cleaned up, we gathered back around the tree for our gift exchange. Gracen opened her gifts (plus helped everyone else open their’s) and spent a few minutes investigating each, before thanking the gifter and moving onto a new package.
She was hugely spoiled with new clothes {these little black boots included}, games, puzzles, a doll stroller, and wooden kitchen accessories, as well as this giant dress-up kit filled with all kinds of costumes and accessories.
After a lazy rest of the morning and early afternoon {plus a good nap for Miss G}, we all got dressed and ready for the big Ogasawara family Christmas dinner.
My mom and Rorie were able to come out and join us, which Gracen loved. She toured around the house showing Grandma Sue the gifts she’d opened earlier in the day and then settled in to play with her gingerbread play dough again.
As usual, christmas dinner was absolutely delicious. Gracen’s favourites included the turkey and rosemary smashed potatoes.
Afterwards, us adults visited with full bellies and glasses of wine while Grae snuck in a few last minutes with two of her very favourite new things – a vintage doll from Grandma Sue and a stroller to push her around in from Grandma Charlotte.
It was a good day. And only the start to our special days with family this holiday season…
Merry Christmas from our family to yours.
♥
Upcoming destinations on our Christmas 2012 adventure include Cochrane, Edmonton, and {the wee little town of} St. Paul. Fingers crossed the nearly 40 hours on the road will go easy on us…
Today Gracen and I headed downtown to pick up our photo order from 
Getting family photos done is something I’ve wanted to do for the last two years. Yet somehow, I just haven’t made it happen. There was excuse after excuse after excuse… It started with we’ve got way too much to do before returning back to Kuwait with a 20 day old baby, to it’d probably be really hard to find our kind of photographer here in the desert, to let’s just wait until we’re more settled back here in Vancouver. The problem with the whole situation is that before long, you have a 2 year old {who is going on 5} and a 
Somehow, amidst a rain-filled week, our shoot landed on a gorgeously sunny afternoon with not a rain cloud in sight. We met with Bethany, she immediately made friends with Grae, and we got started. 
On the night of our viewing session, Brad and I made our way downtown to Bethany’s beautiful little studio. She greeted us with hot tea and world’s most amazing organic doughnuts (made of locally-sourced ingredients no less!), and turned on a slideshow of our images. They were stunning. 
The photos spewed Gracen’s little personality and made the simplest of things – walking hand in hand, collecting leaves, marching, and buying bread – look beautiful.
We’re so very grateful to have our very first set of family photos and I’m beyond excited to share that Bethany is generously offering one lucky 
Gracen is normally pretty much a Mama’s girl, but on days like today, she wants nothing more than to be with her Papa. (All.day.long.)
So much to be thankful for this year…