Christmas Day Play

Pooped!

We hope you all had a blessed holiday

and made many treasured memories - we sure did!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning waffles.

After a quick "sink bath" and into her hat.

Mama and LB in our Christmas PJ's.

A "nice" girl ready to open presents.

Let the unwrapping commence...

It was so funny to watch Lilah this year 

with this extreme look of consternation on her face the ENTIRE time.

She definitely made out like a bandit!

(thanks Santa and Grandparents)

Then it was our turn.

After she opened her gifts,

a mid-morning nap gave us adults some time to open ours.

Thanks "Santa" for the great gifts this year - we feel spoiled!

Christmas Eve Recap

Bundled up to deliver the last batch of cookies to neighbors.

Our cookie boxes this year filled with...

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Chocolate-dipped Shortbread

Cranberry Pecan Iced Cookies

Cyclops Cookies

Lilah Belle in her Christmas PJ's.

A "naughty" little girl snooping.

A sleepy babe ready for a "Christmas Carol" bedtime story.

Hibernating...

Forgive us if we go MIA for the next few days.

We are going into hibernation
so we can soak up the last few days we have left with Papa Bear
before he heads back to work.

In the meantime, here are a few shots from our family Christmas pictures.
(I could not be happier with the way they turned out - thank you Atessa!)

 

 

Hope your Christmas was amazing.
We'll be back soon to recap our holiday fun.

A Garlick Family Christmas Tradition

We have a full weekend ahead...

Christmas parties with good friends,

Great-Grandmother visits,

home-baked cookies to deliver,

glowing lights to view,

"Luke II" to watch,

and a few more gifts to wrap and get under the tree

...not to mention Sunday!

But we wanted to share one of our annual Garlick Family Christmas Traditions with you:

(two years and running now - once the "we" became "three")

And here is our 2010 "Rockin' Around Lilah's Christmas Tree" video in case you missed it last year:
(it's a neck turner - haha)

Hope you and yours have a "rockin' Christmas

surrounded by the ones you love!



*Maybe in the New Year I'll figure out a better way to post quality videos. 
 FB hit me with a copyright infringement on this years video - any suggestions?!

Christmas Card 2011

Nepotism

Last minute roundtrip airline tickets to NYC...
expensive.

ABT "Nutcracker" tickets...
hard to come by.

A cab, pre-show dinner and drinks...
down right debt inducing.

Having your very own personal "princess" in the family...

PRICELESS!

Lovely Lilah's Aunt Devon
(and middle namesake)
in her MasterCard ad for the holidays.

If you are lucky enough to be in NYC,
you can catch her commercial playing in the back of your cab!
(yeah they have TV's)

A Perfectly Imperfect Christmas...

One of my favorite things during the holidays is to receive cards.

I love seeing and hearing from people I may not otherwise have constant contact with 

throughout the year.

This year I received one special card from my younger 

(yet apparently wiser beyond her years) sister. 

Inside she hand-wrote the following quote:

"There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus Christ.  Let it be a time that lights the eyes of children and puts laughter on their lips.  Let it be a time for lifting the lives of those who live in loneliness... let it be a time of forgetting self and finding time for others.  Let it be a time for discarding the meaningless and for stressing true values.  Let it be a time of peace because we have found peace..."

- Thomas S. Monson

The timing of this quote could not be more fitting.  

You see I have recently found myself missing from this holidays season.  

I have been "here", and yet not here at all?!

Instead of being present during the moments that I should be treasuring as they are happening,

I have been focused on trying to document them "perfectly".

Is that even possible???

Not with a toddler, 

a husband that leaves 3 days after Christmas for 2.5 months to work overseas,

two dogs 

and 

three chickens.

Hence the "perfectly" imperfect...

... a Little Lilah enamored by lights, 

a patient Papa Bear left to untangle,  

a super-pokey (dying) tree, 

a clumsy toddler adept at dropping things 

and 

a tree with only 11 sentimental ornaments hung this year.

A "Garlick Christmas" that I wouldn't want any other way!

And so if I am "missing" over the next few days,

or if posts seem slightly imperfect,

just know that I am busy being ever "present" 

for my sweet little family this Christmas.