Howdy! It's been a while since we've posted any pictures on our blog. Raising our two little girls has been taking up more and more of our time. But we wanted to make sure we shared some photos from Christmas before the New Year begins.
Our holiday festivities kicked off on Friday 12/21 with Morgan's Pre-school Holiday concert. The kids opened with "Jingle Bells", recited some holiday poems, and closed the show with a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bell Rock". It's hard to believe this is Morgan's final holiday concert at her pre-school. By this time next year, she'll be rocking around a kindergarten Christmas tree.
With Christmas falling on a Tuesday this year, it meant we had to get through a 3-day weekend before we even got to the big day. Ariella, Andy and Aunt Lindsay had the tough task of finding activities for the girls to distract the girls from asking, "Is it Christmas yet?" -- but not wearing them out before Tuesday.
On Saturday, the girls relaxed with a marathon of Christmas specials (Rudolph, Frosty, Here Comes Santa Claus). On Sunday, the girls played outside and decorated the patio with Christmas chalk drawings in the morning, then toured Christmas lights on houses in South Jersey at night. On Christmas Eve (Monday) we enjoyed our annual tradition of decorating graham cracker houses (just like gingerbread, but a lot easier to assemble).
Ariella wanted to start a new tradition this year of lighting luminary candles in the driveway (so Santa knows where to land his sleigh). The girls helped Ariella and Lindsay load up bags with sand, and then lit the candles. Finally, after three days of waiting, it was time to set out some cookies and coffee for Santa (and 8 apples for the reindeer).
Morgan was the first one up on Christmas morning (just about 7am). She quickly scampered downstairs and saw that Santa and the reindeer had gobbled up the cookies and apples. Before long, Gwen joined Morgan in sizing-up the massive pile of presents under the Christmas tree.
Once all the grow-ups had grabbed their coffee, the girls dove into their stockings and presents around 7:30am. Princesses. Toy story dolls. Bubble shooters. Science experiments. Games. Puzzles. Dress-up clothes. Movies. A new bag for Ariella. And a new camera for Andy.
Despite the fact that the girls wanted to play with everything as soon as they opened it, we somehow managed to make it through the entire pile of presents in the morning (the first time that's happened in 5 Christmasses).
After such a busy Christmas morning, the girls needed some time to rest before the festivities kicked off again in the afternoon. By 2pm, the Saucier and Coleman gangs had arrived. The girls strapped on their party dresses and got ready for round two of presents.
Andy's Mom made a playhouse for the girls using a card table and whole bunch of quilting fabric. Morgan and Gwen were a little confused when they opened the present. But once it was put together, they quickly made themselves at home.
After opening a flurry of Legos, books, games and pajamas, it was time for dinner. Ariella and Lindsay cooked up a delicious beef tenderloin along with all the fixings for a Christmas feast.
As the kids get bigger every year, each Christmas seems to become a bigger and bigger event. This year gave us 25 days of advent calendar goodies, elves on our shelves, Christmas lights, visits from grandparents, three trips to New York City, holiday concerts, and so on. So it was no surprise that when it was all over on December 26, all of us were exhausted and ready for a long winter's nap.
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