Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

This post is long overdue. I promised Grandparents pictures of the girls on Christmas Morning so here you go (sorry to the rest of you but we live far away from family so these pict. are for them)

Christmas Eve:

We started off our Christmas Eve by spending the morning playing in the snow (see previous post). That afternoon we had fun making sugar cookies and decorating them. We also made some yummy BBQ Pork for our Christmas Eve Party that night with friends. We partied kind of early so everyone could then head home and get ready for the next day and it worked out perfectly for us. The McKay's hosted again this year and a bunch of us all brought food and we ate, the kids acted out the navitivy, we sang some songs, and then it was over. A bunch of us stayed in Iowa this year for the Holidays so it was a lot of fun to have so many friends together to celebrate with. And of course all the kids love it because they just get to play!

Anna, Lauren, Megan, and Harrison - all ready to act out the Nativity

This is where Lydia spent the entire evening - sleeping in her car seat under the Christmas Tree

We got a picture of all the girls at the party! Back - Rivka, Holly, Regan, Kristie, Katie, Tricia, Alisha. Front - Jessica, Emily, Amy.

This is Lauren in her new Christmas P.J's. She was so excited she wouldn't stand still for a picture.

She was so excited to leave a note and cookies for Santa! She picked out her 3 favorite cookes to leave for him.

Christmas Morning:

Lauren was so excited for Christmas it took her an extra long time to fall asleep that night - over an hour! In my family growing up we always got up so early to go and open presents so I was the first one up in our family, but it wasn't that early. At 7:15 I woke up and decided we had slept in enough so it was time to get going. We went in and got Lauren up and she was sooooo excited to go out and see the presents. She loved seeing that Santa had eaten some of the cookies and he even left a note behind thanking her for the snack and answering some questions she had asked him (she wanted to know if he likes ice in his milk - the great debate at our house). She loved everything she got and was spoiled by grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts and us. Dave and I got pretty spoiled too so thank you to everyone for all the fun stuff! Lauren is such a good big sister and helped Lydia open all her gifts and sat and played with her. Liddy woke up about 45 min. into gift opening so then she got to come out and join in the fun. We made yummy cinnamon rolls the night before for Christmas breakfast and Dave made us a breakfast casserole when we woke up that morning. So we had a fun morning of eating, playing games, putting toys together, and just being together.

Christmas night we went over to the Mergenthaler's and had a yummy turkey dinner with their family and stayed to play games until way past bedtime. It was a fun way to end Christmas.

Lauren and her new Leapster on Christmas morning. She loves her Leapster and plays it all the time! (Thanks G & G Folsom for the great gift)

Lauren and Lydia got these stuffed horses from my brother's family and they love them. They were just smiling and laughing playing with them.

One of the toys Lauren specifically asked Santa for this year was the Scooby Doo Game. When she opened this gift she just got so excited that she kissed the box!

Then she sat and just hugged it for a long time. We are so glad Santa brought this game - it made her Christmas!

The other toy Lauren really wanted this year was a Diamond Castle Barbie that sings. (Thank you G & G Hobbs - she loves it)!

Liddy got a new play set for Christmas! She loves it and will lay in it for long periods of time just looking at all the different things and Lauren loves to play in it with her.

We had a fun Christmas even though we were far away from family. It was kind of sad putting away all our Christmas decorations this week because this was our last Christmas in Iowa and in our little home. We don't know where we will be next year but I am dreaming of a warmer Christmas!