Christmas Day

We are fortunate to live close to Hector's family so we get to spend Christmas afternoon celebrating with them.  All three girls were excited to go to Grandma's house.  We had gifts for everyone that we were bringing and Sienna was really excited about the gift we had for Eli.  She talked about it for weeks and I think Sienna was just as excited for Eli to open the gift she helped pick out for him as she was about all the gifts she got to open.  Sienna told me every day leading up to Christmas, "I not tell E-I (Eli) what it is.  I onny (only) say open it E-I."  When it was time to open presents Sienna kept bringing the gift to Eli and someone kept putting it away.  She was working so hard to get it to him.  I think everyone thought she was trying to take his gift, but she was just so excited for him to open it.  I loved how much she got into the giving spirit.  

We had more stockings and gifts at Grandma's house.  The girl's were so excited.  Estelle slept through most of it, but she joined us at the end.  Both Natalia and Sienna were really excited to get new craft stuff.  Natalia has been wearing one of her new Christmas outfits from grandma every day since Christmas.  She loves it and looks very stylish.  She was also really excited to get the Frozen story book and an Anna doll from Grandma Marge and Uncle Philip and Tim. She read the whole book before she finished opening the gift that had the doll to go with it.  

Sienna was really excited about new dress up clothes.  She loves dress ups.  Both girls have been wearing the ballerina dresses around the house.  They love them soooo much.  Sienna was also really excited about a new baby doll she got.  She has been taking it everywhere with her.  

Sienna with one of her new dress ups

Natalia and Grandma with her new slippers.  She really wanted these and was very happy to have them. 

Natalia reading her Frozen book

Estelle helping Grandpa open his gift

 We loved all the gifts we got.  It was really fun watching everyone open the presents.  I made calendars for everyone again and I enjoy giving them at Christmas. It was so nice having Grandma Marge and Philip and Tim spend the day with us.  We ate way to much food...again, but enjoyed it all.  We stayed the night and spent lots of time watching the kids play with each other.  All three girls just love Eli.  He is talked about in our house all the time.  Eli is so sweet with Estelle even when she is pulling on his ears.  Christmas was wonderful this year.  The girls were so happy about everything.  They have told me several times since, "That was such a fun day."

Estelle pulling Eli's ear

Eli and Estelle having fun

Estelle up on her knees.  She is so close to crawling

Sienna, Eli, and Estelle

Hector and the girls stayed another night at Grandma's and I came home on the 26th to because my good friend Kathleen and her husband we in town.  They stayed at our house for a couple of days because her sister was getting married in DC.  It was so fun having them here.  I love catching up with old friends and Kathleen and I have known each other for all of our lives.  I went to the wedding as well and it was fun hanging out with her whole family.  

The whole week was fun.  Hector did not have to work all week long and we really enjoyed all the fun we had.  It felt non stop all week, but that was okay because it was non stop fun.  By time Saturday afternoon rolled around I was was beat, so I read a book and relaxed, it was great!

Christmas Morning

Now that I have children I think I am more excited for Christmas morning than I was when I was a kid myself.  I would rather give a gift than receive one and there are not many things I love more than watching my kids open up presents.  I woke up around 5:00; there was a part of me that wanted to wake the girls up because I was excited to see them, but the rational me took over and I stayed in bed.  No wants a grumpy Sienna on Christmas and that is what we would have had.  

Around 6:30 we start to hear little noises come from the girls' room.  I want to know what they are saying to each other so I sneak to the door of their room so I can hear better but as soon as I get there I hear them coming to the door so I jump into the bathroom.  They walk right past me without noticing I am there.  I hear them say, "I think it is morning, let's ask mom."  They peak into the bedroom and Natalia panics, "It isn't morning yet, hurry Sienna run back to our room!"  They prance back to their room and pass me on the way with no knowledge that I am there laughing at them.  I start to make a little noise after they shut their door and before long they have ventured back out of the room.  Sienna grabs my hand and is dragging me back into her room saying, "mom, I show you somebing, I show you somebing."  She pulls me to her window, lifts the curtain and exclaims as the light shines through the glass, "see, it morning time, it morning time."  I assured them that is was indeed morning which was met by jumping and high pitched giggles.   

Natalia and Sienna waiting to come down the stairs

Sienna showing off her candy canes

Estelle excited just to hold her gifts.  She mostly just wanted to eat the paper.

The girls rushed to their stocking.  Santa wraps almost everything at our house.  He knows that mom and dad love watching the girls open everything!  Both Natalia and Sienna were so excited to see candy canes sticking out the stocking and new headbands.  Everything else was wrapped and they could not contain themselves.  When Natalia opened up her chap stick, she smiled from ear to ear and said, "Oh, I really wanted this. Santa got me what I really wanted."  Sienna then got a sad face and said I want chap stick too.  Natalia had opened three chap sticks and without hesitation said, here you can have one of mine.  Sienna later found chap stick her stocking and then gave one of hers to Natalia.  I love these girls.  They also found some candy in their stocking and without me even suggesting it Natalia goes into the kitchen and gets a bowl to put the candy in and both her and Sienna put all their candy into the communal bowl.  I guess they just know I will not let them eat candy without permission.  Sienna was really excited about the candy so we let her snitch a few pieces.  They got so excited about everything they opened in the stocking.  One of the big highlights for them was the flashlights.  They love flashlights and were ecstatic to each have one of their own.  They have been lighting the way for everything and the lights are always off in the house now so they can use the flashlights.  

Sienna eating Christmas candy...the biggest piece she could fit in.

  After some fun with the stocking we took a little break for breakfast.  Rice Pudding has become our tradition for Christmas morning breakfast.  We all enjoyed it, even Estelle got to have a little.  We then went back to gift opening.  We like to take our time and let everyone watch each other open gifts.  If there is something the girls are really excited about we let them take it out of the box and play for a bit before we move on.  The girls were so excited about everything.  They both got new play dough stuff.  They wanted to play with it right away, but we did make them wait until we were done.  They were so happy for new art stuff, especially the glitter glue, we did let them test that out and then there were the shoes!  The girls have really been into dress ups so when my mom and I were in Costco the other day and we saw dress up shoes I knew it would be perfect for Sienna.  She loves dress up shoes so much and she did not have any.  My mom got them for her for Christmas and I could not wait for Sienna to open the gift. I was not disappointed.  Both girls had on their new Christmas jammies which happen to be footie one piece jammies; not ideal for putting on dress up shoes.  Before we can get all the shoes out of the box, both girls have stripped out of their jammies leaving them in nothing but undies and the dress up shoes.  They strutted around in those shoes and undies and had a grand old time.  Hector and I just laughed.  What could we do?  You cannot put the shoes over the jammies and who wants to take time to change into real clothes first.  We did make them put their clothes back on before we let them open more presents though.  Sienna call them slippers, not shoes, but she cannot say her S's or her L's very well she says, " I have wippers, I want to play with my wippers, mom I love my wippers"

Natalia helping Estelle open her gifts

Sienna and her wippers

Natalia having fun with the dress up shoes

The girls were so happy about everything!  It took about two and a half hours to go through everything at our pace and it was all so much fun.  Hector and I had fun getting each other gifts too.  I am now a proud owner of a vacuum that actually picks up dirt!  I am also really excited about a new camera I got.  Hector is really happy with this cool speaker I got him.  I got him some other fun tech stuff too.  

Natalia reading her Lego Book of Mormon book

and here she is still reading her new book

Sienna playing with the little ponies they both got

Once we finished both girls really wanted to eat a candy cane so we let them indulge and then they played with play dough for the rest of the morning while we got ready for grandma's house.  

Those girls had big smiles all morning long.  Natalia kept saying how fun it was.  I love how they show me everything they open.  I loved how excited they are about the most simple things.  I love the ooos and aahs they make when they open some thing and the excited tones they use when they open a gift.  I love how eager they are to share what they have just received with everyone else. I love that are excited about chap stick and flashlights and new socks and shoes.  The morning was so fun.  Just as our morning excitement was settling down we packed up the van and headed to grandma's house for more fun!

Showing off new shoes and Natalia's new shirt.  They wanted to wear the new stuff to grandma's house.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was so much fun.   We did not have anyone join us this year, but we had a blast with the family.  We told the girls we were having a Christmas Eve party after nap time and they could not wait.  We played lots of fun Christmas games which included bean bag toss and build a snowman.  These were big hits.  We took some game playing breaks to help cook food and eat.  We played a version of my Dad's guessing game while we cooked.  The girls and Hector had so much fun with this.  I wrapped about 10 gifts and they asked yes or no questions until they figured them out and got to open the gift.  Then they picked a new present.  Hector picked all the hard ones and he was really stumped for awhile.  Sienna was so funny, she would ask unreal questions (is it a chair?  is it a bird?) and Natalia was surprisingly good at the game this year.  One of Sienna's gifts that she guessed was a small travel pack of tissues.  She was ecstatic when she opened it, "Mom look, Mom I got my OWN tissues!"  I think she even hugged them at one point.  She asked if she could use them and she spent the next ten minutes blowing her nose.  She was so happy.  I think if that was all she got for Christmas should have thought is was a success.  

Sienna doing bean bag toss

build a snowman

Natalia taking her turn on build a snowman

Our yummy feast.  I cooked way to much food

 After we ate we played more games.  Pin the carrot on the snowman was a huge hit.  We had a freeze dance off to Christmas music and a pass the present game that the girls really enjoyed because they got to unwrap a layer of paper when the music stopped.  They thought it was loads of fun.  Each layer had something funny they had to do.  Our last game was build a Nativity.  It was a fun game and made a perfect opportunity to talk a little more about the birth of Jesus before all the Santa excitement took over.  We read the Christmas story from the scriptures and then got ready for Santa to come.

Sienna playing pin the carrot on the snowman

Sienna and Natalia in front of the snowmen.  Natalia saw my snowman on the wall for the game so she made one to go next to it all by herself.  I love the hat she made her snowman.  

Build a Nativity.  We started with an empty stable and then rolled the dice to add the characters.

The Girls with the completed Nativity.  They loved this game.

 We let the girls eat some pie and they even set out a piece for Santa.  Sienna was adamant that we get him a glass of water and a fork too.  She was very concerned about him not having a fork.  They set out their stockings and headed to bed.  They were very excited and I was a little worried about them staying in their beds, but we reminded them that Santa only comes when everyone in the house is sleeping so they better stay in their beds until morning time or Santa may not come.  With that fear they had not problem complying...they were down by 7:15!

The girls eating chocolate custard pie

Sienna and Natalia with the pie and letter they left for Santa

We had so much fun watching our girls be excited!  Their eyes were lit up all day.  They asked countless cute questions and Natalia kept telling Sienna everything that she could remember about Christmas.  They were so happy and giggly all day long.

Christmas Fun Continues

We have had so much fun getting ready for Christmas.  The girls have been so excited about everything that we have done.  We decorated cookies and delivered them to all of our neighbors.  The girls were really excited for this.  We made cards to go with the cookies this year and Natalia and Sienna took turns passing out cookies and cards at each door.  It was a really cold night when we delivered, but it did not stop us. It did give us a good excuse to make hot cocoa when we were done though.  I love that this is one of the girls' favorite things to do.  They love doing something nice for our neighbors.   

 

We have also done lots of Christmas crafts.  Natalia is able to do most things by herself now and I love watching her contemplate who would like the things that she makes.  The girls wrapped the crafts as gifts for the family.  Both girls really put a lot of thought into who would like each one.  "Grandpa would like this elf, because he is a boy" Natalia convinced me.  

Even though Sienna has the same outfit on in every picture all these activities took place on different days.  She is rather obsessed with this Cinderella dress and she wears it most days.  She says, "I am Tinkerbell" over and over whenever she has it on.  

Hector and I hosted our annual Christmas party.  We only took one picture, but the party was tons of fun.  Good food and a rather humorous white elephant exchange.  

We went to the Bethlehem walk one night, did not get any pictures, but we all enjoyed it.  Sienna loved seeing baby Jesus.  

We also went to the temple one night.  It was really warm and the perfect night to go.  The girls loved the little movies we watched inside and they enjoyed the lights outside.  They also enjoyed the frozen yogurt we ate for dinner on the way home.  

We have also done a slumber party by the tree.  To say the girls enjoyed this is an understatement.  They would have jumped on the air mattresses all night.  They were really goofy.  We let them watch a movie and stay up way to late.  Hector and I did not enjoy the slumber party as much as them.  Next year we may let them do it on their own.  Our couch is miserable to sleep on, but I am glad the girls had so much fun.    

Our other activity was letting the girls pick out an ornament from the Christmas store.  This is a new tradition we started this year.  We went to a cute Christmas shop and let them look as long as they wanted at the ornaments and then they each picked one for the tree.  We will write their names and year on it and it will be fun to see their collection grow.  Sienna picked a flying saucer.  She called it an airplane and there was no changing her mind.  Natalia picked a reindeer and Sienna got a moon.  

Last night we let everyone open a gift.  Not a tradition I am really into, but I really needed more pie plates and I knew one of my gifts contained this very thing I needed so we let everyone open one so it did not seem like I was cheating.  We made a fun game out of it and the girls thought their new silly straws were awesome.