Christmas Day 2014

Merry Christmas everyone! 

We hope you have all had a wonderful time and enjoyed every last minute of the season! We certainly have had an amazing Christmas, although very different from what we are used to. Also having just moved house we were in a slight panic that we wouldn't get the place sorted by Christmas but we did! We spent a quiet Christmas eve in (after having to go out to return Calleigh's big present as it was smashed inside the box and they were completely out of stock everywhere! I was gutted) watching some TV and opening our Christmas Eve Baskets.

I have missed my family over Christmas especially today, but we still got to chat with them in the morning and they got to see Calleigh open some presents. 

The morning didn't start out amazing though as both Calleigh and I have been battling a cough and cold for the past few days and it seemed that we were both pretty bad with out throats on Christmas morning. I was losing my voice and even though I could see Calleigh really trying to be excited she just didn't have the energy straight away nor was she in a particularly good mood after a bad night.

But once she had some toast and milk inside her she seemed to perk up a bit and eventually managed to open all her presents. She was so happy with all her presents so thank you to everyone that brought her a present.  

We still have a lot left to do in our house, it's pretty hard to do things with Calleigh around, but we really have our fingers crossed to be settled by the new year! And then hopefully I can put my time back into the blog and doing my favourite thing of all- taking photos of Calleigh! 

Anyway

Here are some photos of our Christmas! 

Calleigh's Christmas Eve Basket

Calleigh loved putting milk and cookies out for Santa

Santa has been!

Getting started on her presents

A little cuddle for mommy

Toys Galore

The first Christmas Dinner I made and our first in America

Christmas naps after a busy day!

The Polar Express

Earlier this week we took Calleigh on The Polar Express Train Ride at Union Station in St Louis. I booked it ages ago as I managed to grab some tickets- they sold out really fast! I have been looking forward to it for weeks and it did not disappoint! 

We arrived at the station and went to the depot to get our boarding passes and gold tickets and then shortly afterwards we were boarding the train headed for the North Pole! Calleigh was really excited to be going on a train and although she hasn't seen The Polar Express she enjoyed all of the actors and the things they were doing. We drank hot chocolate to the hot chocolate song from the movie and then enjoyed a cookie whilst enjoying the views of downtown St Louis. We hadn't seen the arch for a long time so it looked really good!

We arrived at the North Pole and Santa was waving at us, Calleigh loved it and was waving back getting so excited.. and then he boarded the train. We were right at the back and Calleigh was first to meet Santa as he came on. He kneeled down in front of her and gave her a silver bell, just like the film, and asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She of course replied that she wanted My Little Ponies! 

This was the first year that Calleigh enjoyed seeing Santa and wasn't terrified of him haha. Just the look of excitement on her face was enough to bring me to tears. 

I can't wait to see her face Christmas morning! 

In other news you may have noticed it's been awfully quiet here on the blog as of late. Well, we have got ourselves a house and are in the process of moving in (I know a week before Christmas?? Are we crazy?). 

I'm going to really try and post again before Christmas and share some photos of Calleigh in her new room. If not it will be something to look forward to next year! 

The First Day of Advent

So it's the first of December today which means it's Christmas in 24 days!!!! I am very excited for Christmas this year, even though I will miss spending it with lots of family I am kind of looking forward to it just being the three of us and spending it in America. 

All of Calleigh's presents have been brought and wrapped, although there is still plenty of time for more to be added- kind of a down side to getting everything done so early!

We put the tree up the day after Calleigh's birthday and although she's been pretty good with it so far there have been a few occasions where she has taken the baubles off! We are almost finished with our decorations and lights outside too. I will be sure to share some pictures of it all when we have finished! 

But for now I would like to share a little video of Calleigh and her advent calendar, she was not pleased that she could only have one haha!

Our English Christmas Day

Calleigh spent Christmas Eve night round her Nanna and Grandad's house. I was a little bit sad that I didn't get to wake her up on Christmas morning and surprise her with gifts but we decided it would be nice to let Nanna and Grandad have that pleasure. Instead Daddy and I got to spend the evening together and we went out for a few drinks in our local. 

In the morning we went straight round to Nanna and Grandad's to see our girl. She was already up and playing with her new toys. She got a big cardboard house which she loved going in and out of. She also got a balance bike and helmet along with lots of other little goodies. She loved the bike and had so much fun walking it around with her helmet on. Unfortunately it was a little to big for us to bring back with us, so we will have to make sure we get her one to have here.

This Christmas Daddy and I decided not to get Calleigh much for Christmas. With going back to England it made it a bit awkard. We didn't want to buy presents over here, take them back to England for her to open them and then bring them back again, seemed a bit pointless. And on the other hand we didn't want to buy her loads in England as we knew family had brought her gifts and we wanted to bring them back with us. Although I couldn't resist buying her a few things including some Octonauts Teddies.

Back at Mee-Maws house we all opened some more gifts and then sat down to some yummy Christmas Dinner. Calleigh didn't eat much aside from quite a large amount of onion and garlic dip (strange child). She had much more fun playing with the party blower that great Nanna had brought round from her night out. 

The whole day flew by pretty fast to be honest. Before we knew it we were tucking Calleigh into bed and getting ready to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special. 

So that was how we spent our Christmas. I really enjoyed spending it with family but I am looking forward to having our own little family Christmas in St Louis this year. As Calleigh will be 3 and much, much more aware of what Christmas is we think it would be best to keep her here and give her an amazing Christmas and start our own family traditions. 

Of course if family would like to come over and spend it with us here they are more than welcome! 

Going back to England: One More Day!

Today is our last day in St Louis before we leave for our trip home over Christmas. I am really excited to be going home and seeing family, It's all I've been thinking about for the last couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone reacts when they see Calleigh again, she is such a big girl now and I think most people will be shocked at how different she is from the little girl that left 9 months ago. 

At the same time though I think I am a little sad to be leaving this beautiful place. The snow has been falling and everything is so magical here at moment. We have really been enjoying playing in the snow as you can see from the last two posts and we had another big snow fall yesterday. 

We will be spending most of today and tomorrow morning double checking suitcases and taking down the decorations (such a sad thing to be doing before Christmas but I can't imagine wanting to do it when we get back). The next time I will be posting is when we are back in England, so be prepared for lots of heart warming reunion pictures! 

Also to come is Calleigh's outfit of the month which I think is so adorable. 

Until then I will leave you with some photo's of yesterdays snow. I'm hoping for a smooth flight with no delays so lets cross our fingers and hope that the snow can hold off for a couple of days whilst we get ourselves back to England. 

See you soon England!! 

Dashing Through the Snow

Yes this is another post about snow but we are just having too much fun in it!! 

We got Calleigh a sled today and just took her up and down the drive, she loved it and was laughing her little head off. Unfortunately when I had a go pulling her I managed to capsize the thing and Calleigh ended up face down in the snow. After that she decided it would be a good idea to throw snow at Daddy, so cute!