Merry Christmas!

Another awesome Christmas here at the Brooks house!

The girls both sang at the Family Service at church on Christmas Eve and did a great job!

That night after dinner we let them open one present under the tree and they chose their gifts to each other.  Even after all the smiles and cheers on Christmas morning when they received a lot of what they'd wished for, I still loved the Christmas Eve moment the best when they unwrapped their gifts to one another.  Each had selected something that she knew her sister would love. And, sure enough, they know each other well; both girls adored (and haven't let go of) the snuggly toy her sister selected.  

 Christmas morning was the usual pre-dawn madness!  I was struggling with a cold and had taken Nyquil around midnight the night before.  Big. Huge. Mistake.  Getting up early on Christmas morning is difficult enough under normal parenthood end-of-holiday-season-marathon exhausted conditions.  Add Nyquil and I was foggy, to say the least...but the squealing and screaming of two little girls tearing open wrapping paper woke me up eventually.  The girls both received scooters with light up wheels (seriously, the coolest), and numerous other lovely little toys.

 One of Audrey's favorite gifts...a container of cats.  

She has carried these kitties everywhere since opening them!

And one of Natalie's favorite presents (that we actually have a picture of her opening...remember the Nyquil?...Corey was videotaping and I was in charge of pictures.  Woops!) is this cool mermaid fin for her to wear in the pool.  She's working on her butterfly at swimming and this fin makes her actually LOOK like a mermaid when she's in the pool.  She got to use it in Palm Springs the week after Christmas (more on that trip later!)

Oh, and, of course, Julie the American Girl doll had to get braces, too.   

Such a great Christmas.  We're pretty blessed!