‘Twas the morning of Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except two pajama’d girls, two rested parents, two cats, a bird and a fish. Christmas morning, Loran and I got up at the crack of dawn so we could be dressed and ready for stockings and getting the girls ready and to Grandma’s house in the morning. In other indications that our children are still just getting into the Christmas spirit at their young age, we had to wake them up that morning to see what Santa had brought.
A Veggie Tales manger! It sings “Away in a Manger” - did I mention, it SINGS. IT SINGS!!! (but they love it)
A little relaxation after the chaos of stockings. Shockingly, the devastation around the room at once fit into four small stockings.
Once the dust had settled from stockings, we got the girls dressed in their cute Christmas dresses and went to my grandma and grandpa’s house to celebrate with the family. Everyone was assembled from near and far that morning for food, conversation, gifts, some more food, fun and laughter. Aunt Dottie started a game with the girls called “Super Girl” where she flew them around. Shockingly, Super Girl was a hit! Super Girls were flown through the house by Dot, Chelsey, Grandpa, and anyone else with arms and strength. Lillian regaled us with music on the organ. Such a strange instrument.
And of course, Lillian wants that gift out of the box, because that box is too tempting not to play in!
Uncle Mike had a flight to catch and the family disbanded for the day. We were then off to my other set of grandparent’s house - over the river and through the woods. The girls napped a bit in the car and despite our efforts, we couldn’t get Lillian to nap in her pack and play at Grandma’s. That meant the toddler bomb was ticking.
I only got one photo the entire night, but it was a keeper with Ella showing photos to her Great Grandpa Dean.
We’d missed dinner with the family but they’d saved games and dessert for us. I opted out of the dice game and played with Lillian in another room. I figured she’d probably eat the dice and rampage the gifts. Ella played with my mom and cleaned up. She was pretty proud of her haul. We spent time coloring and reading books and the girls made good friends with whomever won the giant container of cheese balls. Lillian especially was two-fisting the cheesy goodness. We only stayed a couple of hours because we knew the girls had had a busy day and were exhausted. I was a little bummed to have only been able to chat with my cousin for a little bit. She’s the only cousin I have who is my age – almost exactly. We’re only five days apart! She has three boys and is the only family member I can commiserate with about diapers, night waking, BPA in bottles, pedophiles, technology, Elmo, pacifiers, loud toys, preschool and everything else the modern mother has been forced to worry about through the overzealous media. (Free Range, baby!) But, she of anyone, can understand the no-nap, making an exit while things are still pretty scenario we found ourselves in.
The girls fell asleep easily and Loran and I settled in to watch A Christmas Story. We didn’t even make it through. It was definitely a “Merry Christmas to all, and to all…a good night.” Zzzz…
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