Michigan Christmas, Part 1

Just when we had Elsa convinced that Christmas was, in fact, over ... well, we went to Michigan and we had another Christmas. : ) We spent New Year's Eve and the rest of the long weekend with my family, and in the process we opened about a gazillion additional presents. Elsa was really excited to see everybody over there, especially Carter.
Just like Opa and Grandma Heinrich, Grandma B. also has an annoying singing Christmas toy (in this case, Frosty), so Elsa felt right at home.

Here are Elsa and Carter modeling the first of many presents: Their animal hats from Cheryl, Abby, and Joey.

Carter's present from us was almost as big as he is.

We got him a Pottery Barn bean bag chair with his name on it.

I suspected it might not be the most exciting present in his 2-year-old eyes (I figured Ellen and Dave would probably appreciate it a little more than he did). So it was nice to see how much he enjoyed the box that it came in!

Elsa got so much nice stuff from everybody! From Ellen, Dave, and Carter, she got this backpack, personalized with her name, for our trip to Costa Rica. She loves that now she can be just like Dora, and I love that she may actually be able to carry a few of her own things through the airport.

Also from Ellen and Dave, she got a VTech Learning Laptop (which has become a total obsession) and a cute outfit. Here's Elsa driving Carter crazy by being much too slow in opening one of her gifts:

From Grandma B., she got this Little People castle and a U.S. map puzzle.

But possibly the most exciting gifts of the night were these matching bouncing ponies from Grandma B. and Grandpa P.

Number Two even nabbed a few gifts this year—a cute little sleepsack from Grandma B. and a onesie with a bunny on it and matching shoes from Ellen and Dave.
We rounded things out with a giant turkey dinner on New Year's Day, before heading to my dad's in Spring Lake later that weekend.