Well friends, it has come and gone. That glorious day of the year filled with food, decadent treats, playing, and laughter.
We start our celebrating on Christmas eve morning. After I explained to Ella that there was a Christmas eve and Christmas she could hardly stand it. In her mind, this meant there were two Christmas days. And we did celebrate for two days so she wasn't so off. She woke up bright and early on Christmas Eve and came running in yelling, "It's Christmas EVE! Tomorrow is Christmas!" We quickly got ready and proceeded to great gramma Fay's for Christmas eve brunch. It was a blast spending time with family we don't get to see very often. Ella ran around with her cousins and eventually convinced my cousins (ages teenage and up) to play hide-and-seek and be her new besties. There was good food, chocolate fountain, a small program, and good times. We stuck around there a couple hours longer than expected (totally worth it) and then proceeded home. We made it home in perfect time to prepare dinner, eat, and finish just in time to open our Christmas Eve gifts. Nightgowns for the girls and Muppet Christmas Carol for mommy and daddy. Livie had no clue what the presents were for until that moment. Once the nighties were open she spent the rest of the night trying to get us to open the rest of the presents. Bathed, jammies on, popcorn popped, and Muppet Christmas Carol on is how we ended the night. The girls loved dancing to the music and Olivia was only partially ticked off about her super long nightgown (when making them, I mixed up her and Olivia's bottoms.) But she quickly learned how to lift her skirt like a dainty little princess. It was pretty adorable. With the movie watched we proceeded to lay out our stockings and set out cookies and eggnog for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Then it was off to bed. The girls went to sleep immediately, making last night the easiest Christmas eve ever!
Ella proved to be my amazing sleeper again and only woke up when Olivia refused to go back to sleep at seven. We held them off for a half hour and finally at 7:30 it was time to see what Santa brought us. We had put a child proof lock on the doorknob to our living room so I wouldn't miss any reactions with the camera. Thank heavens. Ella took no time finding her new bike. "Mom! Santa brought me a bike!" That was about all she needed. She didn't even see her stocking. Olivia was the same. She saw Ella's bike and didn't want anything else. We did finally get them away from the bike and onto the rest. For Ella: New shoes, my little pony, clothes, socks, fingernail polish, headbands, books, and a camera. The fisher price kinds that I grew up with! We found it at IFA and I about died. So Ella got everything she wanted from Santa. Olivia's favorite present from Santa was new binkies! Yes, she may be that 10 year old with binkies, and yes, Santa is an enabler and knows it. But Santa also knew how incredibly excited she would be about those binkies. More clothes and book for Livie, a john deere megabloks tractor, a new Elmo sippy cup. For both girls a new plate and Mickey and Minnie spoon and Fork. Poor Santa didn't have much time for shopping for mommy this year. He's been working like a dog but luckily mommy had an inkling and was able to do a bunch of shopping for herself. Some cute clothes, and OF COURSE, movies! Last year it was the boxed set LOTR on blu-ray. This year, the boxed set of Harry Potter on blu-ray. Mommy is ecstatic! Daddy's favorite present from Santa was a new pillow! His was old and lumpy. Daddy also got clothes, garments, and OF COURSE, movies. For daddy: Iron Man 3, Wolverine, and Man of Steel.
The girls insisted on taking everything out of it's box and playing for a while but eventually Olivia decided it was time to open stuff. More fun stuff. Ella didn't get to open a ton since the bike was technically from mom and dad but she didn't mind.
Once done we hurried to get ready yet again and headed over the the in-laws for the day. Skyping with the missionary in France, puzzles, junk food, dinner, more junk food, movie watching, cuddling, laughing, joking with the brother-in-law, giggling with the sister-in-law. The girls were dying to get home and play with there toys but were thrilled when we got to open more presents there so us staying all day wasn't so painful in the end.
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