The Heinlights: Christmas 2015

Christmas has come and gone...we've had a very mild winter so far with only one snowfall in November that stuck around for about 3 days. We've actually still had green grass everywhere...until today. So no white Christmas for 2015 but I'm not complaining. We celebrated first with a family brunch at CRCC complete with family pictures, Build-A-Bear, and getting to meet Santa.

Waiting for her reindeer to be made...

Matching houndstooth coats...

Viv has a newfound love for markers and coloring...decorating her reindeer box. She loves to pull the caps off the markers and gets quite angry when you try and replace them.

Meeting this Santa went much better since Nathan sat with her.

Trying to talk her into meeting Santa at Von Maur...I thought maybe if she saw him first and saw a few kids sitting on his lap she'd warm up a little easier....

No such luck...maybe next year! However, she did accept his gift of a candy cane.

We celebrated with our parents the weekend before Christmas..the Hein side was first...

She finally got the concept of opening presents this year...she didn't care what was in the box but she thoroughly enjoyed ripping off the wrapping paper.

The next day was the Mangold side...

Cheesing it up with Wrigley...

I've been working with Viv on how to take pictures and say 'cheese'. She now poses at the door every day and says 'cheese!', especially when I pull my phone out. Adam took family pics of us using his tripod and she got ahold of it and went around 'taking pictures' of everyone. She'd look through the tripod and say 'cheese!'. I guess we should have gotten her a camera for Christmas!

Siblings and their stools....Mom gave Adam a stool that Gpa Paul had made in high school shop class. Teresa refinished it for him and it turned out fantastic! Mine is just an ottoman from Pier One.

Such a family of goof balls!

We also celebrated Gma Jean's 95th birthday...making her wish.

Christmas Eve we celebrated at church and then hosted our annual family gathering. I serve the same thing every year....wild rice soup, winter salad, and Christmas cookies.

Our church outdid themselves this year and surprised us with live animals! A reindeer, two camels and some sheep....although we missed the sheep as they were in front of a different sanctuary. Viv was excited to see both, she wasn't scared of petting the big camel but really seemed to love the reindeer.

Waiting to light our candles...

Gma Debbie bought all the girls their Christmas dresses again this year.

After dinner we changed into our matching Christmas Jammies. I went with a one piece this year since I didn't think a shirt would fit me....they weren't flattering at all. Nathan tolerated them well and didn't complain....oh, the things I can get him to do now that he has a little girl! We all decided the jammies looked the cutest on Viv.

Unwrapping more presents Christmas morning!

She got quite a few 'big' gifts including a stuffed standing pony, a piano, and an activity table. All three were big hits!

Wrigley always has to be in the middle of everything!

She's recently become obsessed with my red sequin Uggs and loves to put them on multiple times a day.

Christmas night we celebrated at the Streepers...Viv was pretty clingy and kinda grouchy the whole night...she didn't really want to play with any of the kids and wouldn't let Nathan out of her sight.

All the great grandkids...Ivy, Harper, Grace, August, Sutton, Ryker, and Viv.

Last but not least the day after Christmas we celebrated the Hein Christmas which is with all the extended family...the boys getting ready to slam their Cooks....an annual Christmas tradition.