Opening Christmas Presents

U. got up at the crack of dawn (before Astrid woke up) to light all the candles downstairs to make it a magical Christmas for Astrid this morning. He wanted to make sure that when Astrid came down the stairs her face would light up when she saw all the candles, and presents under the Christmas tree. So as soon as I heard Astrid stirring and calling for "Papa!" I got out of bed too and we all went downstairs to open Christmas presents.

The first thing she noticed was the bike.
Couldn't resist and had to immediately sit on it and ride it.
It's a cute pink bike with a basket on the front and back. She loved it.
Although technically it's her second bike. My mom (Grandma) bought her a bike for Christmas as well, but because we wouldn't be seeing them on Christmas, she bought it for her weeks beforehand. We keep that one over at Grandma & Grandpa's house, but needed one that she could ride at home too.
Just a couple things to note about the tree. U. went to get more lights for it this year and found this neat webbing of lights that drapes over the tree. It makes setup and cleanup a whole lot easier. As for decorations, we got out just a few to decorate the top. Reason being we couldn't find the box of Christmas decorations in the garage. (It's probably buried under all the kid junk that we need to sell.) But it worked out well since we didn't want Astrid playing with them and breaking them. So just a few on top was enough to look at and we were able to find her "Baby's First Christmas" ceramic baby shoe ornament that I had custom made for her when she was born in 2005.
This little Santa who plays a guitar, dances and sings, was given to me as a gift by one of my students. Astrid loved looking at it but was scared to touch it. Finally she got over the worst of her fear and was able to push the "on" button.Checking out her new wheels.

Opening her present.

A set of wooden trains and cars.

Kissing Papa's chocolate Santa.

A wooden puzzle of all 50 states that make up the United States of America.

Astrid was surprisingly good at opening her presents. First she would remove the ribbon, then the wrapping, and even get into the box itself to get to her gift. What a change from last year when we had to keep her from putting the tissue paper in her mouth.

It was sweet to see her tearing into every present.

Christmas is all the more special with a little one. It's the wonderment a child has that makes Christmas magical.

It looked like a ton of presents under the tree, but it really was a lot of smaller things and things that Astrid needed (like clothes and pajamas).

Wearing her snowman Christmas pajamas on Christmas day.

Astrid kept shouting "Presents!" all excited.

More warm pajamas!

Adept at opening boxes.

After Astrid was done opening her gifts, she also wanted to open U.'s and mine.

U. with his Christmas gift.

Playing with her Chinese checkers.

She loved moving the little colored pegs around.Playing with her wooden alphabet puzzle.

At this stage (2 1/2), puzzles were a must this year. Astrid LOVES puzzles and will devour any puzzle she sees. So hopefully the ones I got her for Christmas will be good for hours (or minutes) of amusement.

U. also got the photo of Astrid and I (that I use for my profile) blown up and framed - for me as a Christmas gift. It's one of my favorite photos of us together. I'm thinking of hanging it in our hallway.