Christmas Continued....

Christmas Eve was interesting for us at church. Both girls were in total mommy mode and wanting to be on, or at least next to me. But, mostly on me. They were both a bit grumpy, too. Leah wanted to be active and wasn't happy to be stuck in a pew. I'm not sure what Lacey's issue was. Luckily, it was the "family/children's" service, so there were lots of other noisy kids. Of course, mine seemed to be the loudest, but that might be that I was right there with them. Maybe the other parents felt the same about their kids. I'll hope, anyway. And, as with all the services since the "new" pastor (18 months ago) came to Mt. Zion, this was longer than it used to be. It was about 30-40 minutes with Pastor Phil, but it was an hour this year.

We drove 2 cars and after church, Butch & Chuck were stopping to pick up Ledo's pizza. Sadly, Ledo's had closed at 5:00. Church was over at 6:00. So, plan B was Pizza Hotline, which was also closed. Plan C was Domino's. It worked. After pizza, we had ice cream cake to celebrate Butch's 46th birthday! Then, we let the girls open 2 gifts each - PJs and an ornament. Lacey's ornament was a daddy bear and daughter bear (in a tutu) dancing. Leah's was a little girl decorating her dog with ribbon.

And, I got one for Butch this year, too. If I ask him what he wants for any occasion (birthday, Christmas, etc.), he sometimes says "world peace". Which, I can't provide. But, there was a beautiful ornament this year that was called "A Wish For Peace". I thought it was perfect.

Eventually it was off to bed for the girls. We stayed up & watched Narnia while Santa worked on stockings and things.

Leah woke at 7:00. We thought about taking her to the (unfinished) basement to play a bit so Lacey (really....Chuck & Nancy) could sleep in a bit longer, but didn't think that she would last long down there. (In our defense, we do have toys down there. And, the treadmill, a TV, etc.) So, I went to wake up Lacey, who was quite grumpy at first....until I said "Santa came!" and she replied "is he here?"!? She woke up Grandma & Poppy and was quite patient to wait while they cleaned up & got robes on. I'm sure that patience will disappear as the years progress.

Both girls were thrilled with the pink kitchen that Santa brought. You saw some pictures of this on the last post. Leah was thrilled when she realized there was a new puzzle for her under the tree....so sweet. And, Lacey loved the new Barbie (yes, another one). Lots of other wonderful gifts....some clothes, books, etc.

Rick & Kristina hosted Christmas dinner. We headed to their house after Leah's nap (around 3:00?).
Dinner was Yum-o! All the normal things....stuffed ham, the wonderful casseroles, plus roast beef and strawberry spinach salad. (Jess is peaking around Dad here....proud to be doing dishes!)
We do gifts only for the generation of our nieces & nephews, so they all opened gifts after dinner. Speaking of that generation, we try to do a picture of them all each year, too. This is the "goofy face" picture. I'm hoping Dee or Kristina got a good "regular" one for me since Kyle closed his eyes in the one I took. :-)
Dad announced around 5:30 that he was leaving to go to another party. Busy man. He & Frankie were heading out with some friends. So, we had to hurry & have him open gifts so he could leave.

We didn't last long after that since we had to get Leah home & ready for bed. But, Leah had other ideas when we got home. That pink kitchen was calling her name and she was right back to it! Eventually she gave in.....