Christmas 2016

On Christmas Eve, we had a fun filled day of Santa prep. This was the first year that Addie truly understood Christmas, so the anticipation that Santa was coming made for a very excited little girl.  Bella follows her sister's lead, so she was also very excited even though her one year old mind had no idea what was about to happen.  Addie helped me bake Santa a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies and Bella helped us decorate.  After nap time we took the girls to mass and picked up our traditional Chinese food for dinner on the way home.  The girls opened up their gift of new pajamas, a new Christmas movie, and cupcakes for Baby Jesus' birthday.  We prepped for Santa by writing our notes and drawing our pictures to lay out with our tray of cookies and apples.  We read some Christmas books and checked the Santa tracker one more time before the girls went to bed and Santa's workshop was in full swing.

On Christmas morning, the look on Addie and Bella's eyes as the entered the family room was absolutely priceless! Smiles and laughter filled the room as the realized what Santa and his elves had brought them. They couldn't decide what to do first as they alternated tearing through presents and playing with their new things.  The big gift this year was a kitchen set and it was a hit!  We spent most of the day eating meals Addie cooked for us, coffee and soup became her specialty.  Bella loved her Mickey Mouse dancing hot dog doll and it even enticed her enough to take her first steps later on in the day, a Christmas memory that I will never forget.  Other highlights were the Little People princess castle, a remote control pink Jeep, playdoh, and lots of treats aka M&M's.  Eric made Rudolph pancakes for breakfast and we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon playing with all of our new toys.  At night, we had a not-so-quiet dinner for 4 followed by an evening of Steeler football after the girls went to bed.  

Christmas 2016 is going to be a tough one to beat.  It was our last one as a family of FOUR, but a great one full of lots of great memories.  I can't wait to see what next year brings us as our little man enters the world and we celebrate all things Christmas as a family of FIVE!