christmas day

as i mentioned earlier, christmas day 2011 was a hit. i might possibly put it down in the record books as the best christmas for the layton family trio thus far. leah slept in and woke up happy, which made me and ryan happy. then we took the annual picture on the stairs. wait...i mean our first-ever picture on the stairs because this is the first time we've had stairs! 

leah wasn't a fan. 

she was a fan of the virtual yule log.

and rapunzel. 

and her new apron {that actually fits and matches mom's!}. 

and her new legit african bongo drum. she's seriously good. but we seriously got no pictures of it! she was even interested in helping to unwrap some presents this year which was an added, unexpected bonus.

and apparently ryan was the official photographer of christmas day because there are also no pictures of him??

but best of all was finally seeing the contents of what we lovingly referred to as "the gender box." hooray for girls! 

we got all gussied up for church {and snapped a quick 19 week shot of my awkward belly} and were off. 

even our toenails got dressed up. 

ryan had leah duty during church while i performed in some different musical numbers - a women's a capella octet, piano accompanist for an amazing soprano singing an excerpt from the messiah {seriously, i did NOT practice enough for that one!}, and a piano duet accompaniment for some congregational hymns. i went in knowing i was going to play two and ended up playing a third on the fly, which added some hilarity to my meeting. the music was a wonderful addition to a really great meeting about Christ - a perfect way to spend a christmas afternoon.

we ended the day eating delicious soup and bread bowls and a yummy pumpkin ice cream pie with an incredible family from our church. 

yup. it was a good day.