Our Christmas

Christmas Eve was our last family Christmas celebration. We went over to Cory's mom's house in the afternoon for presents and dinner. Amy and Grandmother Henderson were the only ones there. All the other "kids" were working or having their own celebrations. It was a much smaller group than we usually have over there. We all had a nice, relaxing, fun time. Once we finished over there, we headed home. Kacy was pretty tired, so we put her right to bed. Adilyn and I stayed up to get things ready for Santa. We decorated cookies, put out the milk for Santa, cheese for Santa Mouse, Coke for reindeer, and the letter. I am not sure how the Coke tradition started, but that is what we always used to leave out. The cheese for Santa Mouse came from a book about a little mouse that travels with Santa each Christmas Eve. He gets hungry, and nobody ever remembered him. All he ever wanted was cheese, so we would leave him cheese. Adilyn was pretty tired, but she didn't want to go to bed. We upstairs to read, and I had all these Christmas books to read her. She threw a fit, and she didn't want to read any Christmas books! She wanted to read a stupid baby book about letters and colors. I was really irritated, but I tried to convince her to at least read one Christmas book. After the book fiasco, I laid down with her in bed. It was a real windy night, and there were a lot of noises outside. Every time we heard one, we would pretend it was Santa. We talked for a while in her room, and then I finally left. I could tell she was really excited. I think I was just as excited as she was!
Once Santa got to our house, he was really busy! There were full stockings, a huge dollhouse, and a fun hunt with clues leading to another present.

Cookie time!

Santa's handywork



I didn't know if Adilyn's excitement would wake her up earlier than normal, but when I got up and the clock read 8:45, it was a nice surprise! Kacy actually woke up first, and we got Adilyn up. She was really surprised to see the huge dollhouse down there, but of course, she also saw the presents. She got to work on those pretty quick! Kacy had been a great present opener this year, but she was not that into it at our house. Maybe it was because it was early, or maybe she was just over the whole present thing. After a couple presents, we realized that this was looking like it was going to take a pretty long time. We decided to take a break and eat breakfast. After we ate our yummy eggs and sausage cooked by Cory, we got back to the presents. The food seemed to give Kacy some renewed energy, and she got right to opening. They got games, toys, dolls, and tons of other things they didn't need! The presents were all open around 1pm. We started about 9am...there were many breaks even after our breakfast to play with opened toys, to drink milk, to play with the dollhouse, but finally all gifts were unwrapped!

It was so much fun to watch them open presents to see which ones they were excited about, which ones they could care less about, and which ones they wanted to play with right away. Some of the things that I really thought they would like, they didn't. And some that were just little after thoughts, they loved. One of Adilyn's favorite things was a princess watch so she "could tell everyone what time it was" (her words). All day long when I asked her what time it was, she would look at the watch and say, "6 o'clock". I don't know why it was always 6, but it was. :)

This was the first Christmas Day that we had no where to go. It was really nice not to have to rush from place to place. I loved staying in our jammies, playing with whatever we wanted to play with, and just relaxing. Of course, Cory enjoyed watching football throughout the day. Lani and Amy came over in the afternoon to see the dollhouse and the other toys, they were very impressed, too!

Later that day, Cory fried up a turkey for our dinner. It was a very cold and windy day, but Kacy and Adilyn wanted to go outside with him anyways. We got them all bundled up, and they went outside. Of course, it didn't last very long, but they looked cute on their way out. :) We had a great dinner, and I think it was the first time that everything came out great and at the same time.

It was a great Christmas, and I look forward to many more to come. Every year gets more fun as the girls get older. I love seeing them sharing, having fun, and just loving each other. I love everyday I have with my family, but there's something about Christmas that just makes everything a little bit sweeter. Could it be all the sugar cookies? :)