Christmas 2010

This Christmas was such a fun one. Natalie loved helping with the baking and the decorating. She was so impressed that this season came with so many songs that Corey and I (sort of) knew the words to. She double LOVED looking at the various outdoor decorations around the neighborhood...the more obnoxiously overdone, the better, according to Natalie (there is a house around the corner that had no less than a dozen inflatable holiday characters in motion and it was a nightly stop for us). She enjoyed the Christmas books and playing with her nativity set and looking for our "elf on the shelf", George, every morning after he returned from his regular nightly trips to the North Pole. She was very excited about leaving cookies for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer) and waking up to way too much under the tree on Christmas morning.

And Audrey just took it all in...the lights, the excitement, the decorations. She loved to chew on our tree, she grabbed and attempted to gobble ornaments that were hung too low, she could find the surge protector where the lights were plugged in no matter how many obstacles I put in front of it, she always had glitter stuck to those chubby hands and cheeks, and she, too, liked the singing...even my singing! Her gifts mostly came from our attic, but she was pleased as can be! And as a special gift to her exhausted mother, she slept through the night for the very first time on Christmas night (this has yet to be repeated, but it was a nice gift, nonetheless).



On Christmas Eve, we constructed a gingerbread house and it is my favorite memento of this season. It is so colorful and cute! Natalie made a marshmallow snowman for the front porch (now that she's a snowman making expert). Then she promptly grabbed her new (Corey's old) cell phone to take a picture of it.


I could absolutely not pass up the opportunity to dress the girls in matching polka dotted dresses this year. I have a feeling my years of getting away with this are limited so I started now. Natalie loved being "twin sisters" and Audrey just loved chewing on her Mary Jane.
Natalie was wowed beyond words when she found a princess "big girl bike" under the tree Christmas morning (thank you, Nana and Papa Franc). It turns out it wasn't big enough so we had to exchange it for a bigger one. I find it so ironic that I have tall children.

Grandma Lala, Papa Rod and Aunt Ashley were with us for the holiday and we had a good time. Here are a few shots of Christmas morning. Corey is usually the photographer, which is why he is missing in all of these pictures. I promise to grab the camera next time.

We're a lucky bunch.