Our Christmas 2010

We're just now recovering from Christmas. We had a wonderful 2nd Christmas with the girls and had so much fun seeing them start to get into the holiday spirit. I say start because the most they understood of it was that there was a giant tree in the living room and whenever they requested Mom (or the radio) would sing Christmas songs. I don't think they would have cared about the tree either except that we put their new Elmo ornaments right in the front so he got a shout out a couple of times a day.

We spent Christmas Eve with Kevin's family watching the cousins open presents. I think it was a little ovewhelming for the girls to have so much going on all at the same time, but they sure did love playing with the toys (both theirs and cousin Lizzy's) once they were opened. The girls were more interested in throwing each tiny little piece of wrapping paper they pulled off into the trash bag rather than focusing on the present underneath. Warms my heart to see such little cleaners in the making. The biggest hit were their new ride on cars. They have so much fun riding those little cars around and playing with the blocks they came with. It was a wonderful evening with the whole family together. Once the girls were thoroughly worn out and nearly half way through their present-opening fest, we headed home. We had to beat Santa, who still had some work to do.

Cars!



New babies!



Olivia & Auntie Sarah modeling her new onesie. Thanks Uncle Pat!

Santa came (and put together the kitchen)!

Christmas morning was at our usual 7am. It's like a Sesame Street alarm goes off in their room and they know Elmo, Ernie and all their friends are on tv. After some last minute prep for pictures and video, the girls were released into the living room where they were mesmerized by the presents yule log on tv. After a good few minutes watching the "dance" on the yule log channel, Olivia finally got curious about the kitchen playset Santa left. Slowly the girls got into the act and started to play with their new toys and even help open a few of their boxes. I'll admit, Kevin and I did our fair share of gift opening on their behalf for the sake of getting through the clothes, at least. We had brunch over here with my parents and sister so they could see all the girls loot and enjoy their Christmas morning. After naps and lunch we finished up the rest of our presents at Nana's and headed to my parents for another round of presents and dinner. The girls were a little more enthusiastic about opening presents by the evening as they realized underneath all that paper were great presents. The girls were truly spoiled and they had such a fun time opening up all their new toys and of course, trying them all out right away.



Checking out the new kitchen

Thank you Santa!

Totally excited to play with the trash wrapping paper. Go figure.

Daddy's ingenius way of giving  both rides on otheir new cars at the same time. The accessories were the girls' own doing. Helmet courtesy of shape sorter and glasses on loan from Mr. Potato Head.

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa for our turtle bean bags!

Checking out their first laptop.



The girls are actually really good about affording each of their new (and old) toys equal time. They love their legos/blocks, bean bags, books, laptops, Teddy Ruxpin, coloring stuff, babies, kitchen and cars. That's probably not even 1/3 of what they got. But they love it all. Thank you to everyone who helped make this such a special Christmas surrounded by family and friends for both us and the girls. That is the most important gift- your love for us.