DoolittleDesign: Christmas with the Doolittle's

At the park Christmas Eve!!!! I finally got to take a pic next to Humpty Dumpty!

This year was so much fun! Christmas really is SO much more exciting when you have a "little" in the house. We went big this year with the festivities. My mom and dad came for a visit from Hollister a few weeks ago and watched the baby all day at our house while Ben and I did our christmas shopping and ran errands, mainly for DoolittleDesign. We have some of our prints in 2 local shops and another shop really wants to buy some of the Beardo prints ( Woot, Woot). Anywhoo, when Ben and I got home my mom had put up stockings on the mantle and had wrapped gifts out for all of us that taunted us all till Christmas. One of Doodlebug's gifts was so big that she would climb on it just for fun on a daily basis.
The Friday before Christmas we went out to my in-laws home and celebrated early. D was out of sorts due to teething pain. We then spent christmas eve at our house with just us three and D woke up in the best mood. She opened the giant gift from her grandparents first. It was really a quite a scene to watch her by sitting on it and tearing away the paper. Her favorite thing to say and look at right now is " Babies." when she finally ripped a large enough chunk of paper off the box there was a pic of a baby in a little car and she yelled, " Babies!" It was hylerical. She got a few other smaller gifts and after we were done she put all her small toys that she received on top of the box and climbed up and played with them. That night we went on a christmas light tour in our town. There is a small trailer park (of all places) that has a jawdropping display of plastic lite up figurines all over this one man's trailer. He also usually dresses up as Santa and greets you. We were hoping D could meet him and get a pic vs. the Santa at the mall who costs $21 ( What?) I like that is unconventionally located in a trailer park too when all the other displays are in the more ritzy well to do neighborhoods. The light displays in general were not as grand as previous year as the paper had reported. This must have something to do with the never ending recession.
Christmas day was very fun. We went back out to my in-laws for homemade waffles and they presented D or "boo boo" ( as my FIL calls her) with a toddler size climber set that includes a slide and basketball hoop. She went banana's on that thing and was even able to climb and slide unassisted by the the time we left. Later that day we went to Ben's grandma's house and had our big Christmas with his extended family. D has a second cousin close in age so it is fun to watch them interact. D got a little doll that came with a stroller and she was pushing it around so fast that she was running into people. Her cousin Parker also kept trying to take it from her. Ben's grandma wanted me to get pics of all the individual families and the entire family because she knows that I love to take pics. However, the family is getting SO big now that it was quite an ordeal, but managed to work itself out.
I am sort of done with all the holiday eating. I went back to work relieved to be back into normalcy and also a little sad that my time with my family was over. When I got to work I was taunted by a giant red velvet cake and lemon bars ( my fav). Some people aren't ready to let go. However, this time of year I expect lots of food and such and haven made it a personal mission not to be weak and to be even healthier. The average American gains 5-10 lbs over the holidays and I feel like I have lost weight. I say this because I do not own a scale and actually do not like them. I just measure how my clothes fit me and they are loose. Take that Holiday food!!!