Monday, December 31, 2012

Christmas Day - Recap

We had a very enjoyable Christmas. The girls woke up and crawled into bed with us for a few minutes before we all got up to see what was waiting for us in the living room. We opened stockings and read the note Santa left for the girls. I put breakfast in the oven (overnight baked french toast - so amazing) while we got ready for the day. We ate our super yummy meal before finally digging into the presents under the tree. There are a lot of pictures in this post, but there were a lot more that I took. I basically picked out all of the non-blurry pictures and threw them on; the girls were very excited and moving fast.






 My mom crocheted Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse winter hats for the girls. They have hardly taken them off since unwrapping them.




 I made this car shirt for Alan. I like to think of it as a way for him to relax and get his back rubbed while still playing with Alice and Elsie.


 "Gee, thanks, Jeanine, for the...uh...light fixture..."

 Turns out it was a jar filled with my most favorite holiday peppermint kisses.

 Training chopsticks from their cousins in South Korea.


 This picture is a little blurry, but it demonstrates nicely Alice's unwrapping technique. With every single present she would sit down, rip the paper and throw it behind her with one big sweeping motion, and gasp excitedly when she could see what was inside. Christmas was so much fun with these girls.

 Elsie picked out a few new cars to give to Alice. When Alice opened them she gasped, and then told Alan to lay down again so she could try them out.
 Alice gave Elsie a squishy ball with lights that flash when it's hit on something and a 2013 Minnie Mouse wall calender.



 A real life Angry Birds game from Alan's brother, Eric.
 After all of the presents under the tree were opened (and played with), we let the girls open the big gift from Alan and I.
 A play kitchen with food and dishes!

 Elsie trying out her new chopsticks with some m&m's from her stocking. I really love these two pictures.

 Our girls were very spoiled this year. Here is Elsie with all of her presents...
 And Alice with her own loot pile.
We had a wonderful day playing with new toys, napping, Skyping with family, then playing some more. In the evening we had a not so small dinner party at our house with our holiday meal. We ended up hosting 9 adults, 5 kids, and 2 babies. We had plenty of food, fun, and laughs. It was a great way to end our Christmas.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Happy 5 Years

Wedding day

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas Eve - Recap

Starting on Sunday, the girls wore their most Christmasy outfits to church. Indulge me a minute, but I'm going to show a lot of pictures of their hair. I was so proud of how it turned out. It wasn't anything fancy, just french braids, but just the fact that I was able to do it is just another sign that my finger is getting better and life is getting back to normal.




We watched "White Christmas" with the girls before getting them to bed.

 On Christmas Eve I made a batch of sugar cookies in the morning so they would be ready to decorate after naptime. The girls had a lot of fun with the frosting and especially the sprinkles.





 We had "make-your-own" pizza for dinner. We watched a Christmas movie picked by Elsie ("Belle's Enchanted Christmas") while we ate.

We used their little nativity set to read and act out the Christmas story.
Finally, we left milk, cookies, and a note for Santa before going to bed.