Christmas 2008

I have finally managed to upload more photos from that last few months. It's always drama and involves far too long. I don't really know why it takes so long (okay, that's a lie...it just might be 1500 photos on the memory card...I know, I know, I KNOW...I just can't bear to hit "delete" so they are all still there on the memory card, and on my laptop, and on my external drive, and on the desktop, and on DVDs...paranoid much?).

It has been so much fun to see Christmas through the girls' eyes. They don't get it all, but what they do get is absolutely priceless. We didn't do pics with Santa, maybe next year. Let's just say when Santa was at our mall, he didn't look well, like maybe he lost about 100 lbs. And his fluffy beard of white had turned a mysterious stringy grey. We thought the girls might be a bit much for Santa, so we simply waved from afar.

On Christmas Eve, we left sugar cookies the girls' made with Grandma on Santa's special red plate and a glass of cold milk in his special mug. We also left a napkin for him to wipe, wipe with. And just before bed, the girls, Grandma, and I went outside to sprinkle reindeer food on our grass for Santa's reindeer. Of course, we made sure to keep the Christmas lights on so Santa would find his way to our home.

In the morning, the girls came stumbling out with p's and animals in tow and Robert and I showed them the unwrapped gifts Santa had left by the tree...a basketball hoop and ball, an Elmo LIVE!, cars, and Little Einsteins figurines. The girls faces were just priceless and we were doing all we could to really encourage their wonder and excitement. Grandma and Grandpa came over a little later and showed them their stockings full of other gifts from Santa.

The afternoon was spent eating a wonderful early dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Matt and Auntie Annie. Afterwards, we opened presents and the girls did really well. They lost a little steam half way through because they wanted so badly to play with each present and here we were, giving them another to open. Can I say, "toy overload?"

Once we were finished, we packed the girls up and headed to Auntie Mary and Uncle Darrel's house for desserts and more presents with the whole Lewis clan. The girls had a blast with cousin Jessica's Guitar Hero game...yes, they took turns sitting on her lap playing the drums while the other sang vocals. I wish I had pics of this...Robert's sisters do and I need to make sure to get them.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Next year will be even more amazing as they really begin to understand the true meaning of Christmas.