Christmas

Well, this Christmas was very bitter sweet.  How great to have Ava with us on Christmas morning.  That experience was priceless and one we'll never forget.  On the other hand, my Grandfather was very ill and Christmas was spent at my grandparent's home so we could all see him and spend one last Christmas with him.  He passed two days later.  I plan to blog some more on my Grandfather and his wonderful life after his memorial on Saturday.  So, back to the lighter note with some pictures of our first Christmas experience with Ava...   

 The Palmer family tradition is to open one present on Christmas eve after church.  We always open our new PJS.  James isn't in his yet and you can't see the cuteness of my pink PJ pants but there are plenty of good photos of Ava is her fancy princess nightgown. 

 She is oh so cooperative for photos when she loves what she's wearing!

 Cookies for Santa and Lettuce and oatmeal for the Reindeer

 Christmas morning...she awoke at 6:45

 She was a little overwhelemed but she loved opening the presents and has already played with most of things enough to be sick of them :-/

 Can't wait to walk around Disneyland with my Princess in her Princess dress!

 She loved the bike!  And today (3 days after Christmas) she has pretty much mastered it.

 Usually we have lots of family photos from Christmas day when we are all together.  This year was different.  we all took turns going up to the hospital room to see Grandpa and the mood was a little sad throughout the day. 

The girl LOVES to read :-)

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas