The magic of Christmas

After weeks of waiting Christmas finally arrived for Alyssa and Lauren, and I think it was all they anticipated and more.

We arrived at Nana and Papa's house on Friday, December 23, and the fun began!

On Christmas Eve the girls finally got to see Drew again. Alyssa had been talking about holding him for weeks now, so she was quite excited when he finally arrived.

Lauren, although she loved Drew, was much more into Scooter. She loved chasing him around and would even call "Doo" and try to catch his tail.

Before bed that night, Alyssa got a plate of cookies ready for Santa.


We tried to take a picture of both girls in their pajamas with the cookies in front of the tree. Look closely at the series of pictures and you'll be able to tell that Santa got one less cookie than he should have!




Both girls then headed back to bed where they had the first of their presents waiting, new books about Christmas. Lauren loves her new book about what she could have done had she been in Bethlehem the night Jesus was born, and Alyssa enjoys her book about "What is Christmas?" but she makes up her own story, she still has yet to let us read it to her. They both went to bed well with all the excitement of knowing that Santa would be there over night.

Alyssa woke up really early and came into bed with Aaron & I and fell back to sleep. Lauren woke up quite early as well, screaming around 5:15 or 5:30. So that's when we all started to get up. Alyssa waited patiently for everyone to get up and then we headed out to the living room to see if Santa had come around 6:30. I don't think that they knew quite what to think of all those presents under the tree; it can be a bit overwhelming.



After the initial shock wore off though, they dove right in to their presents. Alyssa loved opening all of her presents and she was so excited to receive everything. It was kind of fun because as she'd open things, I'd try to tell her who things were from and as she opened, without really looking up and in her quiet voice, she'd say "Thank you so-and-so." She absolutely loved it. She got her overalls, Barbie, socks, puzzles, and many, many toys. She also got 2 aprons to help me while baking (so did Lauren!), a cash register, lots of play-doh toys and more.



Lauren, on the other hand, took three days to open all of her gifts. She was much more into climbing on the boxes, chasing Scooter, and pushing the buttons on the cash register. But she too got a ton of gifts - the Weebles treehouse, a CD player, a shopping cart, a new baby, a keyboard, and some coloring things as well.


Overall I think she found the process to be quite exhausting.

We all then got dressed and headed to church. It was a great service, complete with lots of singing, a great message, and a baptism. Alyssa went up front for the time with the children and passed out candy canes to members of the congregation and during the prayer concerns/announcements, when the pastor asked if there were any birthdays, Alyssa raised her hand and told him that it was Jesus'. I learned though that we need to talk more with them about heaven because during one of the songs when we sang heaven, Alyssa asked "Who is Kevin?" (which is our neighbor who also goes to that church)

After a quick change of clothes, we headed down to Great Grandmas. What a fun day. We were a little surprised by how quickly Alyssa warmed up to all of her family. Much to my surprise, she even said grace, and I think it was even loud enough for some people to hear! It made me laugh because during lunch Alyssa asked my two cousin's kids (ages 12 and 8) what they got for Christmas. Lauren was a little slower to warm up to everyone, but if they had food (i.e. sweets), she'd be their best friend. It was so great to see everyone and catch up with family.

Neither girl had a nap that day, and Lauren was EXHAUSTED by the time we left Great Grandmas. She didn't even make it to the post office (which is like .1 miles away) before she fell asleep.

Over the next few days, we enjoyed spending time with family and friends...

Alyssa & Mitchell saying good-bye

Alyssa, Mitchell & Lauren making silly faces

Alyssa, Lauren & Mitchell taking a break

Alyssa, Michael & Lauren riding the Story bus at the mall

Alyssa & Michael playing ring-a-round-the-rosie at the mall

We also also enjoyed playing with our new toys. A family favorite to play is marching band.



Alyssa hasn't stopped talking about her different friends and family in Pennsylvania. And Lauren is still quite taken with "Ho ho ho" and "nose" (this is what she calls Rudolph). It will be sad when we take all the decorations down over the next few days and all that excitement kind of fades away. It was so much fun and so worth the drive (Praise the Lord for no car sickness and safe travels!). We hope that you too had a magical Christmas with family and friends.