The Best Christmas Ever!

With the exception of being so tired because Mabel the Christmas Elf kept me up way too late every night and woke me up way too early each morning,

Christmas 2009 was truly the best Christmas ever.

One reason for the Best Christmas Ever was that Lainey is at an age where all the magic of Christmas is in full swing. It's been a long time since I could hear the magical Polar Express bell (side note, I hate that book . . . sorry to all you fans out there, but it is weird! And if Tom Hanks does another movie where he is the only character or plays the majority of characters, I just don't know what I'll do!) Lainey's wonderment at and belief in Santa and Mabel made Christmas so much fun. Seeing her eyes light up at the magicalness of it all solidified Christmas as my favorite holiday (but it didn't make me want to read or see Polar Express again . . . really, it is so strange--try to change my mind, I dare you!)

We started the season with the mandatory Christmas countdown chain

We might have made it a little too soon in the month because it was REALLY long!

Early in the season we also decorated our REAL Christmas tree.
Daddy insists that in this world of artificial, we get a real tree every year. Mommy has tried to change his mind, but to no avail. By the end of the Christmas season that tree is so dead . . . and that can be scary (especially when you smell a weird smell late one night and can't find its source so you are sniffing that tree wondering if it's going to go up in flames any second but then you realize it's actually the smell of a dying ceiling fan and you are relieved, but also a bit shaken up at the same time) . . . but we sure do get a lot of compliments on the smell of our house during Christmas (except when the ceiling fan motor is dying). There's nothing like the smell of a real Christmas tree!

One of our Christmas activities was taking pics with Santa.
Daddy bought the girls matching dresses for the occasion.
Adria, as you can see, was not happy about Santa and Lainey refused to get too close.
But we did get some good pics too.
After visiting Santa, the girls rode a train around the courtyard
And when night fell, we enjoyed a So Cal snowfall.

During the holiday season we spent an evening at Disneyland and stayed for the fireworks.

On another evening a friend of ours, Maryann, came for dinner and brought the girls early Christmas presents. (Thanks Maryann!)
Lainey received play food that is
1. happily a HUGE hit in our house
2. sadly has been licked and bitten by many, many children!



Maryann knows of Adgey's devotion to shoes and therefore bought her a pair of boots.

She insists on wearing these boots anytime she can get her hands on them.
I admit that there are non-boot days where I have to hide them just so she will wear other shoes!

On Christmas Eve we took the girls to Disney on Ice.
We forgot our camera, but here is Daddy sporting the souvenir Tinkerbell Fairy Hat that we brought home.

We then spent the evening with family where . . .

Adgey and Ally danced "on stage"

Ally treated us to a verse of Silent Night

Lainey sang her almost correct, but ever so sweet, version of "Away in a Manger"

All the Grand-daughters, with the help of Emi, sang "Christmas Bells"
(Adgey provided the choreography for this one . . . I see ballerina in her future!)

And then we all sang a jolly version of "Jingle Bells"
(take note of Scotty's beautiful harmony in there . . . I see backup vocalist in his future!)



Christmas day was a GREAT day. Best Christmas Day I have ever had and let me tell you why. Growing up my parents tried to slow us down with gimmicks like "only one person opens their gift at a time and then we all look at it and then its the next person's turn." That didn't work so well. There were always secret openings going on! (You know what I'm talking about--that pinky finger that's secretly tearing a corner of a gift open.)

And then there were siblings who did wait to open their gifts because they secretly snuck (or is it sneaked?) out of the room with YOUR brand new Legends of Zelda game.

And once you did get your gifts opened, HOLD ON! 'Cause here comes mom with the black trash bag and you've probably had half your gifts thrown out before the morning's over. Not to mention the tree is out of the house, the couch moved back into its place and the decorations put away before 10am. (But I don't fault my mama for that . . . I think she has something there. You had better believe that my Christmas tree is upside down in the trashcan first chance I get! And I even came up with a GREAT tradition that I wanted to start this year--to always leave at least one Christmas ornament on the tree when I throw it out. That way there's less and less decor to put away each year. Except Butch denied me. He didn't even laugh at my silliness, just thumbs-downed me!

Okay, so back to why it was so great. I decided that instead of going 90 mph, we'd take it slow. When Lainey opened a gift she would want to take it out and play with it and I decided to embrace that. So she'd open a gift and then play, play, play.

the art easel was (and still is) a huge hit with both girls


Gift opening got significantly slower after Lainey opened her Handy Manny tool set.
From there on out she insisted on using Dusty (the saw) to open every gift. You wouldn't believe how long it takes a 4 year old to use a 1" thick, not-sharp-at-all, plastic saw to open gifts! She carried these tools with her nonstop. First thing each morning for a couple of weeks, she'd come into our room and wake me up with "Need anything fixed in here?" (Hence the reason we now go to Home Depot and Lowe's workshops.)

Adgey was overwhelmed with the fun of it all and had to take a break mid-opening.

But she was back in the game when she saw what daddy got her . . .

. . . a basketball hoop.

All in all our gift opening lasted from 8 am until 2:45pm and it was awesome!

But by the end of it all, I was tired and glad to be able to sleep through the night without Mabel bugging me (for a while at least).




Christmas 2009 was wonderful and I am looking forward to Christmas 2010 (because Butch said we can get matching i-pads for Christmas 2010! Why do I need an i-pad? I'm not sure, but those commercials for them are really cool, aren't they?)