Now that it's a month after Christmas, I'm struggling to remember everything! Chuck and Nancy came to visit for the holidays and had arrived a few days before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, I was trying to get all the gifts wrapped early because the evening was going to be so busy.
We went to Aunt Marilyn's mid-afternoon for her open house and for the kids to see Santa!
I love getting to see him there each year. When he sat down, Lacey walked right up to him and sat down. All business and ready to roll! Leah was pretty shy with him, though.
It was nice getting to visit with Aunt M and Gil, plus Shelly, Tammy, Rick and everyone.
We left there and headed to church. While we weren't very good about making it to church during 2010, I made a real effort at going during the weeks leading up to Christmas! I didn't want to be a ChrEaster (who shows up only on those 2 holidays). It was the Family/Children's service and I usually really enjoy that. But, the girls seemed to be more wound up than usual and since we got there a bit late, we were spread out some. I was sitting with the girls. Butch, Chuck & Nancy were in other pews. So, trying to keep them behaving and settled was all on me and a bit stressful...even in the Children's service!
It was awesome to walk into the house after all that and smell an amazing dinner cooking in the crock pot! I had prepared a pot roast with potatoes and carrots. Yum-o!
Christmas Eve is also Butch's birthday. This picture is courtesy of an almost 6 year old photographer, Lacey. I love it!
A tradition that we had growing up was opening 1 gift on Christmas Eve....and it was always new pajamas! We do the same for the girls now. They're young enough that they haven't figured out that it's always pajamas! They get to open a 2nd gift on Christmas Eve, too and that (so far) has always been a new ornament.
This was really the first year that Lacey could handle writing the whole note to Santa. It was great to see her deciding what to write and writing it all herself.
Once they were in bed....well, still lots to get done!
Christmas Day
The girls woke up a little before 7:00, but we had warned them ahead of time we wouldn't wake up Grandma & Poppy any earlier than 7:00. So, they played upstairs for a bit while we all got ourselves together.
Santa's gifts that were under the tree weren't wrapped, and the girls saw their new Barbie dolls right away...along with some puzzles and things. Lacey actually said "This is the BEST Christmas EVER!" before she had even opened one wrapped present! Once everything was opened, they realized that Santa had left something else....wrapped....over by the TV.
I think the picture shows it all! They were so excited about their new Barbie house! They played with it all morning.
We hosted Christmas dinner at our house so the girls would be able to keep enjoying their things. In our family, hosting dinner doesn't mean taking on the responsibility of the whole dinner (thankfully). We prepared a turkey breast in the crock pot (turned out delish, if I do say so myself), gourmet sweet potato casserole, mandarin orange salad (thank you, Nancy), stuffing, gravy & rolls. Others brought mashed potatoes (Dee/Buck), green bean casserole (Rick/Kristina) and southern MD stuffed ham (Dad). Fabulous feast.
I love our holiday feasts.
After dinner, we opened gifts; and then posed for several pictures. We always try to remember a cousins picture. There is usually a serious one, and a silly (crazy, weird, scary) face one.
Dee & I often remember to get a sister's picture, but I don't think we have many of us with Rick.
The girls were exhausted by the end of the day. Who am I kidding? We all were!
